Page 110 of Gone Before Goodbye

“Okay? No, of course not. But he couldn’t help with that. No one could. But Trace, well, he wasn’t the best with death or grieving. Have you seen that side of him?”

“Yes,” Nadia says.

“Then you know.”

“It hurts him too much. Other people’s pain. He has to deflect, channel it into something more constructive.”

That isn’t it, but Maggie sees no reason to go into that right now.

Nadia asks, “When did you last communicate with Trace?”

“When I was in his apartment the day before I came to Russia.”

“Why were you in his apartment?”

“Because that’s what we used to do. Trace asked me to look in on his place if I was in town. A long time ago, Marc and I lived in that building too.”

“And you talked to Trace a week or so ago?”

“Texted.”

“A text can be faked.”

“What?”

“It could have been anyone on the other end. What did your text to him say?”

Okay, Maggie thinks,that’s enough. “It said none of your goddamn business. Let me ask you the same thing: When was the last time you talked to Trace?”

“Here. In Dubai. Five months ago. The day you called him.”

Maggie frowns. “I didn’t call Trace five months ago.”

“That’s what he told me.” A tear runs down Nadia’s cheek. “He was upset. He said he was going to fly to Baltimore. That he had to see you in person.”

Maggie shakes her head.

“I went with him to the airport,” Nadia says. “I kissed him goodbye at Terminal 1. I watched him walk through security…” Nadia stops and looks away. “And that’s it. Trace never came back. He never called me again. He just… vanished.”

Silence.

“What did you say when you called him?” Nadia asks.

“I didn’t call him, Nadia.”

“And what happened when you met with him in Baltimore?”

“I didn’t meet with him in Baltimore.”

“So Trace was lying to me?”

Maggie doesn’t know how to answer that.

Nadia lifts her hand and points to the emerald ring. “He proposed, you know.”

“I had no idea.”

“We were going to get married.”