Page 9

“Hey, Travis.” Fritz extends a hand to the uniformed officer at the front door and invites him in with a gesture. Where only a second ago Fritz was wide-eyed and shouting, now he’s perfectly composed. “Thanks for coming over so quickly. Listen, we’ve got an issue with Will.”

“Sure.” Ardell moseys into the house, checking it out as he does. “I know Will. Nice to see you again, Mrs. Somerset.” He tips a polite nod in my direction.

His badge says Ardell . And it dawns on me that Will introduced me to him at the Christmas party at the club earlier this year.

Ardell had been a witness for Will in a hit-and-run lawsuit.

When he introduced us at the club, Will commented that Ardell was on the fast track to a role in public service, and Ardell’s boyish face had broken into a hopeful smile.

Will and his friends are kingmakers in this city, and Ardell knows it.

The most memorable thing about Ardell that night, though, came about ten minutes after I met him, when I saw him putting his hand up Tippy Schaeffer’s skirt.

I had wandered outside to get a breath of fresh air after too much of whatever cranberry punch they were slinging.

Fortunately, I managed to sneak back inside without them noticing me.

As he closes in on me now, he smells a little like sweat and aftershave—thanks to the polyester police uniform that’s hugging his HGH-fueled biceps.

Ardell seemed like the kind of guy who would make Este’s ears bleed waxing poetic about the wild peacocks that roam the city.

He’s a Winter Park lifer, like Fritz, although his station in the pecking order is not at Fritz’s level.

“So, what seems to be the problem?” His brow creases with concern.

“Will’s gone,” Este blurts out.

Fritz and I both shoot her a glare, and Ardell’s eyebrows goup.

“Gone?” he repeats, his face etched with fresh concern.

“No.” I shake my head aggressively. “He’s just not responding to calls is all.”

“And Nora can’t find him on Find My. And he’s not physically here.” Este waves her arms around the room.

Ardell’s eyes bounce from me to Este and finally back to Fritz. “Are y’all wanting to make a missing person report, then?”

A chilly silence overtakes the room.

This is too real. It can’t be real.

In the blink of an eye, Will went from being an absent-minded workaholic to…missing?

Fritz speaks first. “Play the optics out with me.” He rubs his chin. “We file the report. The BOLO goes out over the radio. Some reporter hears over the police scanner that Will Somerset is missing. How long are we talking before this city is on its head with speculation and wild theories?”

“Are you fucking serious?” Este hisses. “This is your best friend, Fritz. Who gives a fuck about gossip and optics? Nora?”

Before I can say a word, Ardell chimes in.

“Is this a social call, Mr. Hall? Off the record?” He folds his arms across his chest, unruffled by Fritz or Este.

“We’re just trying to understand the best way to proceed. Is there a way to track him down without calling too much attention to the situation? Our firm really doesn’t need this kind of press.”

I shoot a look at Este.

Is Fritz really talking about the press? And the firm?

“When was the last time you saw or heard from him?” Ardell asks me.

“We had his birthday party on Saturday. So, maybe around one a.m. on Saturday night. Well, Sunday morning, I guess. His daughter, Mia, called, begging him to go find her Taylor Swift sweatshirt, and he went down to the boat to see if it was there.”

“And did he come back up?”

“I don’t know. If he did, I didn’t hear him.

I fell asleep. It was late.” Stomach churning with worry, I fold my arms across my chest. But then I remember a true crime podcast I heard once said folded arms look defensive and drop them.

“Sometimes he sleeps in the guest room downstairs—if he’s working late and doesn’t want to wake me. ”

I don’t mention that the guest bedroom was undisturbed when I checked it. A detail that suddenly feels so much more sinister.

“And then yesterday and today, no word from him?”

“That’s right.” I can see Fritz shaking his head with disapproval from the corner of my eye. “But it’s just like Will to do something like this. He’s always working late and he can be forgetful about his calendar. Fritz, you know that better than anyone, right?”

I look over at Este and Fritz, who are watching as if this were a weird one-act play.

“Since we don’t have a report filed and I don’t have a warrant, this isn’t an official police matter. I want you to know that, okay? You don’t have to be nervous.”

“I just want him to come home.” The words come out sounding like a prayer.

“Sure, of course you do.” Ardell nods as if I’ve just said the most logical thing in the world. “So he was headed down to the boat dock last you saw him? Would it be all right with you if I walk down that way?”

“Of course. Can I get you some water or an iced tea?”

“I’m just fine. Thank you kindly.” He heads for the pool door and then pauses. “I noticed a camera at the front door. Y’all have cameras anywhere else? Maybe there’s something there that could help us.”

That would be convenient, wouldn’t it?

Half the people on this street forget to lock their doors.

Between insurance policies and liquid wealth, my neighbors could replace the entire contents of their homes ten times over.

With money like that, you don’t worry about something as pedestrian as petty theft.

I had asked Will about security cameras once, but he just laughed it off, insisting there could be no safer place to live in the world.

“Just the doorbell camera.” I shake my head, wishing I could go back in time and change his mind. “I looked through the footage. He didn’t leave through the front door, but he never does.”

Ardell nods and heads for the back of the house. “I’ll go take a look around the dock.”

Este and I watch from the living room as Ardell and Fritz walk down to the dock.

“Maybe you should go out there.” Este eyes the two of them talking, putting their hands on their hips as they walk the length of the dock.

Then they survey the boatlift with hands shielding their eyes from the sun.

“Fritz looked like he was ready to have you thrown in jail earlier. I don’t trust him alone with a cop. ”

“It’s fine,” I say. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

Este nods, but her eyes linger on me for a few extra seconds.

Ardell takes out his iPhone and snaps a few photos of the dock and the boathouse, and I hold my breath a little.

Este squints, leaning closer to the window. “Do you think they found something?”

But then they’re turning around and heading back to the house. Empty-handed.

“No,” I assert. I had already searched the dock for what felt like hours early that morning, and there was no Taylor Swift hoodie, no sign of where Will went that night.

Ardell and Fritz make their way back inside and into the living room.

“Mr. Hall seems to think…,” Ardell starts, looking at Fritz like he’s hoping for a signal of approval. “If it’s all right with you, Mrs. Somerset, I’ll go ahead and file that missing person report.”

I look at Fritz, Este, and then Ardell. A chilling numbness pours over me. “Yeah, okay.”

“We’re going to see what we can dig up, but we might have some more questions for you once our digging is done.” Ardell chuckles as Fritz claps him on the back. “Bastard better be somewhere working without his phone plugged in.”

Ardell heads toward the door, and Este hangs back as Fritz and I walk him out to the driveway.

“Thanks for coming over so quickly, Travis.” Fritz offers him a handshake.

“Hey, no problem. One of our own, you know.”

And then it’s just Fritz and me, watching the police car wind its way down the road.

“Someone has to give Constance a heads-up before she hears this through the grapevine,” Fritz says.

“Okay,” I say, but the word tastes bitter. Will’s first wife left him in a fit of rage, and she still loathes the fact he had the gall to remarry.

Fritz turns back to me, and he must see the reluctance on my face because he adds, “I’ll handle Constance, all right? And don’t talk to anyone without me around. I’ll call you if I hear anything from Travis.”

“What? Why? And what makes you think they’d call you if they find something? I’m his wife.”

“That’s cute,” he snipes. “But I’m his business partner of twenty years. I don’t think you understand what’s at stake here.”

“I guess I don’t,” I say, voice hardening. “Are we talking about Will’s safety or your law firm?”

Fritz’s preoccupation with the firm makes me want to tell him to fuck off, but he glowers at me and heads to his car, robbing me of the opportunity. He gets in his Porsche and drives away.

I close my eyes and turn my head up to the sky, feeling the heat on my face, letting the sun and the helplessness bear down on me.

Jesus, Will, where are you?

“Hey,” Este calls from the front door, snapping my attention back down to earth.

I turn to look at her.

“Come inside. You’ve earned a glass of wine.”

I look at my watch. “It’s eleven in the morning.”

“So what?”

“Okay.” But I stay in the driveway for just a second longer.

That’s when I see it. A gray sedan creeping slowly up the road.

The make and model seem out of place for the neighborhood, but I dismiss the prickling feeling under my skin.

DoorDash and Uber Eats always come through here at the beck and call of the wealthy and lazy.

Still, I turn toward the house, shivering a little when the gray sedan completes the loop of the cul-de-sac and slowly drives by again.

I quickly head inside, locking the door behind me.