Page 96 of Nobody's Fool

“Seems obvious.” A tear escapes his eye and rolls down his cheek. “Something happened at the party, and she wanted a ride home.”

He stops again. Madeline whispers some words of comfort, but I don’t think he can hear them right now. I don’t have a follow-up question, so I stay silent.

After some time passes, Thomas continues: “Victoria was a teenage girl, and instead of watching her, instead of taking care of her, we were all distracted by our own stuff. I was all caught up in my Lacy drama. My mom was consumed with what was happening with my grandfather. I can make all the excuses I want—Victoria texted us, we thought she was with friends, whatever—but why weren’t we more worried when she didn’t come home?”

I shift in the chair. “What about your dad?”

“What about him?”

“You said ‘we were all distracted.’ We’ve covered your issues with Lacy. Your mom was distracted with her father’s illness. What about your dad?”

Thomas frowns at that. “Dad was busy with work, I guess. He was also helping Mom with my grandfather. If you’re trying to imply—”

“I’m not trying to imply anything,” I say. “He was home on New Year’s Eve, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see him at all?”

“No. I pretty much stayed in the home theater.”

“How about when you left to go to Lacy’s?”

“I didn’t see him, no. He may have already been on his way to Chicago by then. Why are you asking—?”

Time to switch gears. “Can I ask you something else?”

Thomas clears his throat. “Of course.”

“You’re sober now.”

“I am. Twenty-five years.”

“That would mean you quit right around the time your sister disappeared.”

“You have to hit rock bottom before you get help. We both know that, don’t we? Maybe it was melodramatic for me to declare ‘It’s my fault,’ but the hard truth is, if I had been sober, everything would have turned out differently. So I got help. I went to rehab. I joined the church. I met Madeline. We have two children. You just met our oldest. We named her Victoria—Vicki—after my sister. But odd as it sounds, it’s a little like Covid.”

“Covid?” I repeat. “How so?”

“I realize this will sound like a strange comparison, but remember how we all felt when the world first shut down for Covid? Like everything had changed forever. Like the world would never be the same—and now, just a few years later, poof, you can barely remember it. That’s kind of how it felt after Victoria came home. I don’t know if it’s blocking or just a new gratitude about life, but my parents are great, Madeline and I are great—even Victoria seems happy. I daresay—and I know how this will sound—we are all better off now. You go through something this horrible, you appreciate what matters more. That’s the thing with tragedy. It’s awful and cruel, but it’s a great teacher. You can’t put a silver lining on something so horrific, but the truth is, I don’t know where I’d be if this hadn’t happened. I’d never havemet Madeline. There’d be no Vicki, no Stacy. Blessing, curse, I don’t know.”

I sit back and cross my legs. I give his words time to settle.

“Do you have a theory on what happened to your sister?” I ask.

“I did. I mean, before we met you and learned about Spain. I thought someone had kidnapped her and locked her away.”

“And now?”

“Now,” Thomas says, gripping his wife’s hand, “I worry it was something worse.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Belmonds’ travel agent knew her stuff. She arranged early check-in at the five-star Higueron Hotel in Fuengirola. Molly gasps when we enter the suite.

“Oh. My. God.”

I smile. “Right?”