True Deceit (Blindsided Book 1) (7 page)

“See for yourself.” She brought up images of the supposedly dead women on the screen and Michael could see that there was no doubt.

“What’s that thing flashing in the top right corner?” He pointed to an area of the screen where a little orange box was flashing.

“No idea, let’s see.” Pointing the mouse at the flashing box Sarah clicked. Time seemed to stand still then as they both tried to understand what their eyes were showing them. Sarah was the first to react, sending her chair crashing to the floor as she stood, barely making it the kitchen sink before she threw up.

“It can’t be…” He wanted to look away but he couldn’t seem to drag his eyes from the screen. “This has got to be some kind of sick joke.”

Sarah came back to her seat, wiping her mouth with a paper towel. “This wasn’t here yesterday Michael, it must have been uploaded in the past few hours.”

Michael stared at the image of his wife on the screen. She looked different; her hair was a new colour and not washed she was thinner, but he would recognise her anywhere. She was sat on a bed in a dark room with what looked like dirt walls. “You know what this means don’t you? Oh my God, you were right, she’s still alive!” He stood up and grabbed his phone switching it on the press of a button.

“What you doing?”

“Would you think I’m doing? I’m calling the police.”

“Michael, no.” Sarah snatched the phone out of his hands. “You can’t.”

“What? Of course I can. In case you didn’t see, that’s my wife on that screen−your sister− we need to tell the police.” He tried to reach for his phone but Sarah stepped out of reach.

“Michael, just listen for a minute. If we go to the police with everything we know, do you not think they’ll find out? This is clearly a highly organised outfit, if they know the police is onto them what’s to say they won’t get rid of the evidence?”

“You mean kill her?”

“Why not? It’s possible.” She let out a long breath. “I’m not prepared to take that chance, are you?”

Michael knew she was right. “So what do you suggest?”

Sarah put her head in her hands and started to cry. “I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

Michael turned back to the laptop and clicked off Jennifer’s picture, he just couldn’t bear it. As he did, a picture caught his eye.

“Hang on, I recognize that woman.”

“What?” Sarah sniffed, dropping her hands.

“Her.” he said, turning the laptop towards her and pointing at an image on the screen. “I recognize her.”

Sarah wiped her eyes with her hands and looked at the picture Michael had pointed out. “Odd, I do too. I never noticed before.” she leaned forward and looked at the picture closely. “I don’t know where I recognize her from though.”

Michael frowned. “It can’t be.” He stood up and pushed his chair back, going to the kitchen counter where he’d left the yearbook the night before. Opening it on the table he started flicking through until he got to the page he wanted.

“There.” He pointed to the page.

Sarah looked from the page to the picture on the screen. “Oh my God, you’re right. How on earth did you know?”

Michael shrugged. “I was flicking through it last night. I would never have recognized her otherwise.”

Sarah looked at the book. “Samantha Hathaway. Wasn’t she in your class in high school?”

“No, she was in the year below. I remember her, she was a bit of a weird one, always changing the color of her hair and wearing odd clothes.”

“Now I remember.” Sarah nodded. “But she’s not one of the women involved in the accidents I found online, I don’t recognize the name.”

“So there’s a chance she’s got family out there still looking for her. Sarah, this could help us.” It wasn’t much but it was the only thing they had so far. “We need to find out what we can about Samantha Hathaway.”

“I don’t see how it can help, her family will be in the same position we are won’t they?”

“Don’t you see?” he said excitedly. “No one is looking for Jennifer because they think she’s dead. What if the Samantha’s family think she’s alive, just missing? Who knows how long she’s been gone, they might have information that can help us.” He shrugged. “If not, and they do think she’s dead, at the very least we need to let them know about this website.”

“You’re right, of course we have to let them know.”

His stomach picked that moment to remind him that he needed to eat. “Look, it’s late and we both need to eat. How about we have something and then get back on it when we’re all fueled up?”

“Okay but I’ll cook, Jennifer told me about your … er… lack of skills in the kitchen.” She gave him a small smile.

“I’ll have you know I’m getting a lot better.” He chuckled. “But it’s a deal.”

He left her to find her way around the kitchen and went upstairs to wash up. He hated to admit it, but he was glad Sarah had come. He should have listened to her right from the start, and he felt that he’d somehow let Jennifer down by accepting her death so quickly. Without Sarah’s stubbornness they would never have known that she could still be alive out there somewhere.
But now I do know, I won’t stop looking until I find her
he promised himself as he stepped in the shower.

***

He had no idea how she managed it but Sarah whipped up a delicious omelette from the few available ingredients in the kitchen.

“Thanks, that was great.” he sighed as he pushed his plate away. “I needed that.”

“I hate to admit it, but you were right. I needed that too.” She laughed. “God, if Jennifer could see us now she’d never believe it. Getting along and everything.”

“We always used to, back in the day.” He didn’t know if it was going through the yearbook that had done it but he’d started thinking about the old days when he’d been dating Sarah. “Do you ever think of those days?”

“No.” She abruptly stood up and started clearing the table and the relaxed atmosphere of a moment ago vanished.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” It had been a stupid thing to ask, he knew that.

“You haven’t.” She replied. She stood at the kitchen sink with her back to him so he couldn’t tell if she meant what she said. “I don’t think about those days because they’re in the past and nothing good ever comes of revisiting the past.”

“Sarah−” He started, but she didn’t let him finish.

“Look, Mike,” she turned and faced him. “You did me a favour. If you hadn’t gone off with Jennifer we’d have broken up anyway but most likely a lot later and it would have been a lot more painful.”

He wasn’t entirely sure he believed her but he had no right to push. “Okay, as long as we’re good.”

“We’re good.” She smiled before changing the subject. “Right, let’s get these dishes done and we can get started.”

“Yes ma’am.” He gave her a mock salute.

They worked in silence, Sarah washing and Mike drying and they were quickly done.

“How about I leave you to start and I carry on sorting out my mom’s paperwork?” Michael wasn’t very good at the Internet stuff and he knew he’d only get in the way.

“Sounds good, I work best when I can concentrate.”

“Okay, shout if you find anything.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” She sat down at the table and opened her laptop, waving him off with her hand.

He’d been at it long enough to get a headache by the time Sarah called him into the kitchen. “Mike, get in here, I think I’ve found something.”

Gratefully putting a pile of papers down on the coffee table he joined her in the kitchen. “What?”

“This. Look,” she pointed at the screen. “It’s an article about Samantha.”

He started to read over her shoulder as she explained. “It’s odd, it took me ages to find it even though it was a story printed in a major newspaper, almost like it had been deliberately hidden.”

“It says here that she was reported missing, what, three years ago now?”

Sarah nodded. “Yep, but that’s not the interesting part, keep reading.”

He did, and his eyes widened when he realized she wasn’t kidding. “So she’s missing for nearly two years and then she just suddenly turns up again?”

“Exactly.”

Michael’s eyes scanned the rest of the article. “It doesn’t say anything here about why she was missing or what’s happened to her since.”

“No, and I can’t find anything else online. Except this.” She handed him a piece of paper.

“What’s this?”

“Her address. Well, at least it’s her parent’s address. There’s a chance she might still be there.” She looked up at him. “We have to go and talk to her Michael.”

He nodded. She was right, they had to.

***

“It’s just up here on the left.”

Michael turned the wheel down the dirt track that Sarah had pointed out to him. They were about five miles out of town, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Those that didn’t live in the town mostly lived in places like these, isolated and remote.

They travelled down the track for about a mile before Mike saw the outline of a farmhouse take shape in the distance. It took another few minutes before they pulled up outside. “Looks like someone’s home.” He nodded at the pickup parked out front.

“Hang on a second, Michael.” Sarah stopped him as he was about to walk up the steps to the porch.

He turned back and faced her. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just not sure how we handle this. We haven’t talked about it.” She had a worried look on her face as she looked at the house. “I mean, we can’t just go in there and start demanding that she tell us about what may well have been a terrible thing that happened to her, can we?”

He’d been so focused on getting some answers that he hadn’t even stopped to consider how they were going to do it. “You’re right, we can’t.” A movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention. “Looks like we’re going to need to decide fast.”

“Can I help you folks?”

They both looked toward the house where a man now stood with a shotgun firmly pointed in their direction.

“Whoa!” Mike raised his hands. “Any chance you can point that somewhere else?”

Sarah let out a little squeal and ducked behind him.

“Who are you and what are you doing on my property?”

Mike stood stock still, not taking any chances. The man may have been older than he was, in his late sixties at least, but it was clear that those years had not been spent sat on the couch. There wasn’t a spare bit of flesh on him and the arms that held up the shotgun were strong and firm.

“I’m Michael and this,” he pointed over his shoulder, “is Sarah. “We went to high school with Samantha.” Okay that wasn’t strictly the truth, the implication being that they’d been in the same classes, but it wasn’t a lie either.

The man’s face scrunched up, as if trying to find a lost memory. “I don’t remember you.”

“It was a long time ago, sir.”

He sighed and lowered the gun. “That’s true enough. Well, you’d better come in.” He turned and walked into the house leaving them to follow.

Up close everything about the house looked in need of repair. The steps up to the porch looked like they would give way at any minute and the front door itself was splintered with old age. Once inside things didn’t improve and they exchanged a glance as they took in the cluttered interior and all the dusty surfaces.

“Come in,” the old man called from the kitchen. “Sorry about the mess.” He cleared piles of junk off a couple of chairs and waved at them to sit. “Since my wife died and Samantha ... well since Samantha left, I’m on my own and there doesn’t seem much point in keeping it clean and tidy.”

“So Samantha’s not here?” Michael asked, taking one of the empty seats.

“Can I get you both a drink?” he asked, ignoring the question.

“Thank you, Mr Hathaway, that would be great,” Sarah shot Michael a warning glance, telling him to take it slow.

“Call me Frank, please.” He smiled as he bustled around the kitchen making them coffee.

“I’m so sorry about your wife, Frank.”

Frank shrugged as he brought three mugs of coffee over to the table and cleared himself a seat. “It’s a while ago now.” He stared into his coffee mug, not looking at them. “When Samantha went missing, well it killed her you see. Not straightaway like, but when she didn’t come home and no one knew what had happened to her, she died inside. She stopped wanting to live.”

Mike was surprised to see that Sarah had tears in her eyes as she looked at the old man.

“But Samantha did come home, didn’t she?” Mike asked, gently this time.

Frank nodded. “Yes, she did.” he looked up with a sad smile. “Two months after her mother had passed.”

“I’m sorry, that must have been awful.” Mike could only imagine how hard that had been. “But at least she came home.”

“Yes.” he smiled at them. “Thank the Lord for that.”

“So, did she not stay here with you then?”

He shook his head. “No, she couldn’t. We tried for a while but she’d come back a different person from the woman who left. She was a mess.” he shook his head, as if it was somehow his fault. “She’d only been back a week before she tried to kill herself the first time. After that, she tried it nearly every week.” He had tears in his eyes now. “She used to sit up in her room screaming and talking to herself. I tried,” he looked at them, a pleading look in his eyes. “I really did. But it got so as I couldn’t leave her alone for five minutes.”

“So where is she now?” Michael asked though he had an idea he already knew the answer to that question.

“She’s in the state mental hospital. I go up and see her as often as I can but most times she doesn’t even recognize me.”

“Is it helping her?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know is the answer to that. She never seems any different when I go up there, that’s for damn sure.”

Sarah stood up and collected the empty cups, squeezing Frank’s shoulder as she passed.

“Did you ever find out where she’d been all that time?”

“No. I asked her once and she flew at me in a rage, scratched my face up good. I know she didn’t mean it, though,” he gave a small laugh. “The police thought they could get it out of her, do what her own father couldn’t, but after they’d tried a couple of times they gave up too.”

“I don’t know what to say, Frank,” Sarah looked at Mike and shook her head. Enough questions. “You’ve been through so much. Thank you so very much for talking to us.”