he wore me down. Your wonderful husband nearly destroyed me and he nearly destroyed our daughter—’
‘Destroyed?’ said Mark.
‘We were driving around in the middle of the night dragging you out of dives. Laurie was only a baby!’ She turned to Erica. ‘There’s your wonderful husband! The man, hanging over the toilet bowl, after a night of hard drinking? Wetting the bed? There’s your wonderful husband!’
Who’d have thought?
Ren watched, mute, as the conversation unfolded. You nasty, nasty woman. Ren had pressed her elbow against Bob to keep him from intervening.
Wait for those wonderful things that are revealed in anger.
The door had opened behind Cathy Merritt, and Gary Dettling walked in with Robbie, Cliff and Colin. They stopped at ‘wetting the bed’.
Ren gave the briefest acknowledgment of their arrival, but quickly turned back to Cathy Merritt, whose voice was riding high on hysteria.
She was shouting, ‘Oh, puh-lease, the “people change” bullshit. Look where it’s gotten you. Seriously. Look!’ She poked a finger toward Ren and Bob. ‘What happened to my baby? I knew this was going to happen. I knew it.’
Mark snapped. ‘You knew this would happen? Don’t be ridiculous! You knew this would happen? You’re trying to tell me you were so worried about tonight that you – what? Where were you tonight?’
‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ said Cathy.
‘Just answer the question,’ said Mark.
‘We were at dinner, at home, with Jonathan,’ said Cathy. ‘So shoot me.’
‘And what?’ said Mark. ‘You were waiting by the phone the whole time for a call from the cops?’
‘Well, it would have been a damn sight better than hearing this from a desk clerk a hundred miles away …’ said Cathy.
‘Right,’ said Mark. ‘You thought your daughter would disappear, so you …’ he looked at her, ‘“dress up” …?’
‘What the hell?’ said Cathy. ‘I put on a dress and stay home for dinner and that means I wasn’t worried? You bet your ass I was worried. And, clearly, I had every reason to be.’
11
Gary Dettling stepped forward and introduced himself to Cathy Merritt.
‘Your daughter’s missing, Mrs Merritt,’ he said. ‘We need to focus on that.’
‘I want my husband,’ she said, trying to walk by him. A man stepped out of the corner. No-one had noticed him come in, even though he was well over six feet tall, and far from slim. He had thick, graying hair and a full beard. He went to his wife and put an arm around her shoulder.
‘I’m Dale Merritt,’ he said, shaking Gary’s hand. ‘Cathy’s husband. I’m sorry about all this.’
He glanced toward Cathy. She looked up at him, a small flash of anger in her eyes.
Gary nodded. ‘Let’s just take you somewhere to sit down.’
He guided the Merritts to one side.
‘Would it be possible to make a call to my son to let him know what’s going on?’ said Dale.
Gary nodded. ‘That’s not a problem. How old is your son?’
‘He’s sixteen,’ said Dale. ‘Joshua.’
‘And who is the Jonathan you mentioned?’ said Gary, turning to Cathy.
‘Jonathan Meester,’ she said. ‘He’s a friend of ours.’
‘The Meester in MeesterBrandt?’ said Gary.
Cathy nodded. ‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘Jonathan and Mark are college friends, but Jonathan stayed close to both of us after the split. He’s Laurie’s godfather.’
‘Is he still at your house with Joshua?’ said Gary.
‘Yes,’ said Dale.
‘He was kind enough to stay,’ said Cathy.
Gary nodded. ‘Excuse me for one moment.’ He walked over to Bob and Ren.
‘Bob, how you doing?’ said Gary.
‘Good,’ said Bob, shaking his hand. ‘Good to see you again. How are—’
‘Can we get someone to take the Merritts to a room?’ said Gary.
Bob nodded.
‘I’ve called in a CARD team,’ said Gary. ‘Our Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team. We’ve got four members en route from Denver right now. They’ll be here within the hour. They’ll coordinate the search. We expect to do that first thing in the morning.’
Bob nodded again.
‘Are we taking over the same room as the last time?’ said Gary.
‘Yes,’ said Bob.
‘That’s great, thank you,’ said Gary, already walking past, and down the familiar hallway to the room that they would all squeeze in to for as long as it took.
Ren leaned in to Bob. ‘Gary has a form of Tourette’s. It’s, like, the involuntary vocalization of what he is going to do in an investigation.’ She paused. ‘All anyone else needs to do is not to succumb to regular Tourette’s in response …’
‘I hear you,’ said Bob.
‘Consider this an apology on his behalf.’
‘No need,’ said Bob. ‘Gary is … well, he’s a Fed …’
‘Textbook,’ said Ren.
‘You’re more … Facebook.’
‘I don’t know where you’re going with that,’ said Ren.
‘Nowhere, it just sounded kind of catchy. What next?’
‘I’m going to read through more of the guests’ statements, and then I’d like to talk to the stepmother. We can all go to the hotel, then back here for the press conference.’
Bob raised an eyebrow. ‘That Tourette’s is catching …’
Ren followed Bob into the small interview room where Erica Whaley had been taken. The furniture was the result of checks in boxes on the order forms of an office supply catalog. A long fluorescent strip light glared down on the cheap glossy veneer of the oval table. There was a strong smell of alcohol in the air. A young female detective stood up and left the room when Bob gave her the nod.
Erica
