Page 4 of Whispers of the Lake

“No? Like you haven’t seen her?”

“Sure haven’t.”

“Well, when’s the last time you talked to her?”

“Hmm, let me think.” I pretended to ponder it as I scanned the statement again. “Oh, right. It was three months ago. Around that time, she got so drunk she went to a man’s table while he was having dinner with hiswife, grabbed his tie, and kissed him right on the cheek.”

I’d never been so embarrassed by Eve’s behavior. That said a lot because she did embarrassing stuff all the time—ever since we were sixteen and the best of friends, actually. Now that we were thirty-two, it still hadn’t changed.

“I haven’t heard from her in three days.” Zoey ignored my statement. “It’s not like her tonotanswer my text or calls. She always calls me back if she misses one.”

“Does she have some new boy toy you aren’t aware of?” I asked, inspecting my cuticles. An unnecessary distraction because I’d just gotten a gel manicure two mornings ago with my sister Diana. I told the nail tech to surprise me. They’re velvety pink. They call the style acat eyeor something like that.

“I don’t know,” Zoey said. “All I know is the last time I talked to her she was driving and said she wanted to take a break from working and traveling so much.”

“Well, there you go, Zoey. She’s probably just holed up somewhere moping or sniffing cocaine.”

“Rose.” Zoe’s voice grew serious, despite the tremble in it. Hearing it caused me to lose a bit of the coldness. “I know you guys aren’t as close anymore but . . . I don’t know who else to call or ask about this. It isn’t like Eve tonotrespond to me. She knows how bad my anxiety gets when she takes too long to answer.”

I sighed, closing my eyes and lowering my defenses. As much as this conversation was annoying me, she was right. Even though Eve could be a reckless woman, she never missed out on her sister’s calls or texts. Zoey was all she had—the only family left. It was because of their parents that Zoey suffered bouts of anxiety and depression. Their parents were awful to them, and it wasn’t untilmydad, a social worker, intervened that their lives changed. They were immediately moved in with their grandmother. She and Zoey had been inseparable up until Zoey started college.

“Look, I’m sorry, Zoey,” I murmured. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll swing by Eve’s place after work and see if she’s around. Okay?”

Zoe sniffled. “Thank you, Rose.”

“Yeah, don’t mention it. I’ll call you when I’m there.”

“Okay.” She sniffled again. “Thanks. I have to go before I miss my next class. Butpleasedon’t forget to call me.”

“I won’t, baby girl.”

“Ew. Rose, I told you I hate that name!” She laughed.

“I know.” I smiled. “Just wanna hear you cheer up before letting you go.”

She giggled. “Thanks. Talk later.”

As soon as the call was over, I drew in a deep breath and released it. Then I picked up my phone and scrolled through it until I found the name I hadn’t tapped in months—Eve. I called but it went straight to her voicemail. That in itself was unusual. Eve never turned her phone off, like, ever.

She freaked out whenever she had to put her phone on airplane mode during a flight, which I always thought was dramatic, seeing as she was a travel vlogger . . . and since most airlines had free Wi-Fi.

Airline Wi-Fi just doesn’t hit the same, Rose, she’d said one time.

“So? What do you think?” Herbert’s head popped in through a gap in the door, a big smile on his face. “It’s crazy, right? I knew that motherfucker was guilty.” He pushed the door open a bit and walked in, sitting in the chair on the other side of my desk. “By the way, you look official up in here! Sitting behind your big desk in your big comfy chair.”

I couldn’t help laughing.

“You’re moving up in the world, lady,” he said.

“Well, I won’t be moving up quick enough with Eve always doing something ridiculous.”

“Oh Lord.” Herbert rolled his eyes. “I swear that girl is always getting into hot water.”

He wasn’t lying there.

I stood and collected the statement as well as my laptop and a few folders. “That was Zoey on the phone. I told her I’d check on Eve, see what’s up with her. In the meantime, can you have Nico politely hack into Melissa Cowan’s social media? I want to see if she might’ve DM’d some of her friends on there about her issues with Robert.”

“Politely hack?” Herbert busted out laughing. “There is nothing polite about hacking a rich person’s socials. And you know that’s illegal, right? You probably shouldn’t be saying that out loud.”

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