Page 78 of Last Seen
He forks in a pile of lobster dripping with cheese. “Yes and no. She wasn’t very happy here, in the end. I like to think she’s in a better place.”
He chews, noticing Halley has stopped eating. “I’m sorry. You lost yours, too.”
“Yes. But mine didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. The last word I heard from her was‘Run.’”
His brows draw together.
“You’re serious.”
“As a heart attack. Cat took her away from me. She went to jail—well, she was housed in a juvenile psychiatric facility. Got out when she was eighteen, went to Harvard, of all places, and studied psychology, got married, divorced, and came here. This is where the trail ends. Apparently, with you. You, who claim you’re the last one to talk to her. Fifteen years ago.”
She eats the rest of her omelet calmly, allowing him a moment to adjust his memories. He didn’t know the truth, and it’s the only reason she isn’t leaping from the table and getting in the Jeep.
“Still want to tell me what you know?”
He nods. “Think I better. Do you know anything about my dad?”
“Just what I’ve read online and what Tammy told me. Modern-day Thoreau, started this place to be a kind of new urban utopia, had a bunch of boys who all work here in Brockville to help him. He is world famous.”
“All of that is true. He’s also a very ... strange man. Anyone who is perfectly at ease alone in the wilderness for years at a time isn’t completely right in the head, you know? By the time I came along—I’m the youngest—he and my mother weren’t super close anymore, and I was closest to her. She and Dad had their final falling-out when I was eight, and she moved out of the house and took me with her. We lived in a place of our own, here in Brockville but away from the rest of the family. She took me to Paris when I was twelve and got me hooked on food. She never spoke badly about him, till the day she died, but the strain on their relationship was so clear. She wouldn’t tell me what broke them up, either, and trust me, I asked. So I’ve had the benefit of seeingDad from a slightly different perspective than my brothers, all of whom worship him and will do anything he asks.”
Halley says nothing, because there’s nothing to say. She doesn’t want to interrupt him, and he continues.
“Brockville is built around his image, his ethos, his genius. The money was invested inhim. Not the town, not the people who live here, not the amenities. They came because of him. He is their messiah. You know what I mean?”
“You make it sound like he’s a cult leader.”
He snickers, sips his coffee, makes a face. “It’s cold.” He looks over her shoulder, a move she’s starting to realize is a way for him to gather his thoughts. “I suppose I do make him out to be someone ... above others. He’s not, of course. He’s no different from anyone else who’s knocked down walls and stayed at the top of a major operation for years—people revere and respect him. But the way people look up to him and take his word as law does make me uncomfortable. There wasn’t a lot of room in his life for a son who didn’t want to obey his every command.”
“So why are you still here?”
He nods as if he knew that’s what she was going to ask. “Because I can’t leave. I’m tied here. Every time I try, something draws me back. I’ve moved away four times, and the moment I start somewhere else, I get pulled back in. Now I think it’s just easier to do what I do—innovate the culinary scene in town, draw in people formycreations, and stay out of his way.”
“That’s . . . interesting.”
His face sharpens. “Your sister ... I felt a connection with her. A spark of something.”
“Attraction, maybe?”
“Not that. You’re much more my type.” He says this freely, with a frank smile that belies any underlying agenda, but she blushes, nonetheless. “You’re very French. You have that fine-boned Angevin thing going on that all the women in Paris have.Très charmante.”
“Thank you, I think.”
But he’s already moved on. “Cat ... I felt ... immediately protective toward her. Like you would a sister, and I never had one of those. It was weird. I sensed she needed ... something. I wanted to be her friend. I was excited to realize she was going to be in town for a couple of months, that we’d have a chance to get to know one another. I was in a rush, though, to get dinner service started, and offered to make her some food, and then I left her. Alone. You can understand how I feel this horrible responsibility. If I’d talked longer or walked her back to her cabin ... maybe she’d still be with us.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“You don’t know that,” he retorts.
“I can tell. I’m a pretty decent judge of character. Or else I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
That’s not entirely true. She doesn’t trust him, not a bit, but she’s intrigued. Maybe a little too intrigued. She’s always been a sucker for an interesting life story. Maybe because hers was so sheltered, so different from anyone else she knew. She’s wrestled every detail out of her friends. She probably knows more about their upbringings than their siblings.
Noah dips his head closer and speaks quietly. “So here’s what I wanted to tell you. Right before Cat and I met on the path, she was talking to someone. Harshly. Told them to fuck off. I don’t know who it was, but I can’t imagine they took the words lightly, considering her tone. She was royally pissed. And she disappeared right after that.”
“So she was walking with someone? Or talking on the phone?”
“I didn’t see. Not a person, at least, and she didn’t have a phone with her. It was fifteen years ago. Not everyone had one.”
