Page 16 of Operation Rescue
“He emptied my wallet of cash. Didn’t take credit cards or anything else, though.”
“What about clothes, shoes… It might be a clue to where he went.”
“Oh.” She’d noticed a couple of things that were gone, that she’d mentioned to the police officer who sadly looked as if he took reports like this every day. But she hadn’t thought to go through all his clothes. She stood up. “I’ll go look.”
She started that way, but had to pass Blaine to do it, and stopped when he lifted his hand and showed her what he’d been holding.
“I found this.”
She winced when she saw it was the photograph Ethan had always had up on the mirror over his dresser. Or rather, half of that photo. It was from their wedding, and the half left behind was her in that flowing dress she had so loved. The other half, Blaine, looking sharp, impressive and impossibly handsome in full uniform, was gone. Carefully, almost surgically removed, as if Ethan had wanted every trace of her gone, without doing any damage to his father.
She couldn’t blame him, not anymore.
“I’m not surprised. He’d want the half he took with him.” Somehow, she managed to keep her tone neutral. Although she wasn’t sure if she hadn’t, whether it would have come out cold, or just bitter.
“When did it become a half?” Blaine asked, sounding as if it was a strain for him, too, to keep his voice even.
“It must have been when he…decided to leave.”
“Where did he keep it?”
“Tucked into the frame of his mirror. With me hidden underneath the frame. So he could see you all the time.” Okay, some of the bitter had crept in that time.
“I found this on the floor, under the bed. So he didn’t throw it away.”
“Or burn it?” she suggested. The bitter was starting to win.
“If he was in a hurry,” Rafe said, “and rushing around, it might have ended up there unintentionally, if it wasn’t taped or pinned.”
“It wasn’t,” she said. “I wouldn’t let—” She broke off suddenly, thinking how bad what she’d been about to say would sound, under the circumstances.
“You wouldn’t let him mess up the furniture,” Blaine said, his tone so neutral she knew it was intentional just as hers had been.
“It was new,” she said, knowing how lame it sounded. How demanding it made her sound. How hard to live with. Was he thinking no wonder Ethan had run away? Was he thinking he was lucky to have escaped?
“We never had new furniture.” Now there was something different in his voice, something gentler, almost understanding.
“No,” she said. “We never did.”
“We didn’t need…things.”
Heat, and she was sure color, flooded her cheeks. Because he was absolutely right. They hadn’t needed things. Because they’d had each other. And that was all she’d ever wanted.
And now that he was here in front of her, alive and healthy, she was afraid she still did.
Chapter 9
“Let’s lay this out,” Rafe said. “Erin, you said you talked to him that night, before he disappeared?”
She nodded. “Late, too. I had to go in and tell him to shut down.”
“What was he doing?” Blaine asked, knowing they needed every bit of info they could get, even if it didn’t seem important now.
Erin grimaced. “Playing one of his games. He wasn’t happy when I told him he had to go to bed.”
“How unhappy?” Blaine asked.
“Unhappy enough that he refused. I had to threaten to cut off the Wi-Fi.” His ex-wife gave him a pained look. “If you mean was he unhappy enough to run away, then probably. I told you, he hates me.”
