In fact, he had no idea how they knew his friend, Alex, who referred them to him as clients. Oh right, he had a relative who lived in their area, but Alex wasn’t one of those religious freaks.
Maybe Carson could talk to Alex and get some insight?
Nah, that would mean I’d have to reveal this pitiful mistake of falling for the wrong woman.
All the evidence aside, Carson got why the woman wanted to get the hell out. Her family was downright fucked up, in his opinion.
He hated cults. How the hell anyone survived such closeness, scrutiny, and judgment among family members and community, he didn’t know. He would hightail it out of there if he’d been born into such a group.
What if there was more of a reason why this girl fled? Could it be the husband who recently crawled out of the woodwork?
Her family had him running all over. Although she grew up in an urban setting in Brooklyn, New York, her relatives decided it was likely she was hiding in a small rural town as far away from New York as she could get. Why would they say that?
Setting me off course on purpose? Why hire me in the first place?
“Why? How do you figure a rural area? What is she running from?” he remembered asking the parents. He had scanned their faces for any signs of emotion, but had seen none.
“She wanted to live differently, abandon our customs,” her family had told him. “She wanted to experience something different from what she grew up with, so we think a rural community is logical.”
Logical, my ass.
The family’s innocent act didn’t match how desperate they were to find her. He knew it all along, but he became a little too occupied with watching a stripper, who he was now smitten with more than he cared to admit. She had come to represent so much more, and had diverted his focus from his case.
Now, he had several problems on his hands. First, he had let himself fall for an adult dancer. Second, he’d never lost his grip on a case before. Third, how was he going to fix this if Sienna was who he was afraid she was? And did he want to fix it?
If the woman wanted to go her own way, why wouldn’t her family let her? She was an adult at the time she left. Carson couldn’t stop all the scenarios and questions running through his head when his notes finally opened on the screen.
His original notes were about as bare as a cue ball. This should have sent up a number of red flags, but at the time, Carson was determined to do a favor for his friend Alex. After all, Alex’s family had taken him in when he had no one.
Glancing over the notes from his initial meeting, he was starting to doubt his decision.
Female, disappeared, early twenties.
Name: Lilach Dasher
Current Age: 28
Hair: brown
Eyes: green
Weight: 120 lbs.
Height: 5’9”
Parents spent the last six years looking on their own by reaching out to family while saving funds. Why wasn’t the situation more urgent to them?
Didn’t contact authorities? “No, we don’t do things like that in our community.” Small religious community governs itself???? (Need to research.)
Carson banged his fist into the small hotel desk, making the whole damn thing shake. Then went back to reading his notes.
Young woman was just gone. All her clothes and personal belongings were still in the house, including her purse. Purse was missing cash, but credit card and license still there.
Both first and second meetings, family reiterated, “Prefer not to bring outsiders into our lives. Not our way.”
Initially, parents told community their daughter was “visiting sick relative” in anticipation of her returning, when she realized couldn’t make it on her own. ALMOST SEVEN YEARS AGO?
He downed the rest of his water bottle, wishing it was something stronger, and then chucked it across the room. It did nothing to alleviate the anger that gripped him.
When she didn’t come back, community spread many rumors. She was sick. She ran away to a new religion. Family assured everyone she was now “volunteering at military base.”
Why so much covering up? Lies.
Christ, he could chuck a grenade across the entire hotel and it wouldn’t dispel his fury.
Carson scrolled down the screen to the part where the bombshell dropped. After working the case for almost a month, he had flown back to New York for a periodic reporting meeting with the family when he was unexpectedly introduced to the young woman’s husband.
Husband. If he’d had any inkling there was something wrong with the case before this monkey wrench had been thrown into the works, it was certainly confirmed afterward. The case was now gnawing a hole in his gut.
***Edited to add after MEETING HUSBAND, Elon Finder:
Married name is Lilach Finder.