The Almost Truth (20 page)

I stared at Brendan. “You’re really good at this.”

“Nice that you finally noticed.” He winked at me and then called Goodall and told her where to meet us. I forced myself to take a deep breath. All I could do was my best. Convince her to come clean by making her think I knew more than I did and hope that information helped the McKennas in some way.

I actually thought it was going to be that easy.

G
oodall was already waiting on the landing when we arrived. She was wearing a dark purple dress that was so tight it could have been painted on. She looked exactly as she appeared on TV, except up close you could see that she must apply her makeup with a trowel. It sat on her face like a thick mask.

“Ms. Goodall,” I said as we walked up.

She sniffed in annoyance. She fished through her clutch purse and pulled out a Sharpie and quickly signed her name on a cocktail napkin. “There you go.” She waved it in my face. “Thanks for watching. If you don’t mind running along, I’m meeting someone.”

I looked down at the napkin. She thought I was some kind of fan. “I wasn’t looking for an autograph.”

She touched her perfectly sprayed hair helmet. “I’m afraid I
don’t allow photos.” She peered around me to look for someone else. I could tell she was fighting the urge to shoo me away like a pigeon.

Brendan stepped in between us. “We’re the ones who called you.”

Her face scrunched together. “You?” She looked at the two of us and then chuckled. “You’re kids.”

“Yep, you got us. A couple of annoying kids,” Brendan said with a smile. “But we’re annoying kids who happen to know you lied about what happened with Ava McKenna.”

The smile fell off her face. “I don’t know what you think you know, but I’m sure you’re mistaken.”

“There’s no mistake,” I said. She met my eyes. I felt a rush of victory when she looked away first.

“Now, I’m not admitting anything, but I’m also not interested in having my reputation smeared. Perhaps there’s something I can do that would encourage you to focus your energy elsewhere.” She brushed a nonexistent hair off her forehead.

“Why did you lie?”

“I didn’t have anything to do with Ava going missing,” she insisted.

“You didn’t tell the truth about where you were when it happened, though. Don’t you realize that any small detail might have made a difference to the investigation?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose as if to block out what was going on. “I didn’t do anything to her. I was supposed to have the morning off; she wasn’t even my responsibility.”

“What happened?” I asked, my voice soft.

Goodall sank into one of the floral wingback chairs. “I was seeing someone; her name was Lisa. We were in that stage when you’re obsessed with each other. With my busy schedule, we hadn’t seen each other in weeks.” She sighed. “Lisa called and said she was going to take the ferry over so we could meet for coffee. I was supposed to have the morning off, but then the McKennas were invited out sailing and changed the schedule.”

“Couldn’t you tell them you already had plans?” I asked.

Goodall laughed. “You’ve clearly never been a nanny. It’s not that simple. They pay for live-in help because they want things in their life to be seamless. I was on call twenty-four seven.” Her eyes went soft. “I wasn’t planning to have some kind of wild reunion. I just wanted to see her. I got coffee and met her down at the beach behind the hotel back patio. Ava was running around picking up shells and sticks. She was going to build a house for her bunny. She’d had a meltdown that morning because I couldn’t find that darn thing, so she had the idea that if she built a house, maybe the bunny would come back. I think either she wandered off looking for the bunny or someone lured her away with it.”

“Did you see anything or anyone?” Brendan asked.

“No. I’ve played that moment over in my mind a million times. I swear she wasn’t gone more than a minute before I noticed. She was playing on the beach, and then when I looked back around, she was gone. When I asked the hotel manager to help me, I fibbed a little about the details because I didn’t want to explain Lisa. You can say people should be more open
minded, but there are those who still don’t think anyone who’s gay should be around kids. At the time I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. I was so sure that we’d find Ava at any moment. When it became clear she was really gone and the police got involved, I couldn’t suddenly admit I’d been lying.” Goodall’s lower lip began to quiver. I could see her fighting the urge to cry.

I felt my excitement deflate. I hadn’t expected to feel sorry for her. No matter which way I turned in this situation, every time I thought I knew what to expect from people, every time I was sure I had it all figured out, I was wrong.

Brendan was looking at me, waiting to see what I wanted to do next. Before I could decide, I heard someone yell out my name.

I turned around and saw Chase bearing down on me. In his black suit, black shirt, and black tie, he looked like a vengeful crow. He grabbed my elbow and yanked me closer to him.

“You have some real nerve showing up here,” he said.

“Let go of her,” Brendan said, taking a step closer, his hands already fists. Chase dropped my arm but not his attitude.

“I did some checking, and there’s no volunteer service club on this island. Imagine how confused that made me, so I talked to Mr. Stanbury, and he had quite a bit to say about your family and background. I guess you forgot to mention a few of those details to me. I trusted you, and everything you told me was a lie.” His voice cracked and I realized he was hurt.

“Things were complicated,” I tried to explain.

He looked over at Goodall, his lip curled up in annoyance.
“Let me guess, you’ve been looking for the highest bidder for the inside view of what’s happened with the McKennas and you used me to get it.”

“I’m not doing any TV deal. That isn’t what this is about,” I said.

“And I should believe you?”

“You need to back off,” Brendan said. Goodall looked back and forth between us as if she were stuck at some sort of tennis match where one of the players might start whacking the others in the face with a racket.

“Chase, I’m not sure this is the time or place—,” I started to say.

“If you’ve told Goodall anything, you should be prepared to get yourself a lawyer, because I can make sure you get your ass sued off.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re not pissed, you’re hurt. I don’t blame you. I never should have lied to you.”

Brendan stepped close to me. “Maybe we should go.”

“Let me guess, you’re not really cousins,” Chase said, crossing his arms.

“Let me guess, you were always this much of a pompous asshole, weren’t you?” Brendan asked.

Chase sneered, but he didn’t say anything. He was right to be ticked. I’d used him to get the information I’d needed, but in some ways he’d used me, too. He’d only been nice because he wanted something. He didn’t really have any interest in me.
Suddenly I felt exhausted. If I sat down, I wouldn’t be able to get back up again; I would just curl up like Sleeping Beauty and not wake up for years.

“Let’s go,” I said, taking Brendan’s hand. “We’re done here.”

“So you’re leaving? You don’t think you owe me an explanation?” Chase demanded.

I paused to see if there were any feelings of guilt or obligation left, but everything felt stripped clean inside. “I’m sorry about lying to you, but I don’t need to justify who I am. I never did, not to you and not to anyone else.”

There was a commotion by the entrance to the ballroom. Mr. McKenna walked out with his arm around his wife. Mr. Stanbury trailed just a few steps behind. Chase stood up straight and grabbed me by the elbow again as if he thought I might run away. Mr. McKenna stopped short when he saw Nancy Goodall in front of him.

“Jesus, just when I thought this night couldn’t get any worse,” he said.

He was wrong, of course. The night was capable of getting much, much worse.

“I
didn’t come here to cause trouble,” Goodall said. Mr. McKenna was glaring at her.

“Yes, you did!” Chase said, interrupting her. “Mr. McKenna, I’m afraid this girl used me to get information about your family so she could get on TV.” I could see his hands shaking. “I thought she was someone else or I never would have talked to her.”

“I keep telling you, I didn’t sell any information. For someone who wants to go into communications, you should really learn to listen. Communications sort of implies a two-way street. I only came tonight because I wanted to help.”

Goodall looked at me, her mouth in a thin line. She wasn’t going to admit anything.

“If she’s caused any difficulties, I can assure you that the hotel will take it extremely seriously,” Mr. Stanbury said. He glared at me
as if I had dragged dog shit into the lobby. It was looking like I was going to need to find another job to pay for my tuition. I had a feeling my employment at the Keppler was coming to an abrupt end.

Mrs. McKenna was staring at me, her face intense. She reached toward me. Her hand was shaking, just inches from my cheek. “Ava?”

I froze in place. She lightly touched my hair.

“You look just as I imagined you would,” she said. I could feel everyone else focusing on the two of us.

“You’re mistaken. My name’s Sadie.” I took a step back.

“I can vouch for her identity,” Mr. Stanbury said. He didn’t sound happy about the fact he knew me. “She grew up here on the island.”

Goodall tipped her head to the side and reevaluated my face. “She does look like the age-enhanced photo, now that you mention it. Especially around the eyes. They say everyone out there has a double somewhere.”

My heart was beating funny, as if it had lost its rhythm.

Mrs. McKenna reached for my hand. “Do you have the scar on your pinkie finger? When you were only a few weeks old, I pinched your hand in the car seat. It scared me so badly at the time. I couldn’t believe I’d been lucky enough to have this perfect baby and I’d already managed to scar her. The doctor said by the time you grew up you would hardly be able to see it.”

I pulled my hands back out of her reach. “I’m sorry. I’m not your daughter.”

“We should go,” Mr. McKenna said. “It was a mistake to come back here.” He tried to guide her away.

“I always knew I would know you if I saw you again. The instant you were born you looked at me and we knew each other. It was like recognizing someone you’ve always known. You’re a part of me.” Mrs. McKenna’s eyes burrowed into mine.

“I think she was trying to scam the family,” Chase said. “Maybe she realized she looked like the photos. She told me a bunch of lies.”

“She’s the one who asked me to be here. The two of them practically threatened me.” Goodall’s nose lifted in the air. She could sniff a scandal in the making.

“Sadie hasn’t done anything,” Brendan said. I could hear the tension in his voice.

“I need to go,” I said. It felt like the room was slowly being sucked free of any air. I couldn’t catch my breath. It seemed I could take a step away and would find myself floating free in space, no floor beneath me.

“You have some explaining to do,” Mr. Stanbury said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You don’t have to explain anything,” Mrs. McKenna said. “Just come home.”

I turned and ran. I bolted down the stairs, pushed past the crowd of people in the lobby, and burst through the front doors of the hotel. The rain seemed to sizzle off my hot skin. I didn’t know where Brendan had parked the truck, but it didn’t matter. I needed to run.

W
e sat parked in Brendan’s truck at Beeker’s Point. Beeker’s is a treed bluff overlooking the ocean and is the local make-out spot. Most nights a line of cars can be found parked along the dirt road like a drive-in restaurant where the only thing on the menu is nooky. Tonight the storm seemed to have scared everyone else off or they were afraid a tree would fall on their car, which could bring the mood down. You couldn’t bring the mood in Brendan’s truck any lower, so we seemed to be safe.

I stared out the front windshield. I’d been picking at my fingernails. The flesh down the side of my thumb was bleeding. My stomach felt twisted, as if I’d swallowed a ball of barbed wire.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Brendan said. It was at least the tenth time he’d said this since he’d picked me up in his truck as I ran down the road away from the hotel.

“What do I do?” I whispered.

Brendan shrugged. “She’s confused. She’s been looking for her kid a long time and you do look like the photo. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“I have a scar on my pinkie finger.” I said each word slowly, as if it were the first time my mouth had ever formed those words. “A small one.”

“Lots of people have scars,” Brendan said. I looked over. He was sweating.

“She
knew
me.” I’d seen it in her eyes. She had no doubts at all.

Brendan sighed. His hands clenched the steering wheel, but he didn’t say anything.

I lightly touched his leg. “It’s more than that. I knew her.”

The two of us sat in the dark truck listening to the rain bounce off the roof. “What do you want to do?” Brendan asked.

I leaned my head back against the leather seat. “My mom wasn’t lying. I know she sometimes makes things up, but when she told me this, she was telling me the truth. Or at least what she believes is the truth.”

“What did she tell you?”

“She told me that my dad brought me home from foster care that day.”

Brendan sat up. “So we talk to your dad. I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

Brendan turned over the engine of the truck. “I know.”

We drove back to the trailer park in silence. The rain was
finally letting up. Brendan reached over and rested his hand on my knee. It felt like it was the only thing keeping me from flying apart. Part of me wanted him to drive faster so that we could be there and the whole situation could be over, and the other half of me wished we could drive for hours.