The Almost Truth (5 page)

I pulled back, my breath coming faster. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Come here.” Brendan had pulled me closer. “If we’re going to do this, then it will be something you never forget.”

He was right about that. We’d slept together months ago, and every day since then it was there between us. I’d thought my virginity was something that I wanted to ditch, like getting rid of an unwanted, ugly sofa in the living room. I saw it as something that I was practically willing to pay someone to cart away, but it had turned into something else. That night had changed things between us. We’d been friends forever, but now it was different. The moment I woke up in the tent, curled up with him, I knew it had been a mistake. I hadn’t expected to feel anything, and even more importantly, I didn’t want to. There was nowhere for our relationship to go. I was leaving and Brendan was staying. It was just one more thing in my life that was a dead end.

K
eeper’s Cove was on the west side of the island. There wasn’t a beach, just black rocks crusted with purple starfish and clumps of mussels at low tide leading into the water. Without a sandy beach it didn’t attract tourists. There was no place to lie out in a three-hundred-dollar swimsuit that shouldn’t be exposed to salt water. The only living creatures I ever saw out at the cove were the otters, who liked to lie in the sunshine on the rocks, and Mr. Chin, who liked to come out after a big storm looking for glass Japanese floaters that may have washed up onto the shore.

I pulled off my shoes and socks and scrambled down the rocks to the water. Brendan was standing at the edge, skipping stones over the waves. His shirt was off and I could see the muscles in his back. I wanted to kick myself for noticing. I never used to pay attention to how he looked. I stopped to roll up
the cuffs of the black dress pants I’d worn to work. I’d already peeled off my white blouse, leaving only the white tank top I had on underneath. I wished I had thought to bring something to change into after work. I hated that he looked good while I looked sweaty and smelled like kitchen grease.

Brendan crouched down and pulled two cans of Diet Coke out of the cold water. He held one out to me.

“Wow. If you’d brought food, you’d have thought of everything,” I said.

“Oh, ye of little faith, of course I thought of everything.” Brendan pulled a Kit Kat bar out of his pocket and tossed it over. “Now, what’s up?”

I opened the can and sat down on a rock. I put my feet in the water and hissed. The water was so cold that it felt hot at first, but then my feet went slightly numb. It felt good after running all afternoon around the banquet hall. I took a deep breath. I wondered if saying the truth aloud would make it any better than the way I remembered it. “My mom took all my college money. All of it. She said she needed it for bills and my dad’s lawyer, and that was more important than what I wanted.”

Brendan whistled and sat down next to me. I could feel the heat from his skin. “You must have freaked out.”

“Understatement.” I snapped off part of the Kit Kat and offered it to Brendan. “If I don’t come up with a minimum of four grand by August first, I’m going to lose my place at Berkeley. So much for getting out of here.”

Brendan was quiet and we watched the waves. About fifteen feet from shore, a fish jumped out of the water, its silver scales flashing in the light before it dropped back in. I wondered if it was trying to escape the ocean. Most likely it was about to be eaten by something larger than it.

Brendan tossed a rock into the water. “You know you can still sign up at one of the community colleges. Heck, maybe it’ll even motivate me to take a class or two if I know you’ll be there to watch out for me.”

I felt a flash of anger. Everyone seemed to think I should settle. “I’m
not
going to community college.”

“So you’ve got a plan to come up with four large?”

My anger evaporated. “That’s why I called you. I need your help.”

“I’ve got maybe a couple hundred I can lend you. I could try hocking my stereo in Seattle, but I’m not sure it’s going to bring in much. Those places always rip you off.”

I touched his arm. “I didn’t mean I want your money. I have an idea. If there’s a way to pull it off, then there will be plenty of money.”

Brendan raised an eyebrow. I pulled the
MISSING
poster out of my pocket, unfolding it before passing it over. I found myself holding my breath. Maybe my resemblance to the age-enhanced photo wasn’t that great and the whole plan was a bust. Not that I had much of a plan at this point.

Brendan looked down at the poster with his eyebrows drawn
together for a second and then a smile spread across his face. He looked up at me, then back down at the poster. “Well, look at that. If you aren’t a long-lost missing heiress.”

“You think it looks like me too?” I felt a rush of relief.

Brendan held up the poster. “The nose isn’t quite right, but I would say it’s pretty close. If you did your hair different, you would be a ringer. You could work an angle on this for sure. It’s not like this age-enhancing stuff is an exact science.”

I fidgeted on the rock. “Did you see the reward amount?”

“Quarter of a million is a bit of a jump from your usual five-dollar con limit,” Brendan pointed out.

“I can’t figure out how to pull it off though. If I come forward and announce I’m the mysterious missing Ava, I’m betting Mom and Dad McKenna are going to want to do a DNA test, and that’s the end of that plan.”

“Even if we found a way around the DNA test, it’s more than that. This kid has been missing for fifteen years. You suddenly showing up, the sorry little rich girl found at last, is going to be a big deal. We’re talking CNN,
People
magazine, movie-of-the-week kind of big deal. Whatever cover story you’ve come up with is going to be under huge scrutiny. Everyone we went to school with is going to be interviewed. It’ll be a lot of pressure and attention.”

I cut him off. “I know.” I chucked a rock in the water. It sank without skipping even once. “Then there’s the fact that if I say I’m the missing Ava, my parents are basically guilty of kidnapping,
and I’m pretty sure that guarantees them both a one-way ticket to prison.” I shrugged. “Of course, my dad is already there, so at least for him it’s a short trip.”

“On the upside, you’re pissed at your mom already. It’s a win-win in that way. You pull off the con, and you get her back for taking your cash.”

“Now that I think about it, the whole idea was stupid.” I rubbed my palms on my pants. “I don’t know why I told you. I guess I thought maybe you would see a way around all of this.” I went to grab the poster back from Brendan, but he held it out of my reach.

“You’re going at this the wrong way. No way a straight approach will work. Too many things that could go wrong, too much attention. The more people looking, the more likely someone is going to see what you don’t want them to. You don’t need two hundred and fifty thousand, so don’t go after that.” Brendan wasn’t looking at me, he was staring out at the ocean. I could practically see the gears in his brain working.

“So what do I do?”

Brendan smiled. “You’ve been thinking backward. You’re looking for someone to give you money because Ava’s been found. What you need to do is figure out how much is it worth to someone to keep Ava missing.”

M
y dad always says the snake in the garden was the first con artist in history, sweet-talking Eve into taking a bite of the apple for his own gain. He says a profession as old and established as grafting should be treated with more respect. Then again, my dad is currently finishing off a two-year sentence for bilking people out of their money in a real estate pyramid scheme, so take his advice for what it’s worth.

There are as many cons as there are con artists, from bar bets to street hustles, carnival scams, card tricks, and Internet fraud. For the con to work, you need the mark, or the victim, to be naive, greedy, fearful, or insecure. Cons always point out that you can’t cheat an honest man.

I turned over Brendan’s plan. The idea of taking money from people looking for their lost daughter still missing after fifteen
years hadn’t sat very well with me, even with Berkeley on the line. I’d never pulled a con based on someone else’s fear before. It might sound twisted, but while I knew what I did was unethical and wrong, there was a limit to how wrong I was willing to be. My dad worked a con for several years where he pretended to be a psychic. For a price, he would connect people with the ghosts of their long-lost loved ones. He argued that it made people feel better. They had a chance to resolve things, maybe say “I love you” one more time. To me it felt slimy. I felt better than him because I’d convinced myself my cons never really hurt anyone. You might pay more for a candy bar than you should, but in the end, you were still supporting a charity, just not the one you thought.

“How much do you know about the McKenna family?” Brendan asked.

I paused to think about it. “Well, their names are in the news a lot. They donated a million dollars or something to the Seattle Children’s Hospital recently. He runs an architecture firm in Seattle. They recently designed a new museum in California that won a whole bunch of awards.”

“Aw, isn’t that cute, you have something in common other than looking like his long-lost daughter.” Brendan laughed and I jabbed him in the side to make him stop. I had a thing for buildings. Some girls loved shoes and handbags, but for me it was architecture. I dreamed of designing houses. Not cookie-cutter McMansions either. My houses were going to be environmentally
friendly, and I planned to design them for people who wanted a real home, not a giant extension of their ego and proof of their bank account.

“I don’t think our mutual love of building design means he’s going to fork over a few grand so I can go to college,” I pointed out.

“Do they have any other kids?”

“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.” I searched my memory. “I don’t remember ever hearing anything about any kids, but it could mean that they just keep them out of the limelight.”

“That’s the first thing to check. If there is another sibling around, the last thing they’re going to want is to have Ava show back up on the scene. It’ll mean dividing Mommy and Daddy’s attention now, and a big fat inheritance later.”

“That’s a cold way to think of it.”

“Cold but true. You need to start thinking of who has something to gain by keeping missing Ava out of the picture. You’ve got some research ahead of you. You need to learn everything you can about the disappearance, about the family, hell, about anything that might end up being something we could use. Information is power. The more we know, the more likely we’ll be able to figure out an angle on the whole thing.”

I stood up and brushed off my pants. “It looks like I’ve got a date with my laptop. I’ll call you if I find anything.”

“Call me either way. I might see something that you don’t.”

I watched the waves as they came into shore. “Thanks for
helping. I know you don’t want me to go away to school. I appreciate you helping me anyway.”

“Yeah, well, that’s me, all-around great guy. Of course, it could be that I just like the idea of you owing me a big favor. Never know when that might come in handy.” Brendan gave a fake evil laugh and stood.

I laughed for real. “Great, this means I’m going to end up mixed up in one of your schemes, doesn’t it?”

“That’s not the kind of favor I had in mind,” Brendan said, staring into my eyes. I felt pinned in place. Even though we were outside, I suddenly felt claustrophobic, as if he had backed me into a corner.

I shifted nervously. “Sounds like trouble,” I said, taking a step back. I looked at my arm as if I were wearing a watch warning me of the time. “I should head home and start on all this research.”

Brendan stepped closer and lightly touched the side of my face. “Why do you keep running away from me?”

“I’m not running,” I said. “I just want to get home and get out of these clothes. You know how black polyester pants give me hives.”

Brendan’s eyes narrowed. He knew a lame joke when he heard it. “You can try lying to me, but don’t lie to yourself. You’re avoiding me. You have been for months. You never want to do anything anymore. Every time I call, you’re busy. You think I don’t notice?”

“I’ve been busy. There were finals to get through, and then everything with graduation. I’ve been picking up extra shifts at
the hotel whenever I can because I need the money. Then there are things with my mom; she’s been all weirded out about the idea of me leaving, especially with my dad being locked up. I don’t think she likes the idea of being on her own.” I paused to take a deep breath and realized I was rambling. “Besides, I still see you.”

“If you’re not avoiding me, then let’s go out.”

“I can’t go out. I’m dressed for work. I smell. I’m tired from running around all day.”

“Fine, let’s go tomorrow.”

I sighed. I was boxed in. “Look, it’s awkward.”

“What? Because we made love?”

I cringed. I hated the term “made love.” It sounded like one of my mom’s cheesy romance novels. Like any minute he might start talking about his loins being on fire. Why couldn’t he say “had sex” like everyone else, or better yet, why couldn’t he not bring it up at all? “Yes, it’s awkward because we slept together,” I admitted.

“Look, I know I have a reputation, but this is different. I would never hurt you,” Brendan said.

I wanted to scream. “Yes, but I would. I’d hurt
you
; it seems like I already have. I don’t want to see you because I feel guilty. I can’t be in a relationship with you. Sleeping together was a mistake. I thought it wouldn’t change things, but it did. You’re my friend, most likely the best friend I ever had or will ever have, but we can’t date.”

“Why?” Brendan’s face flushed. He was angry. “Doesn’t it seem like that is the best place for a relationship to start? With being friends? I’m not saying we should go grab some rings and get married; I’m saying we should go on a few dates, see where things go.”