Melissa Bourbon Ramirez - Lola Cruz 01 - Living the Vida Lola Read Free Page B

police were already here.” She frowned. “Why don’t you talk to them?”
    “I don’t work for the police. I was hired by Emily’s brother.”
    Mary stared out the window and blinked heavily. “Just like I told them,” she said. “I don’t know anything. She just didn’t come home one day.”
    “Was that unusual for her?”
    Mary shrugged her shoulders. “Yes.” She shifted her chin, kind of rolling it, as if she were loosening a tight collar around her neck. Guilty behavior. Maybe
she
was involved in Emily’s disappearance.
    “How long have you known Emily?”
    She looked off to the side, as if she was counting back days and hours. “She’s lived here a little more than a month and a half,” she said after a few seconds. “She moved in right around the Fourth of July.”
    Not exactly enough time to evaluate patterns of behavior, but it corroborated our client’s story. Had something changed in Emily’s life that had made her move in here? “Do you have a prior address for her?”
    She shrugged again.
    I kept trying. “Employment history? Anything that could help?”
    She hesitated, and then nodded. “She filled out a rental application.” She didn’t budge to find it for me.
    I gave myself a mental pep talk. Slow and steady won the race. “Does she have any friends? Relatives?” I asked.
    “She’s always kind of kept to herself.” Mary’s expression softened. “Never brought people around, even when I pla—” She stopped abruptly, swallowed, and continued. “Even when I told her she could.”
    A red flag shot up in my mind. Mary had been about to say something else. The question was what?
    “Have you seen Sean?” she asked.
    The youngest son. “Not yet.”
    The color of her eyes seemed to dull. She leaned forward, looking anxious. “But you know where he is?”
    “He’s with his uncle.” And probably pretty freaked, poor kid.
    “She was never mother of the year, but how could Emily leave Sean?” Mary’s back straightened, her lips pursing. I could sense her gearing up for a rant. “Why do parents screw with their children—that’s what I want to know. If you choose to have kids, you should think about
them
instead of yourself, right? They get divorced, they promise they’ll spend time with you, but they don’t—” Her eyes bugged. “—and they screw around with your friend’s—”
    So one of Mary’s parents—or maybe both—had done a pretty good number on her when she was younger.
    My folks, on the other hand, had done zip to damage me—unless you counted the whole relationship-with-Sergio debacle. And their total lack of support about my career choice. And the guilt. God,
the guilt
. But otherwise…
    Okay, I gave two points to Mary. Parents could definitely make things difficult. “I’m sorry,” I said, pushing my own familial eccentricities aside, “but could we get back to Emily?”
    She blinked and snapped back to reality, her eyes returning to normal size. “Sorry. I just don’t get it.”
    “So you really think she could have just up and left Sean?”
    “Well, she’s not here.”
    She crossed the room and sank into a chair at the table. Her short black hair had a hint of wave and was parted at the side and slicked across her head. She had one of those faces with perfect cheekbones and flawless skin. Short hair was attractive on her. On me I was pretty sure it would look like a helmet. “Could she be running from someone?” I suggested.
    She smiled. Sort of. “Who would she run from? It’s not like this is a James Bond movie.”
    No kidding. “So you think she walked out on motherhood,” I repeated, going back to Mary’s original idea.
    Mary ran a hand under her eyes, sweeping away a tear that slipped down. “I’ll say it again,” she snipped. “Sean’s alone. She
did
walk out on him.”
    “Why are you so sure her disappearance was by choice?” Something inside me screamed foul play. And, no, I hadn’t been watching too much
CSI.
My