Page 53 of Is Anyone Listening?
"I have to try. I can't let Nathan get away with this. He could be drugging other women, for all we know.”
"Maybe you should talk to Tessa about it first, see if she has regained any of her memory, because I think there's a good chance Finn will renege on anything he told you to protect his friend. And then it will just be me and you, the outsiders, against Finn and Nathan, who are definitely on the inside. How do you think that will go?"
"I think it will get shut down like everything else," I admitted. "I'll talk to Tessa, and maybe I'll have more proof when the toxicology report comes back."
"I hope there is evidence because without it…"
"It's just our word against his."
"Exactly."
"What do you think of Nathan's suggestion that Jessica faked her death? It makes sense. You said she was on the run, scared that she was going to be set up, just like your brother. Maybe that's exactly what she did."
His lips tightened. "It's a possibility."
It suddenly occurred to me that Tyler could actually be the person Jessica was running from. Maybe she thought he would throw her to the wolves to protect his brother.
Which raised the question—should I be trying to help him find her?
Chapter Fourteen
Tyler was quiet as he drove away from the marina, and so was I. While I understood Tyler's motivation to find the person who could prove his brother's innocence and save him from jail, I wasn’t sure whether we were both buying into the idea that Jessica had faked her death because it made sense—or because we needed her to be alive.
"Nathan's story about finding the ring on the beach is pushing us to believe that Jessica got off the boat and disappeared on her own," I said, breaking the silence between us. "But if Nathan was lying, and he didn't find the ring on the beach, then we really have nothing to prove Jessica got off that boat alive."
"Why would he lie about finding a diamond ring when the lie could get him into trouble?"
"Because he made it up to impress Tessa, and now he's caught up in it," I suggested. "Maybe it is true, but I don't want us to go down the wrong path because it's the path we desperately want to be on."
"I hear what you're saying, Cassidy, and you're right. Aside from Nathan's story, there is no evidence to suggest she survived the trip, but my gut says she did. That might be misguided, but that's how I feel. Maybe that's because I need to feel hopeful. My brother's life is on the line, too."
"I understand. And I want Jessica to be alive. I want the same thing for Natalie and also for Anna. But maybe Jessica's story is different from theirs. Did she register at the inn under her own name?" I asked.
"She registered under her maiden name, which is Trent. Her married name is Reese."
"Okay, but it seems like she would have used a completely different name if she were truly on the run."
"I'm not sure she was thinking that clearly. There was a lot going on. At any rate, I'm going to keep looking for Jessica. But you can go back to focusing on Natalie and Anna."
"We can focus on all three of them," I said. "I like working together. Two heads are better than one. We can challenge each other. Make sure we're not jumping to conclusions or falling for stories that are meant to take us in a different direction."
"It is nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of instead of going around in circles in my head."
"So, we keep working together."
"Yes. On that note, I did actually have an idea about Natalie," Tyler said.
"What's that?"
"I was thinking about how no one saw her leave the inn. There was no record of a cab picking her up. The inn is too far for her to have walked into town, especially with a suitcase. So, either a friend picked her up, as has been suggested in the police report?—"
"A friend that has never been found," I interrupted.
"Or," he continued. "She left the inn another way. She didn't walk out the front door."
"What's the other way?" I asked with interest.
"Older houses built during prohibition sometimes had underground tunnels running to the beach for the purpose of smuggling."
