Page 60 of Hard Evidence
Thankfully, Sophy didn’t seem to expect an answer to that question because what was I supposed to say?“Do you have coffee for the drip machine?”
“No, only instant.I meant to go to the store yesterday, but by the time I finished knocking on doors, I was so freaking tired.”
“Instant is fine.”
“And you don’t have to wash the dishes—Amie and I always take it in turns, and…and… I just want her to come home.I get that having a baby is a big deal, but she doesn’t have to handle it alone.”
“You have a big family?”
Sophy broke into a smile.“My brother has two little girls, and I just love being an auntie.Do you have children?”
“Not yet.”
The answer was automatic.I’d said it a hundred times, even as I tried and failed to get pregnant, even as the doctors poked and prodded me, even as Ridge berated me for having a defective uterus.The tests had never pinpointed the problem.My failure to conceive had been devastating at the time, but now…now I felt relief as well as sadness.Leaving Maine with Shiro had been hard.Leaving with Shiro and a baby would have been impossible.
“I guess there’s still plenty of time for you and Justin, huh?”
“Oh, no, no, we’re not dating.I just…well, I work for him.”
Sophy’s brow furrowed.“At Norquist Construction?”
“No, I’m more of a personal chef.”There, that sounded better than “he took pity on me and lent me his guest room.”“But with Amie missing, I’m helping out in whatever capacity he needs.”
“Really?But you’re so… Never mind.”Sophy picked up a dish towel and began drying a plate.“I probably shouldn’t say this, but secretly, I hoped Amie would do the Hallmark movie thing and hook up with her boss, but she always falls for assholes.”
“Brett isn’t the first?”
“Before Brett, there was Jayden, and before Jayden, there was Maddox.And also Connor, but I’m pretty sure Connor’s still in jail, so I don’t think he had anything to do with anything.”
Jail?Whoa.And should I be writing down those names?“How long ago was Amie involved with them?Do they live around here?”
“It’s at least a year since she broke up with Jayden.Is that important?”
“Maybe?”
“Jayden worked at the movie theatre.I’m not sure if he still does.Probably not, because he used to give out free popcorn when the manager wasn’t looking, and he’s also a bum.”
“Do you know his last name?”
“Bentley.Jayden Bentley.”
“And Maddox?”
“I’m not sure if that’s his real name.He was a singer in a rock band, but I went to one of their gigs, and…” She pulled a “yikes” face.“I doubt they landed a record deal.”
I wanted to call Ari back, but I worried about interrupting whatever she was doing.So I just repeated the names over and over in my head, trying to get them to stick.Jayden Bentley, Maddox, Connor.
“Do you remember the name of the band?”
“No, but it was one word.Stones?Or Bones?Something like that.Maddox had a whole bunch of groupies and a weirdly long tongue, which I think might have been the reason for the groupies.”
I stacked the last of the dishes in the draining rack and fished around in the water for cutlery.Other than a ten-minute mistake in college, Ridge was the only man I’d been with, and I didn’t really get the tongue thing.
“What happened with Connor?”
“He got pulled over for speeding, and the cops found drugs in his car.Amie didn’t do drugs, though.Never.She was horrified when Connor called her from jail asking for bail money.”
“Did she give it to him?”
