Page 68 of Holding On

“Sit down,” she says.

“No, no—”

“Travis.” She says my name with such pain that in the aftermath of what she tells me, I can’t get mad at her. I love her and her strength.

I sit. She talks for nearly an hour, waving nurses off, holding my hand, creating a universe where it’s just the two of us. When she tells me everything, I know what to do.

Finally.

Then I’m told Detective Carlson and Audrey Pratchett are waiting outside her room, and I have to leave.

That’s not happening.

***

I realize Audrey is practically family, and Carlson has become a close friend of Mateus’s, but Jesus Christ, I can’t look at either of them.

Maya and I gave them the details of what happened. Both Audrey and Carlson seem upset that Maya can’t remember what happened on the boat.

Now Carlson and I stand in an empty waiting room. Audrey went to the cafeteria in search of food.

“Clearly, he recognized the necklace and knew Maya was after something. He attacked her on the boat and left her in the cave to drown. A strike by a blunt object in a cave? Pretty fucking easy to cover up. And I bet her phone is missing too?”

Carlson glances at me. “Yes. He obviously tossed it.”

“He knew, Carlson.” I don’t try to act like I’m not pissed.

Carlson doesn’t seem to notice. Circling back around the topic, he says, “We’re looping you in this time. We’re putting this out as a missing person’s case. That’s how we’re dealing with this. Let Barr think he’s gotten away with—”

“With murder? He already has. Apparently, more than once.”

“If he thinks he’s been successful, that will give us time to finish building our case.”

“Finish? You haven’t even started. He attacked her, struck her with something, and tried to drown her. She’d be dead if—”

“I get it. But she doesn’t remember.”

“So? What’s her motive? What’s his defense?”

Carlson lays a hand on my shoulder. “Look, I know this is hard. I can’t even imagine. He’s already saying that he took her out on his boat, she got drunk, made a pass at him, and he left her at the dock. There’s nothing that says otherwise. Next, he’ll claim she climbed aboard another boat, and I’m sure he’d give us a description.”

“But I saw him leave Echo Cave, Carlson. Fuck this. I’m a witness.”

His hand drops. “And you’re a Russo. He’ll claim you’re fabricating the story for revenge and trying to frame him. Especially when it comes out, and it will, that she George’s niece.”

Audrey comes back in the waiting room with a blueberry smoothie. What I want is alcohol. My side is starting to throb in rhythmic flares of pain again, and every breath is hard.

“Sit down, Travis,” she says gently, a hand between my shoulder blades.

“I think I’ll stand.”

“Are you taking her home?” Audrey’s voice is soft and full of concern.

Home. My mother used to say that. Wherever we were, wherever we spent the night, was home. Whether The Inn, a hotel, a stretch of beach we were camping on—all met the criteria.

“Home is where we are,” she’d say. The sudden, almost visceral, memory of her—her smell of flour and sugar—leaves me speechless for a moment.

“Travis, Finn’s called a meeting, and he wants you there once Maya gets settled. Text me.” He turns to go and then changes his mind again. “Oh, and don’t stop anywhere. We don’t want her IDed. Maya is still missing as far as the police are concerned.”