Thread of Truth, стр. 7

The older woman stood up. “Good morning.” She crossed the room, her hand extended. “I'm Sharon Cousins.”

“Joe Tyler.” I shook her hand.

She turned back to the sofa. “This is Olivia. And that's Thomas in her lap.”

Olivia held up a hand and gave me a tired smile. “Hello.”

“Hi Olivia,” I said, smiling back at her. “Thanks for letting me come over.”

She nodded and looked down at her son.

“Have a seat,” Sharon said, gesturing at the sofa across from the one she and her daughter were occupying.

I sat down and Bill joined them on their sofa. A coffee table covered in parts of today’s paper and various baby supplies – a pacifier, a burp rag, a spare diaper, a tube of ointment – divided us.

“We were trying to get Thomas to nap before you arrived, but he's not cooperating,” Sharon informed me. She glanced at her infant grandson. “So we'll apologize in advance.”

“No need,” I said. “My daughter's about to graduate from college. Time has flown by and I wouldn't mind her being that little again.”

“It goes fast, doesn't it?” Sharon said.

“Really does.”

“So,” Bill Cousins said, clearing his throat. “How can we help you?”

“I'm not sure that you can,” I told him. “I was just hoping to ask Olivia a few questions about Desmond and the last time she spoke with him.”

He gave me a curt nod and gestured toward his daughter, as if I should get on with it.

“I haven't talked to him,” Olivia said. Her green eyes were the same color as her mother's. “I swear.”

I smiled at her. “I believe you.”

She glanced down at the baby. He was resting in her lap, wrapped in a light blue blanket. His hand had escaped the blanket and was balled into a tiny fist.

“When did you last talk to him?” I asked.

She thought for a moment. “It was right before I went into labor. He'd been here at the house and he was going to text me when he got home. But he didn't.”

“Do you remember the exact date?”

She thought and then gave me a date that lined up with the Lockers told me.

“And you never heard from him again?”

She shook her head. “No. And it makes no sense. It really doesn't.”

“How so?”

The baby made a noise and she readjusted him in her lap. For a new mother, she seemed remarkably at ease with him. “Because he wouldn't have missed Thomas being born. There's no way. He was as excited as I was. Maybe more.”

Bill made a face and shifted on the couch, but didn't say anything.

Olivia caught him. She frowned. “I offered to go meet him so you wouldn't have to be here.”

“I know you did,” he said. “I recall very clearly. And I told you that if you were going to talk to anyone about Desmond, I wanted to be there.” He glanced at me. “No offense.”

“None taken,” I said. “I would've done the same.”

He looked away.

“He got a new car and he doesn't want me to drive it,” Olivia said, shaking her head.

“You just had a baby, honey,” her mother said, touching her shoulder. “Everything in good time.”

Olivia rolled her eyes.

“So he was excited about the baby?” I asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.

“Yes,” she said, looking down at Thomas. “He really was. We had fun deciding on names. We went shopping, and he wanted to buy everything he saw. I had to hold him back.”

“You know, he might've been faking that, Olivia,” Bill said.

She rolled her eyes again, but this time it was accompanied by a long, drawn-out sigh. I’d been the recipient of several of those when Elizabeth was her age.

I looked at Bill. “I take it you had your doubts?”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“Why?”

He grunted. “Because he was a teenager who got my daughter pregnant after spending some time in jail. Call me crazy.”

Olivia's face reddened. “Jesus, Dad.”

“Did I say anything that wasn't true?” he asked.

Olivia studied her newborn son. “It wasn't jail.”

Bill waved a hand in the air. “Semantics.”

Sharon put her hand on her husband's thigh. “Let's just try to help Mr. Tyler, shall we?”

“What do you think I'm doing?” he said, not bothering to hide his annoyance. Then he sighed. “I'm sorry. All of this has been...incredibly trying.” He was speaking directly to me. “I don't mean to be rude.”

“I understand,” I told him. “No need to apologize.” I paused. “And I'm just going to be direct here. I get the sense you think he has run away. Is that accurate?”

His eyes widened and he nodded, as if that was an obvious conclusion.

I looked at Olivia. “So Desmond wasn't having any issues before he disappeared?”

She shook her head. “No. Nothing.” Her eyes narrowed. “I know what you're asking me. He wasn't drinking. He wasn't smoking. He wasn't hanging out with his old friends. He was spending time with me, at home, and at work. That was it. His grades were better than mine. He was helping me in my classes. I was missing a ton because of the pregnancy and he was helping me.” Her chin tilted, and if she hadn’t been holding the baby, I was pretty sure she would have folded her arms and puffed out her chest. “There was nothing going on. I would've known.”

I said nothing.

She looked down at her son again. “He really wanted this baby. He wanted to be a father.” She swallowed hard and blinked several times. “We were making plans to get married and move in together.”

Bill shook his head and looked away, but not before I saw his look of disgust.

Sharon gave me a tight smile, trying her best to appear neutral.

I didn't envy her because it appeared she had taken on the role of peacemaker in the house.

“When you say he was excited to be a father, can you give me an example?” I asked.

She laughed, shook her head, and wiped at her eyes. “Sure.”

I waited.

“I didn't want the baby,” she said. “Desmond did.”