When Evelyn tapped a spoon against her champagne flute and all eyes turned our way, I felt a blush rise in my cheeks. I turned my head down as Evelyn began her own speech.
“Sometimes,” she said. “I forget that Marie is my sister.”
“Thanks a lot!” Marie shouted, eliciting more giggles from the tipsy crowd.
Evelyn lifted her glass higher. “I forget she’s my sister because we weren’t particularly close as we grew up. As the years went by, I regretted that we hadn’t taken advantage of the time we had together. Nowadays, we live on separate continents, and I am constantly missing my sister.” Her eyes shone, catching the overhead lights. “When we graduated from school and moved apart, Marie began calling me once a day. It drove me nuts at first” —another laugh from the crowd— “but when she gradually stopped calling, I realized how much I’d looked forward to those conversations. There is something devastating about being separated from your only sister. A piece of myself is always hidden away until I am reunited with Marie.”
Marie’s lower lip wobbled as she dabbed beneath her lashes, desperate to keep her mascara from running. Evelyn smiled.
“That’s why I’m so glad Marie has found Ned,” she went on. “Because she has someone to love her and take care of her when I can’t be there. She has someone who will hold her when she fails and celebrate her when she triumphs. She has someone who loves her unconditionally, and that means everything in the world to me.” Evelyn’s gaze flickered toward me. “Marie and Ned, I wish you the best of luck in your marriage. And Ned? If you put one toe out of line—”
The room exploded with laughter as Evelyn drew her index finger across the base of her throat, but the gesture made me sick to my stomach. No one else knew she wasn’t joking. I stood abruptly, and my chair scraped. Everyone stared at me as I stormed out of the hall. Evelyn followed.
“Jack, come on,” she called after me. “It was a joke.”
I swung around to face her. “I’m leaving. I can’t go to the wedding, not if you’re going to be there. I’m going home. I’m going to pack my stuff, and I’m moving out of the flat.”
“You’re overreacting.”
“You know me,” I said. “You know me better than anyone else in the world. You knew that the truth would kill me.”
“Which is why I never told you,” she exclaimed.
I stomped off again. “You never should have taken the job in the first place.”
She rushed after me. “I didn’t ask for it. At first, I didn’t know why the Wagner Company recruited me. You have to let me explain—”
“No, I’m done with your explanations.” When I stepped into the elevator, I stood in the way, so Evelyn couldn’t join me. “Don’t follow me. I don’t want to see you or speak to you.”
Her face, contorted with hurt, was the last thing I saw before the elevator doors slid shut.
I could not sleep. I lay awake in my new room, which was not one of the fancy suites the Greys had booked for the wedding party, and let my mind whir through all of the times Evelyn had lied to me.
I didn’t know where to go from here. I had no one. I had no home. My plans for the next five years had been shot to hell by Evelyn’s betrayal. What was I supposed to do now?
The moment in the alleyway played over and over in my head. Hundreds of times, I watched Evelyn skillfully slip her knife across the man’s femoral arteries, then leave the scene as if her actions had no emotional effects on her. Eventually, it turned into a dream—a nightmare. Even in unconsciousness, I recalled the horrible event.
“Jack. Jack, get up!”
Evelyn banged and yelled, the note of panic in her voice raising me from my slumber. Despite yesterday’s turn of events, anxiety built in my chest. What had happened? Was Evelyn okay?
I whipped out of bed, pulled on my robe, and went to the door. Evelyn stood on the other side, hair astray, wearing a look of absolute despair.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s Marie,” Evelyn gasped. “She’s gone.”
19
I hauled Evelyn into my room and made her sit on the bed. Her face, almost always a shade of creamy white, was alarmingly pale. I grabbed a bottle of water from the mini bar, uncapped it, and forced her to drink from it.
“Don’t panic,” I said.
“Don’t panic?” she repeated in a high tone. “What am I supposed to do, Jack? My sister is gone! On the day of her wedding. I can’t—”
“Wolf and Fletcher are still in holding,” I reminded her. “They couldn’t have done this. Maybe Marie got cold feet.”
“No.” She vigorously shook her head. “No, Marie wouldn’t do this to Ned. Something happened to her. I can feel it in my gut.”
“But Wolf—”
“I tried calling Angelica back,” Evelyn interrupted. “She didn’t answer. I got an automated message that said the line had been disconnected. Then I called her boyfriend. Jack, she never made it home.”
My scalp tingled as goose bumps rose. “Ev, if that’s the case, it means we put the wrong people in jail.” My cell phone rang, and I snatched it off the side table to answer before looking at the caller ID. “Marie?”
“No, it’s Kate.” The detective sounded terse and stressed. “I got bad news, Frye. We corroborated Wolf and Fletcher’s alibis for Logan’s murder. They didn’t do it. We’ve also got footage of Fletcher around town during the time frames for the kidnappings. He was nowhere near the Saint Angel when those women were taken.”
“Shite,” I hissed. “Kate, Marie Grey has gone missing too.”
“Give me what you got.”
With Evelyn’s help, I rattled off Marie’s physical appearance, the last time she was seen, and any other details that might help the police locate her as quickly as possible.
“She’s supposed to get married today,”
