“Is that what you think?” He ran his hand through his hair again. “Fuck.” A long pause strained the silence between them.
“Did she text you yesterday?” Cassidy asked, thinking of how Izzy had been so absorbed in her texting at the rest area that Martin had yelled at her to get in the van.
“No,” Charlie said, shaking his head. “Before yesterday, I hadn’t heard from her since I left field camp.” He gave her a sideways look, and she could see the strain in his eyes. “She shows up here last night,” he finally said. “I had my phone off. I was writing all day.” He flicked a tuft of pine needles from the hood of his truck. “She said she wanted to see my place.” He shook his head. “She’s a good kid.” He seemed to chew on this for a minute, then sighed. “I let her stay the night, but that’s all,” he added, his voice calmer, though Cassidy heard the effort behind it. “This morning I wake up and she’s gone. I don’t know where she is now.”
“Okay,” Cassidy said, trying to suppress her irritation. “Can we sit down and talk about this?” she asked, wanting to get a look inside the cabin.
“There’s nothing more to talk about.” He pushed off his truck. “I’ve told you all I know.”
“You haven’t told me why she was upset. Or why she came here in the first place. Or how she knew your address. I had to get it from Martin.”
Charlie grimaced.
“Martin will never be able to teach again because of this. Is that what you want? For his career to be ruined? Things aren’t looking too rosy for me either.”
“Of course I don’t want that,” Charlie scoffed, his eyes angry.
“He’ll be charged with neglect. I will too, probably, even though I wasn’t driving the van.”
“But it sounds like Izzy took off. That’s hardly anyone’s fault.”
“We’re talking about Preston Ford, here, remember?”
Charlie hugged himself and exhaled a hard breath.
“Also, Richard is being pressured to keep this quiet because of Dominique Gilardi.” Cassidy watched Charlie’s eyes widen. “If we can avoid another story about a missing student, the dean would appreciate it.” Cassidy paused. “If I can find her, I can fix this.”
Cassidy was about to explain the impact this would have on field camp, which could be axed for this. Nobody would come to school at U. of O. for geology again. Cassidy could see the department slowly crumpling on itself. Without students, the professors wouldn’t have teaching jobs, and without that, they wouldn’t be able to do their research. Grant money would dry up. It might take a few years, but the department would lose everything—the labs, their reputation, the staff. Everything.
But Charlie had closed his eyes, looking pale. “Shit,” he said.
Cassidy could almost see the gears turning in his head. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Dominique,” Charlie said, finally making eye contact with her again. “I forgot.”
“Forgot what?” Cassidy said, her frustration boiling out of control. “Charlie, what the hell is going on?” Every volcano had its trigger—whether it be pressure, an earthquake, or movement of the tectonic plates beneath. Right now, Cassidy was at her trigger point.
“I forgot that they were friends.” He shook his head. “When Dominique disappeared, Izzy came to my office, really upset.”
“Was she with Dominique last night?” Cassidy asked, bracing herself for Charlie’s answer.
He shook his head. “But I think she may have talked to her.”
Cassidy felt the air leave her lungs. “Okay, tell me everything.”
“None of this gets to my wife,” Charlie said in a quiet voice. “Okay?” He looked at her for understanding. “It has nothing to do with where she went, anyways. I’m sure of it.”
Cassidy felt a rush of goosebumps rise on her arms. “Okay,” she said.
Charlie took a deep breath. “So, she shows up here.” He glanced at the front door. “Out of the blue. Big smile, all that.”
Cassidy imagined herself as a bird perched high in the aspen tree near the front door, observing Izzy’s long hair loose and her lean, tanned legs.
“I let her in. She didn’t say anything about ditching field camp. I would have made her set things right if I had known that.” He looked at her. “That’s the truth.”
“I believe you,” Cassidy said, which was true.
Charlie gazed to a point somewhere beyond Cassidy’s shoulder. “She said she was just passing through.”
“But she didn’t have a car. Didn’t you think that was weird?”
Charlie shrugged. “She said she was on a road trip with friends.”
“Then where were they?”
Charlie’s face flashed with irritation. “C’mon, I’m not her mother. She caught me off guard. I honestly didn’t give it much thought.”
Cassidy let it go. She needed his cooperation more than she needed to scold him for fucking this up.
“She said she was camping and would meet up with her friends later.” Charlie took a slow breath, and Cassidy wondered if he was reliving whatever had happened between them one last time so he could sweep it under the rug. A shudder passed through her—how could Charlie, a professor, seduce one of his own students?
“It got late,” he finally said. “I let her stay.”
“You said she was upset.”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice easier now, as if having the evening with Izzy behind him made it so. “Something was bugging her. She kept checking her phone. Later, she locked herself in the bathroom for a while. But when she came out, I could tell she was upset though she wouldn’t talk about it.”
“Any idea what upset her?”
Charlie shook his head.
“Did you get a look at her phone?”
“No,” he scoffed, scowling so tight his eyebrows looked like caterpillars. “She did call someone though,” he added. “I heard her voice through the walls.”
“Dominique?” Cassidy asked.
Charlie shook his head. “No idea, but her voice was kind of . . . I don’t know, pleading. Then she got angry.”
“When did she leave?”
Another pause. Was he about to lie? “I woke up at about five thirty. She was gone.”
“No note, nothing?” Cassidy asked.
“No,”
