Forbidden love. I wondered if that Shakespearean story line had contributed to Erin's defection from the Seabright home. I couldn't imagine Bruce Seabright would have approved of his son and his stepdaughter dating, regardless of the fact they weren't blood relatives. And if Bruce didn't like it, Krystal wouldn't like it.
I wondered why Molly hadn't told me about Erin and Chad, why she hadn't told me about Chad at all. Maybe she believed I would disapprove too. If that was the case, she overestimated me. I didn't care enough to have an opinion on her sister's morality. My only interest in Erin's love life was as motive in her disappearance.
I drove back to the Seabright home. Chad the Invalid was in the driveway, washing his black Toyota pickup. The all-American boy in khakis and a white T-shirt. He glanced up at me through a pair of mirrored Oakley shades as he rinsed the soap off his wheel rims.
'Nice ride,' I said as I walked up the driveway. 'Eva Rosen told me about it.'
'Who's Eva Rosen?'
'Erin's landlady. She doesn't miss a trick, old Eva.'
Chad stood up, the hose and the wheels forgotten. 'I'm sorry,' he said politely. 'I didn't get your name.'
'Elena Estes. I'm looking for your stepsister.'
'Like I told you this morning, Ms. Estes: I haven't seen her.'
'That's funny, because Eva tells me you were in her yard just the other night. She seems to know some pretty interesting things about you,' I said. 'About you and Erin.'
He shrugged and shook his head, then added a boyish grin to complete the whole Matt Damon look. 'I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Come on, Chad,' I cajoled. 'I've been around the block a few times. It doesn't matter to me if you and Erin are involved. A boy fucking his stepsister isn't going to make me turn a hair.'
He frowned at the accusation.
'That's why Erin left the house, isn't it?' I said. 'Your father wouldn't put up with the two of you doing it under his nose.'
'We're not involved,' he insisted.
'Eva tells me the two of you had a fight the other night in her driveway. What happened, Chad? Did Erin dump you? Let me guess: you weren't nearly so interesting as a boyfriend once her Mommy and Stepdaddy weren't watching anymore.'
He looked away from me, trying to decide how to play this. Respond with the truth, with outrage, stick with denial, stay calm? He had chosen the latter tack to start, but my bluntness was beginning to irritate him.
'I'm not sure who you are, ma'am,' he said, still trying to hang on to the false good humor, 'but you're crazy.'
I found a dry patch along the front fender of the pickup, leaned back against it, and crossed my arms. 'Who'd she dump you for, Chad? An older man? Her boss, maybe?'
'I don't know who Erin is seeing,' he said curtly. 'And I don't care.'
He dumped the wash water on the driveway and carried the bucket into the garage. I followed.
'Okay. Maybe I'm way off base. Maybe the fight was about something else altogether,' I offered. 'If that hangover you had this morning is anything to go by, you're a guy who likes to party. From what I've heard, Erin might like a wild time. And there she is at the equestrian center, a whole new world of drug dealers and users. Maybe that's what you fought about in Eva Rosen's driveway: drugs.'
Chad slammed the bucket onto a shelf where car care products were arranged like a display at Pep Boys. 'You're way out of line, lady.'
'She try to cut you out of a deal, Chad? Is that why you came back later and keyed her car?'
'What's with you?' he demanded. 'Why are you here? Do you have a warrant or something?'
I was standing too close to him. He wanted to back away. 'I don't need a warrant, Chad,' I said quietly, my eyes steady on his. 'I'm not that kind of a cop.'
He didn't know quite what that meant, but it made him nervous. He put his hands on his hips, shuffled his feet, crossed his arms over his chest, looked out at the street.
'Where's Erin?' I asked.
'I told you, I don't know. I haven't seen her.'
'Since when? Since Friday? The night you fought with her? The night you keyed her car?'
'I don't know anything about that. Talk to that fat cow she works with,' he said. 'Jill Moron. She's nuts. Ask her where Erin is. She probably killed her and ate her.'
'How do you know Jill Morone?' I asked. 'How would you know anything about the people Erin works with if you haven't been in touch with Erin?'
He went still and looked out the door.
Gotcha. It was nice to know I still had the touch.
'What did you fight about Friday night, Chad?' I asked again, then waited patiently while he struggled to decide on an answer.
'I dumped her,' he said, turning toward the shelves again. He selected a white cotton towel from a stack of white cotton towels, all neatly folded. 'I don't need the trouble.'
'Uh-huh. Bullshit. You don't dump a girl, then come back and key her car. There's no point if you're not the dumpee.'
'I didn't key her car!'
'I don't believe you.'
'Well, that's your problem, not mine.'
'I don't see you dumping her, Chad. Erin might have been off the hook with Krystal and Bruce because she moved out, but you could still pull your old man's chain by staying involved with her.'
'You don't know anything about my family.'
'Don't I?' I looked around the garage with its place for everything and everything in its place. 'Your old man is a tight-ass control freak. His way is the only way. His opinion is the only opinion. Everyone else in the house is there to serve his needs and validate his superiority. How am I doing so far?'
Chad went to his truck in a huff and started trying to towel off the water spots that had already dried on the finish.
'He'll ride you if you don't get those spots out, won't he, Chad?' I said, following him around the truck. 'Can't have spots on the cars. What would the neighbors think? And imagine if they found out about you and Erin. What a disgrace, doing it with your stepsister. It's practically incest. You really found Dad's hot button, didn't you?'
'Lady, you're pissing me off.'
I didn't tell him that was the idea. I followed him around the hood to the other side of the truck. 'Tell me what I want to know and I'll leave.'
'There's nothing to tell. I don't know where Erin is, and I don't give a shit.'
'I bet you'll give a shit when you've got a cop tailing you. Because maybe there's a drug angle to Erin's disappearance. I can tell you from experience, there are few things a narc likes better than getting his hooks into a kid with money and connections. And how about when your father gets questioned about your involvement? I guess you might enjoy that-'
He turned on me, hands up, as if I was holding him at gunpoint. 'All right! All right. Jesus, you're something, lady,' he said, shaking his head.
I waited.
'All right,' he said again, letting out a sigh. 'Erin and I used to be together. I thought it meant something, but it didn't mean anything to her. She dumped me. That's it. That's the whole story. There's nothing to do with drugs or deals or anything else. That's it. She dumped me.'
He shrugged and his arms fell back to his sides, limp, the admission taking all the starch out of him. The male ego is a fragile thing at seventeen or seventy.
'Did she give you a reason?' I asked quietly. 'I wouldn't ask,' I added as his tension level came back up. 'But something has happened where Erin was working, and now she's nowhere to be found.'
'Is she in trouble?'
'I don't know.'
He thought about that for a minute. 'She said there was someone else. 'A man,' she said. Like I'm twelve or something.' He shook his head in disgust.
