My spirits instantly brightened, and I felt a rush of gratitude toward him that was totally incongruous with everything else I felt about the guy. At least someone recalled Olive’s existence. At least I wasn’t going totally insane.
“Yes!” I exclaimed.
“Do you know her?” Aaron asked.
“Yeah, I know her. Of course I know her,” Joaquin said in a “duh” tone. He leaned sideways into the counter, propping one elbow up and crossing his flip-flopped feet. “Don’t worry about Olive. She’s fine.”
“You know where she is?” I asked.
“No, but I’m sure she’s fine,” Joaquin said, flipping open the doughnut box and casually surveying the contents. “She’s Olive.”
What the hell did that mean?
“She’s not fine,” I said. “She’s missing.”
“Listen, miss,” Dorn said, clearly losing patience. “What you’ve told us is you two went to a party and then she didn’t come back to Mrs. Chen’s,” he said, looking down his nose at me. He reached back to straighten his waistband and sighed. “What that says to me is either she got lucky and stayed with some other…friend—” More chuckling from his cohorts. “Or she decided to cut her vacation short and went home.”
“She didn’t go home,” I insisted.
“And you know this how?” he asked.
“I went to her room. All her stuff is still there,” I said.
Dorn blinked, and Joaquin’s smile froze on his face. The guys behind him whispered something to one another and then one of them crossed the room, went into another office, and closed the door. My fingers started to tremble.
“Besides, she can’t go home,” I pressed on. “She’s in a fight with her mother, and she can’t go back until she makes up with her.” I glanced sideways at Joaquin, hating that I had to say this in front of him, that I was letting him hear Olive’s secrets.
“You know what? I’ve gotta go,” Joaquin said suddenly, glancing at a clock on the far wall. “You guys enjoy the doughnuts,” he told the cops. Then he looked at me and Aaron. “See ya.”
&n
bsp; I let out a sigh of relief at his departure. At least now I could talk freely about Tristan.
As the door swung closed behind Joaquin, Officer Dorn exhaled loudly. “Listen, honey—”
My face turned tomato red. Honey? Really? Apparently they didn’t have sexual harassment awareness programs in Juniper Landing.
“I want you to talk to Tristan Parrish,” I said loudly. I wasn’t usually one to order around authority figures, but my anger and terror were, ironically, making me brave. “He was the last person I saw her with.”
There was a prolonged silence, and then Officer Dorn and the other two remaining cops burst into laughter.
“Tristan Parrish,” Dorn said incredulously. “The mayor’s son.”
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Maybe he knows where she is.”
“We’re not going to be interviewing the mayor’s son,” Dorn said. He picked up his coffee mug and took a casual sip. But from the corner of my eye, I saw just the tiniest hint of a tremble in his grip.
“Why not? Just because she’s the mayor? What if he knows something?” I asked. “I’m not asking you to arrest him. I just want you to talk to him.”
Finally, one of the other officers walked over to join us. He was older than Dorn and shorter, paunchier, and uglier. “Listen, miss. People come and go around here all the time. That’s just the way it is in vacation towns. Now, why don’t you and your friend here go out and enjoy this beautiful morning we’re having?”
“I’m telling you this is different,” I said shrilly. “Something’s happened to her. I can feel it.”
The paunchy guy crossed his arms over the top of his belly. He studied me for what felt like forever.
“Okay, fine. If it’ll make you feel any better, we’ll send out some officers to canvass the beach and the docks, see if anyone’s seen her, okay?” he said. “Now, you two get out of here and have some fun. We’ll worry about your friend.”
Aaron put his hand on my back, and I reluctantly turned to go, but the moment we were outside, I realized something and sprinted back up the steps.