Now You See Her Read Online Free Page B

learn the last names of any of your daughter’s friends? You were always so damn busy with work or golf. Although that never seemed to matter to Devon. “Stafford and Harvey,” Marcy informed the officers. “I’m sure they’ll be able to tell you where Devon is.”
    “According to your neighbors, your daughter was at the cottage alone.”
    “That’s not possible. She told us she was going up there with Carrie and Michelle. Why would she lie?”
    Why did she usually lie? Marcy thought now, brushing aside a tear.
    “Are you all right?” Vic asked immediately, as if he’d been watching her every move.
    Marcy didn’t answer. She burrowed down in her seat and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.
    “Do you know if your daughter has been depressed lately?” she heard one of the policemen ask.
    “You’re saying you don’t think this was an accident?” Peter said, avoiding the officer’s question. Marcy had to grab her hands to keep from slapping him, twist her fingers to keep from scratching out his eyes. How dare he even entertain such a suggestion, let alone say it out loud?
    “I have to ask: Do you think it’s possible your daughter took her own life?”
    “No, it’s not possible,” Marcy said adamantly, fleeing theroom and racing down the hall before Peter could contradict her. She flung open the door to Devon’s bedroom, swallowing the room in a single glance.
    The note was propped up against Devon’s pillow.
    “Despite our not being able to visit Blarney Castle,” the guide was saying now, “I hope you have enjoyed our little tour today.” Marcy opened her eyes to see that they had arrived at Dublin’s city limits. “As you no doubt observed from our brief visit, you really need more than one day to fully appreciate Cork. The library is well worth a visit, as is Cork’s Butter Museum and the Crawford Art Gallery. And don’t forget the wonderful university, whose campus is home to more than seventeen thousand students from all over the world.”
    Over seventeen thousand students from all over the world, Marcy repeated silently, thinking how easy it would be for someone like Devon to blend in. To disappear.
    “Have you ever just wanted to disappear?” Devon had asked Marcy one day not long before her overturned canoe was found in the frigid waters of Georgian Bay. “Just go somewhere and start all over again as someone else?”
    “Please don’t talk that way, sweetheart,” Marcy had said. “You have everything.”
    What a stupid thing to say, she thought now. She, of all people, should have known that having everything guaranteed nothing.
    They’d never recovered Devon’s body.
    “That
was
you I saw,” Marcy whispered under her breath.
    “Sorry, did you say something?” Vic asked.
    Marcy shook her head. “No,” she said out loud. But inside a voice was screaming, “You aren’t dead, are you, Devon? You’re here. I know you are. And whatever it takes, however long it takes, I’m going to find you.”

THREE
    T HE MESSAGE LIGHT ON her phone was flashing ominously when Marcy returned to her hotel.
    It must be a mistake, she thought, letting her stained and still-damp coat fall to the thick oatmeal-colored carpet and kicking off her shoes, normally reliable black flats that had lost all credibility sometime around two o’clock that afternoon. She balanced on the side of her king-size bed, watching the phone’s red light flash on and off, wondering who could have called. Nobody knew she was here.
    Probably the tour bus company, she decided. They’re holding me responsible for the missed excursion to Blarney Castle and expecting me to cover whatever extra cost they incurred as a result. Fine, it’s the least I can do, she thought, deciding not to listen to the message until later. She leaned back againstthe stack of fancy lace pillows at the head of the bed and lifted her feet to rest on the down-filled comforter, sleep already tugging at her eyelids. She hadn’t realized