Easier to Lie

Chapter Twenty-Five

I sent Eric a text every other hour for three straight days. No response. Two weeks later, still nothing. Every time I called he let the call go to voicemail. I fell asleep every night running my finger over the tattoo of his name. After another week of silence, my phone buzzed.

"Hi," no emoji, no punctuation, nothing except those two letters.

"Hey," I waited a few minutes just to be spiteful.

"Have you heard from Leah?" After three weeks of no communication, that's all he said to me.

"Not in a few days. Why?" She had been busy with work and school. Same as me.

"She's missing."

My world stopped.

Lauralee was an absolute wreck. She kept calling Leah's phone, texting her, all of that. If there was a way to communicate with Leah, Lauralee would find it. She checked social media to see Leah hadn't posted anything in two days. That may not seem like a big deal to most, but Leah always, always, always posted several times every day. Why hadn't I noticed this earlier?

"I have to go down there," Lauralee said full of anger and tears. "I'll file a missing person's report here and then go down there." She had a plan and immediately began organizing. Each and every one of us had a job to do.

Lauralee would talk to the police. Her husband would talk to Adam about the last time he saw her and make a list of her favorite places. My mom, a genius with photography software, would create the missing person's posters. My dad was on the road again but promised to meet up with Lauralee at the Myrtle Beach police station. He would canvas the area and question people. Lauralee wanted my dad with her because she didn't think the police would be serious about this case until it was too late. Then there was me, I was told to set up the crisis center at the nearby recreation center. It would be my job to find volunteers and leads.

Kathryn and Julia's parents volunteered, which I wasn't expecting. Their dads helped with the search. The last we heard from Leah, she was at the condo. People were searching in Sedona just in case she came back, and something happened before we knew she was home

Mom printed off the first batch of posters using a photo that was taken the day of graduation. She didn't have the blonde hair anymore.

"She dyed it brown about a month ago," I told her. I scrolled through Leah's social media page until I found a good picture. "Use this one." It was Leah sitting on the couch, completely sober, smiling at Adam, who was taking the picture. She didn't have on any makeup or jewelry. She looked young and happy.

Days turned into weeks and still no closer to finding her. Adam was heartbroken. He blamed himself; we finally got the full story from him.

She was closing at work and they were going to meet at Dairy Queen for dinner. He waited an hour before he tried getting in touch with her. Doctor Kacee's office was a ten-minute drive away from Dairy Queen. Why wait so long to try contacting her?

Adam and I talked several times every day. The media was failing at painting him as the guilty party. He cooperated with the cops, the media, and he passed the five polygraph exams. Instead of trying to help find her, the journalists were creating theories of a boyfriend.

After a long night at the crisis center, I went to my dorm room. I hadn't been there in almost one week. Luckily, my professors understood the current situation and were helping me to stay on track. My roommate, Kardai, was helping me too.

We were both Business majors and had the exact same schedule. She came from a very wealthy family; her parents were in politics. Her mom was the mayor in her hometown. She was from Texas, I think. In between her classes she would bring food down to the center and she would help on the phones for an hour or two. We quickly became friends.