call to check in. And get this, her mother says one of her old boyfriends has been harassing them for information on her whereabouts. They’re worried he could show up here in Coyote Wells. After what happened to Collette, they’re in panic-mode.”
Luke paced off a few steps and ran a hand through his hair. “Could I have gotten this entire thing that wrong? Could she have been dealing with an ex who wouldn’t leave her alone, and I misinterpreted this whole thing for something else?”
Before Gemma could utter a reply, Luke stopped and pointed a finger. “You might be right. I overreacted. What the hell was I thinking? Where is she?”
Gemma took pity on him. “Blaming yourself won’t bring her back. We need to focus on finding her. Pronto. Did Mrs. Whittaker have a name for the old boyfriend?”
“Yeah. A guy named Kirk Ritter.”
“There’s your background check,” Gemma told Lando. “See what Dale says about him.”
“It’s a place to start,” Lando said as he went back to his cruiser to relay the information to Dale.
Gemma and Luke followed—and waited for Lando to get off the phone with an update.
Standing beside each other, Luke put his head on Gemma’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass.”
She laid a hand on his jaw. “It’s okay. I’ve been an ass before and know how much it hurts to own it.”
“How could I have thought she was cheating?”
“Maybe you wanted to believe it. Maybe you didn’t want to get married. Maybe you were looking for reasons to postpone the wedding because you just weren’t ready.”
Luke looked disheartened at the suggestion. “You’re saying I used this as a reason to bail?”
“Sounds like it to me. What I can’t get over, though, is how Lianne never said a word to me about this ex-boyfriend.”
“Did you ever see her texting while at work?”
“Well, yeah. Sure. But I never asked who she kept texting. It was none of my business. Although now that I think about it, she did seem annoyed most of the time. I thought it was worry over the shop. Why didn’t I ask her, Luke? Why didn’t I ask what was going on? Don’t answer that. I already know. I’ve been so busy with everything else I’ve forgotten how to be a friend to the people I care about. Why didn’t I stay with her last night, see her through the first night of this? A friend would’ve been there for her.”
“Because Leia put pressure on you to hurry back,” Luke suggested.
“No, she really didn’t. But I do remember Lianne mentioning she had a headache. All she wanted was to get to bed. I did feel like I should get back to Leia’s and not leave Lando stranded there for too long because I knew how tired he was. I really needed to get to bed myself.”
“There you go. Stop beating yourself up. I’m the one who needed to be there for her and wasn’t.”
“Enough blame to go around,” Gemma asserted as she saw Lando take another call. “Look, maybe we have news.”
Lando blew out a breath and signaled for Luke. “Dale put out a BOLO on Lianne and her car. But this Kirk Ritter guy is bad news. He went to jail a year ago for assault after a fight in a bar. He got out two months ago.”
“January,” Luke mumbled. “Damn. That’s when she first started acting weird and texting like crazy.”
“That’s not all. Dale is still trying to pinpoint exactly where Ritter is. He had a job at a construction company in Portland. But we haven’t heard back from his employer yet on whether or not he reported for work today. We’ll keep trying to contact the company. There is one other hitch. Ritter was supposed to check in with his parole officer yesterday. He never showed.”
Luke felt sick to his stomach. “Great. It’s looking more like she either got kidnapped or took off on her own to avoid dealing with this jerk.”
“Maybe. But I’d caution against jumping to conclusions right now.”
Gemma couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You two are actually suggesting Lianne drove off into the night on her own, leaving behind her job, her business, which hasn’t even opened its doors yet? No way. Lianne would not do that. The woman I know is stubborn as a mule. She’s resolute about getting that business up and running.”
Luke scratched his chin. “Yeah, you’re right. She wouldn’t walk away from Collette’s Collectibles. She has big plans for that place.