man and wouldn’t have felt any sense of danger if approached.
But there were other possibilities and he’d be a bad cop if he ignored them. No one had ever called him that, not even when his mistakes had led to two deaths. Will’s policework had been stellar; it was his understanding of human nature that had let him down. This time around, he’d dig down to the bone and tear apart shields until he knew every secret in this town.
18
“Have you two recently had a fight?”
Dominic’s head jerked up, shoulders knotting. “I’d never hurt her!”
“I’m not accusing you of anything,” Will said. “I’m wondering if Miriama is the kind of woman who might’ve taken off to teach you a lesson.”
Frown digging into his forehead, Dominic shook his head. “No,” he said. “That’s one of the things I love most about her—she’s straight-up honest.” He dropped his eyes to the carpet again, shoulders going limp. “I’ve never had to worry about lies with my Miri. If she’s mad at me, she just tells me to go take a hike. She’d never just run away and make me worry. And she wouldn’t make her aunt worry.”
Looking up, Dominic exhaled and the air came out in a tremor. “She’s tight with Josie at the café, too, and with Josie so close to her due date, Miri wouldn’t want to cause her any kind of stress. She’s even been talking about learning to knit so she can make socks for the baby.”
All of that meshed with what Will knew of Miriama. “Is there anything else you think I should know? It doesn’t matter if it’s a minor detail.”
“I’ve never felt so useless,” the doctor said softly. “My parents are so proud of me for being so educated, but what use are my degrees now? I know nothing about how to search for someone in the bush. Nik and the others, they’re out there looking for her and I’m sitting in here safe and warm and doing nothing to help.”
“You’re helping by speaking to me.” Will was worried about Dominic’s mental state. As far as he knew, Dominic de Souza had no other family in town. He’d only taken up the position as the town’s GP a year earlier, after the previous doctor retired. “I have one more question.”
Head still hanging low and his hair falling forward, the doctor took off his glasses and said, “What?” It was a soft, jagged, broken statement.
“How long have you and Miriama been going out?” Will tried to keep his tone bland, not wanting to trigger the other man’s volatile emotions. “Was she going out with anyone else before you?”
“We had our three-month anniversary a week ago. I fell in love with her the first time I saw her, but it took me more than half a year to work up the guts to approach her—I mean, she was so young. I still can’t believe she’s only nineteen and a half now, she’s so strong, knows exactly what she wants.”
The other man put his glasses back on. “Six more months, I said to her at lunch. Then she’ll be twenty and I won’t feel like such a cradle-robber.” Shoving his hands through his hair again, he got up and began to pace around the room. “She said no the first two times I asked her out, but I decided to try again a few months ago. When she said yes, I thought I was dreaming.”
Stopping by his desk, he stared out the window. “I think she was going out with someone before me, but I don’t know who. I’m pretty sure it was a man outside the Cove—she used to disappear for whole weekends and come back all smiley. But they must’ve broken up… And she finally saw me.”
Will left the clinic soon afterward, stopping outside to make a call to Pastor Mark. “Dr. de Souza,” he said, “could do with someone sitting with him.”
As he’d expected, the elderly man was ready to help at once.
After making sure the pastor had a way to get to the clinic, Will drove to the fire station under a sky that had thickened with gray while he’d been with Dominic—what little sunlight that got through was weak. He found Matilda pouring mugs of hot coffee for the volunteers who’d come in for a break. One look at their faces and he knew the news wasn’t good.
Matilda gave him a trembling smile when he stopped by the coffee station. “They haven’t found anything,”