front porch. Monica knocked on the door and they all waited for Rachel to answer.
The young woman opened the door and leaned against it, blocking their way into the house. She was wearing a velour tracksuit and a tank with the word Baby written in glitter across her boobs. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, but she had makeup on.
It was… a look.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hello, Rachel.” Val kept her sunglasses on. The winter morning was brutally bright. “Can we come in?”
“Have you heard from Josh?”
“No. Have you?”
“No.” She sighed heavily and opened the door wider. “Come in, I guess. I don’t know why we’re doing this.”
Val stepped into the small living area. She could see a breakfast nook in the back corner of the house and lights that probably led to a kitchen. There was a large television mounted to one wall, and a sectional sofa crowded the rest of the room. Josh’s old recliner was in the corner closest to the television.
Val turned around, surveying the house. It was clean, but she could see Rachel’s stress in the pile of mail by the door, the water rings on the otherwise spotless coffee table, and the scent of pine cleaner coming from the kitchen.
Monica put a hand on Rachel’s shoulder. “How are you holding up?”
The girl blinked hard. “I don’t know what to think. Everyone is acting like he just took off. But that’s not Josh.”
“No it isn’t,” Robin said. “That’s why Val is looking.”
“The police already came and searched—”
“They searched for money,” Val said. “Obvious stuff. I was with Josh for seventeen years, Rachel. Just let me look around, okay?”
Robin said, “Do you have coffee? I don’t know about you, but I’d love some coffee.”
“I don’t drink coffee, but I have this detox tea that’s really good,” Rachel said. “I can make some if you want. It’s very cleansing.”
“Detox tea?” Monica shuffled her to the kitchen. “That sounds great. What does it cleanse?”
As soon as Monica and Robin had Rachel in the kitchen, Val went to work. She looked for items she knew were Josh’s and picked each one up in turn. Scattered visions of daily life. Josh bitching at Rachel. Rachel bitching at Josh. Some laughs. She walked to the recliner and sat, putting her hands where his would have rested.
Nothing but football. The man did love football and he was pissed at the 49ers. No surprise there.
She walked to the small desk in the corner, opened the drawer, and found two checkbooks. She bypassed the one with the scrolled leather cover and went for the simple navy-blue bank cover.
Bingo. She picked it up and immediately saw Josh writing checks, frowning. What was the frown about? She paged through but found no deposit for the ten thousand the police claimed he stole. She held it in her hands and tried to sense any emotion, but nothing came to her. There was no strong memory or vision. A vague sense of worry and stress, but that was everyone paying bills, right?
Val wandered from the living room to the bathroom. She hated to do it, but she snooped, trying to avoid anything that looked like it belonged to Rachel. She spotted Josh’s favorite brand of deodorant. Touched the handle of each toothbrush. His hairbrush.
It was remarkable how superficial her ex-husband was. Or maybe everyone’s hairbrush was accompanied by thoughts of how great they looked. Val didn’t want to know.
She touched a bottle of cologne without thinking, and the flash of memory nearly brought her to her knees.
“I smelled it and thought about you. That’s all.”
“This is expensive stuff.”
“If you don’t want it—”
“I want it.”
Val braced herself on the counter and stared at her own shocked expression in the mirror.
Wow. Okay. Hmm.
Of all the people she’d imagined seeing in Josh’s memories, that one was a complete shock. She’d been expecting to see someone other than Rachel, but she hadn’t been expecting Savannah Anderson.
Josh was sleeping with Americano Asshole’s wife.
“Seriously?” Robin stared at Val back in the minivan.
Val was taking shelter in the third-row seat, which was the darkest. The blinding headache hit her hard ten minutes after she dropped Josh’s cologne bottle. She’d forced herself to pick it up several times, getting a little more of Josh’s memory with each touch.
“Savannah Anderson,” Val said. “I saw her give him the cologne.”
“Did you see… anything else?”
“No. They were somewhere drinking coffee I think. It was the middle of the day. I think it might have been the mall. There