Харлан Кобен - Run Away

And yet.

Simon shifted gears.

“When did Aaron start getting into drugs?”

The oily smile was back. “Maybe you should ask Enid about that.”

“When did he move away?”

“When did who move away?”

“Who are we talking about? Aaron.”

Another smile. Christ, he was really enjoying this.

“Enid didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Aaron didn’t move away.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Enid has a place. It’s a sort of club.”

“What about it?”

“There’s an apartment off the back,” Wiley said. “Aaron lived there.”

“Until when?”

“I wouldn’t really know. Aaron and I... we were estranged.”

Simon tried to follow this. “So when did he move near Lanford College?”

“What are you talking about?”

“He moved there. I think Aaron was working at a club when he met Paige.”

Wiley actually laughed out loud now. “Who told you that?”

Now Simon felt the chill again.

“You think they met in Lanford?”

“They didn’t?”

“No.”

“Where then?”

“Here.” He nodded at the look of surprise on Simon’s face. “Paige came here.”

“To the inn?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see her?”

“I did.” Now the laugh was gone, the smile falling away. His voice turned grave. “I also saw her... after.”

“After what?”

“After she’d been with Aaron for a few months. The difference, what he did to her...” Wiley Corval stopped, shook his head. “If you did harm my son, I almost can’t blame you. I can only tell you that I’m sorry.”

Bullshit. He wasn’t sorry. This was all an act.

“What did Paige want?” Simon asked. “When she came here.”

“What do you think?”

“I have no idea.”

“She wanted to meet Aaron.”

It made no sense.

Why would Paige, a seemingly happy college freshman, come here looking for a scumbag like Aaron Corval? How would his daughter even know who he was? Had they met earlier? Not according to Wiley Corval. Paige had specifically come to the inn seeking to meet Aaron. Did she come to him to score drugs? That also seemed a long shot. Driving this distance to score drugs — hours from Lanford College — seemed patently ridiculous.

Did Aaron and Paige meet online in some way?

This seemed most likely. They met online, and Paige drove up here to meet in person.

But how? Why? How did their paths cross? Paige didn’t seem like the type for online dating or Tinder or any of that — and even if she was, even if Simon was being naïve about his own daughter, couldn’t she hook up with someone closer to her school?

It made no sense.

Could Wiley be lying about Paige coming to the inn? Could he be trying to muddy the waters and distract from what Enid had told Simon about Aaron’s parentage?

Simon didn’t think so.

Wiley Corval was a sleazebag and untrustworthy and maybe — no, probably — worse. But his words about Paige coming here to meet Aaron had that odd yet unmistakable scent of truth.

Simon drove back to Enid’s club, but she was gone. He hit Yvonne’s speed dial.

Yvonne answered on the first ring. “If there’s a change, I’ll call you.”

“No change at all?”

“None.”

“And the doctors?”

“Nothing new.”

Simon closed his eyes.

“I spent the day making calls,” Yvonne said.

“To whom?”

“Well-connected friends. I wanted to make sure we have the absolute best doctors on this.”

“And?” he asked.

“And we do. Fill me in on your visit to the inn.”

He did. When he finished, Yvonne simply said, “Holy shit.”

“I know.”

“So where do you go next?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Yeah, you are,” Yvonne said.

She knew him too well.

“Something at that college changed Paige,” he said.

“I agree. Simon?”

“Yes.”

“Call me in three hours. I want to know you arrived at Lanford safely.”

That weekend,” Eileen Vaughan told Simon, “Paige borrowed my car.”

They sat in the four-person common room with cathedral ceiling. The dorm’s oversized bay window looked out over a Lanford College quad dripping so green it might as well have been a still-wet painting. Eileen Vaughan had been Paige’s freshman-year roommate. On Paige’s first day of college, when Simon, Ingrid, Sam, and Anya had all brought her to this campus brimming with hope, Eileen Vaughan had been the first to greet them. Eileen was smart and friendly and on the surface, at least, seemed to be the perfect roommate. Simon had taken her phone number, “just in case,” for emergency purposes only, which is why he still had it now.

Simon and Ingrid had left Lanford College that day on such a high. Squinting into the campus sun, they’d held hands as they walked back to the car, even as Sam grumbled about his parents’ “gross PDA” (Public Display of Affection) and Anya scoffed out an “Ugh, can you not?” Back in the car, Simon had reminisced about his own college years, how he’d lived in a four-person suite like the one he was in now — but not like this one. Simon’s had been littered with empty pizza boxes and emptier beer cans, decorated in Early American Pub Crawl, while Eileen Vaughan’s suite looked like something out of an Ikea catalogue, all pale woods and real furniture and freshly-vacuumed throw carpets. There was nothing ironic or college-y on the walls, no decorative bongs or Che posters or heck, posters of any kind, favoring instead handcrafted tapestries with mild Buddhist designs or geometric patterns. The whole effect was less true collegiate and more model showroom, the dorm you use to sway prospective students (and more, their parents) during campus visits.

“Had Paige ever done that before?” Simon asked Eileen.

“Borrowed my car? Never. She told me she didn’t like to drive.”

It was more than that, Simon thought. Paige didn’t know how to drive. Not really. She’d managed to get her license after taking lessons from a driving school in Fort Lee, but because they lived in Manhattan, she never drove.

“You know how Paige was,” Eileen continued, not realizing how the “was” rather than “is” struck him deep in the chest. It was appropriate, of course — Paige was a “was” in terms of this campus and probably Eileen’s life, but as he looked at this lovely, healthy-looking girl — yes, he should call her a woman, but right now he only saw Eileen as a girl, a girl like his daughter — there was a deep, heavy thud in his heart reminding him that his daughter should be there, occupying one of the suite’s four bedrooms with a box spring on the floor and a desk with a gooseneck lamp.

Eileen said, “Even if Paige had to get something at the supermarket or CVS, she’d ask me to drive instead.”

“So you must have been surprised when Paige asked to borrow the car.”

Eileen wore jeans and a dark gray cable-knit sweater with a turtle neck. Her long reddish hair was parted in the middle and hung down behind her shoulders. Her eyes were big and indigo blue and she just reeked of youth and college and possibilities, and it killed him.

Her voice was hesitant. “It did.”

“You seem unsure.”

“Can I ask you something, Mr. Greene?”

He was going to correct her and tell her to call him Simon, but the formality felt somehow right here. She was his daughter’s friend. He was asking about his daughter.

“Of course.”

“Why now?”

“Pardon?”

“This was a long time ago. What happened with Paige... I know I agreed to see you, but this wasn’t really easy for me either.”