Chapter 3 - Mason Was There When Emma Left
Mason had been temporarily removed from campus housing pending the assault review by the time I found him the next afternoon.
He was sitting outside a coffee shop across from campus.
I should not have been there.
We had been told not to contact each other.
I stayed on the public sidewalk.
Ten feet away.
“Don't come closer.”
He looked up.
“Wasn't planning to.”
His lip was swollen.
My cheek matched.
I said:
“Nora Vale.”
Mason's face changed.
Not much.
Enough.
“You know her.”
“Yes.”
“She was on the bus yesterday.”
He shook his head.
“I didn't see her face.”
“You knew the voice.”
“No.”
“You knew what she meant.”
“Yes.”
I stepped closer, then stopped myself.
“What do you know?”
Mason looked toward campus.
“You reported the punch.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
That surprised me.
“You wanted me to?”
“No.”
He looked at his hands.
“I wanted you to hit me back.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because I knew you were coming here to accuse me.”
“So you thought mutual violence would help?”
His jaw tightened.
“No.”
“Then?”
“I was furious.”
At least he didn't dress it up.
“My mother spent a year telling people I knew where Emma was.”
“She still thinks you do.”
“She’s wrong.”
“Then tell me what you know.”
Mason leaned back.
“Emma and I dated.”
“I know.”
“Six months.”
“I know.”
“You know what happened at the end?”
“No.”
“She started disappearing before she disappeared.”
I hated the sentence.
“Meaning?”
Stopped going to club meetings.
Skipped class.
Quit the campus newspaper.
Spent hours at the transport garage with Nora.
“Why?”
“I thought they were sleeping together.”
I stared.
“Nora is what, forty?”
“Forty-five.”
“So?”
“I was twenty-one and stupid.”
Fair enough.
“Were they?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Nora had been helping Emma plan something.”
“What?”
Mason looked at me.
“To leave.”
My chest tightened.
“Campus?”
“Everything.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You don't know my sister.”
He laughed bitterly.
“I knew her better than you did that year.”
I moved before thinking.
Stopped before I did something else stupid.
Mason saw.
“Go ahead.”
“No.”
Something changed in his expression.
I continued.
“Tell me the night she left.”
He rubbed his jaw.
Emma had called him around eleven.
Asked him to meet behind the student center.
She had one duffel.
Laptop.
Coat.
No suitcase.
“She said Nora was taking her to Richmond.”
“Why Richmond?”
“I don't know.”
“You didn't ask?”
“I asked everything.”
“And?”
“She told me if I needed an answer before helping, then I wasn't helping.”
That sounded like Emma.
Exactly enough to hurt.
“What did you do?”
“I told her I was calling her mother.”
My stomach tightened.
“She begged you not to.”
“Yes.”
There.
Your sister begged harder.
The sentence in the transport lane rearranged itself.
Still cruel.
Different.
“What exactly did she say?”
Mason looked away.
“Please don't make me do this with you too.”
My throat tightened.
“Then?”
“I took her backpack.”
I stared.
“You what?”
“I thought if I held it, she'd stop.”
“That's insane.”
“Yes.”
“She tried to get it back?”
“Yes.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
“Did you grab her?”
His silence lasted half a second too long.
“Mason.”
“I caught her arm.”
I felt my anger rise.
He continued:
“She screamed at me to let go.”
“And?”
“I did.”
Not fast enough, probably.
“What happened?”
Nora pulled up in a campus shuttle.
Not the regular route.
An older yellow bus being moved to the maintenance lot.
Emma got on.
Mason stood in front of it.
“Why?”
“I thought if I stopped the bus, she would talk to me.”
“And Nora?”
“Told me to move.”
“Did you?”
“Eventually.”
“Then Emma left.”
“Yes.”
“Did you call my mother?”
“No.”
“Police?”
“Not that night.”
“Why?”
Mason looked at me.
“Because Emma made me promise one hour.”
“One hour for what?”
“To let her get somewhere nobody could follow.”
My skin went cold.
“Then?”
“At twelve-thirty I called her.”
“No answer.”
“One?”
“Seven.”
“Then what?”
“I called Nora.”
“No answer.”
“At two?”
Mason frowned.
“No.”
“You didn't know Emma called Mom at 2:14.”
His face changed.
“No.”
That was genuine.
“What did you think happened after the bus?”
Mason looked toward the road.
“I thought Nora took her somewhere.”
“Did Emma want to go?”
“Yes.”
He said it with difficulty.
“Then why did you tell campus security Nora took her?”
Mason went still.
There.
A second lie.
He looked at me.
“Because by morning I was scared.”
“And?”
“Because telling them I had watched Emma leave by choice made me look like I had helped.”
“Had you?”
He looked down.
“Halfway.”
That was Mason's half.
Not where Emma went.
Not why she called home.
Just the last person on campus who tried to stop her, then spent twenty months making himself look less involved than he was.
Before I left, he said:
“Rachel.”
I turned.
“If Nora is back, ask her why Emma had already withdrawn from school before that night.”
I stared.
“What?”
Mason nodded toward campus.
“She didn't disappear from Halston.”
May you like
He looked at me.
“She had already arranged to leave it.”
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