“I hope that’s one of your jokes.” Nessa stuck a finger in the drink. It was coated in brown when she pulled it back out. “Harriett! This looks like a rectal exam!” Then she stopped, her face frozen in confusion. Jo later swore she watched the veins in Nessa’s bloodshot eyes fade until they disappeared altogether.
“Yes, but how do you feel?” Harriett asked.
“Good enough not to care what’s in it.” Nessa pinched her nose and chugged the rest. She banged the flute down on the coffee table and sat back with her lips puckered in disgust.
“Just so you know, all of my potions are one hundred percent feces-free,” Harriett informed her.
Nessa’s eyes rolled up toward heaven. “Thank you, Jesus,” she muttered. “I promise I’m going to lead a clean, healthy life from now on.” Then she brought her gaze back down to earth. “So. Y’all ready to tell me what you’ve been doing without me?”
“We may have identified one of the girls you saw on the beach.” Jo took out her phone and pulled up a picture of Amber Welsh’s pale, redheaded daughter “Does she look familiar?”
Nessa glanced up in astonishment. “That’s Mandy Welsh.”
It was Jo’s turn to be surprised. “You know her?”
“No, but my daughters did. They were in the same grade at school. And yeah, she was there at the beach yesterday. How did you find out about her? My girls said the police have everyone convinced that Mandy ran away.”
“They didn’t do a very good job of convincing Mandy’s mother,” Jo said. “I met her last night. She saw a news report about the dead girl and went on a bender. When I found her, she was drunk as a skunk and throwing plants at the police station’s windows. I brought her back here and Harriett sobered her up. She told us her daughter disappeared along Danskammer Beach Road and the cops never bothered to search for her.”
“You met Mandy’s mother? Why didn’t you call me?” Nessa pouted.
“I did, but you didn’t answer. I even drove past your house, and your lights were all out. If I’d known you were in there tying one on, I would have knocked. But I figured you needed your rest. We told Mandy’s mother you’d want to talk to her this evening. She works at the Stop & Shop. We can pick her up right after her shift.”
Nessa wasn’t completely sold on the strategy. “That feels backward to me. Usually you find the body and then talk to the family. What if I’m wrong and it’s not Mandy out there?”
“Do you think there’s a chance of that?” Harriett asked.
“No,” Nessa admitted. “But shouldn’t we wait a few days to talk to the woman? I called Franklin last night and told him I thought Mandy Welsh’s body was out there in the ocean. He promised me he’d have a look.”
“Did he tell you how long it might take to find her?” Jo asked. “It’s a pretty big ocean.”
The previous night, with her common sense clouded by two glasses of wine, Nessa had assumed the police would be out there first thing in the morning. Now she realized just how ridiculous that was.
“If it was your daughter, would you want to wait another day to know?” Jo asked.
If it was one of her babies, Nessa thought, she would have already gone mad with grief and pulled her hair out with worry. Even the notion was too much to bear. She bit her lip to keep it from quivering. Fat tears rolled off her chin and left blotches on her blouse.
“What is it?” Jo asked softly.
“Some evil asshole is going around killing girls, and I’m the one who gets to tell their mamas. What did I do to deserve this?”
“You’re the light that holds back the darkness,” Harriett said. “Women like you have always existed. Without you, the world would be thrown out of balance.”