Rooted in Lies Read online

  He looked over at the patio as he rubbed his hand on his scruffy jaw. Since things looked under control, he decided it was time for a break. Inside, his cousin Steve minded the bar. Nick headed right over and grabbed a seat. The cool breeze from the air conditioning fell over him like a lovely, airy waterfall. Steve grabbed a cold beer out of the fridge and set it in front of him.

  "Why aren't you in Greece?" He asked as he wiped the bar with a towel. "It feels like hell here right now."

  Nick took a long sip of the ice-cold beer. Steve wasn't wrong, it did feel like hell, and he was smackdown in the middle of it. Maybe he should have gone to Greece with his parents after all. He could have been hanging out at the beach instead of melting in Toronto.

  "I could ask you the same thing," Nick said. "Turns out we're both suckers for staying here instead of living it up on some island in Greece."

  "Unlike you, I can't take my work with me," Steve reminded him. "What's your excuse? Are you tired of your mother trying to set you up again?"

  Nick rolled his eyes and rubbed his temples. "I have had enough of my mother's schemes to hook me up with girls she thinks are good for me. I can manage on my own."

  "Ah, but how else are you supposed to find a wife, pretty boy?" Steve grinned at his cousin, silently grateful that he had a girlfriend to keep his parents off his back. The ladies seemed to like his cousin's scruffy good looks and charming smile, even if he was mostly oblivious to it.

  "I don't need a wife," Nick said with a shrug. "After what happened with Nicole, I think I'm going to stay clear of relationships. Plenty of women out there. I can totally go for some casual dating. You know, easy and uncomplicated. Someone who is nice, chilled and doesn't want to run my life."

  "Nicole wasn't really a good match for you, bro," Steve said as he wiped the bar. "But easy and uncomplicated? I don't think that's your style, no matter what you say."

  "You think I like complicated relationships? What am I? A glutton for punishment?"

  "Easy gets boring very fast. You like a challenge. Nicole wasn't a challenge. She attached herself to you as soon as you looked her way. Besides," he pointed out, "hooking up and relationships are different. Choose wisely."

  "When did you become such a relationship guru?" Nick asked. "You get a girlfriend, and all of a sudden, you're giving everyone love advice?"

  "Ah, I said nothing about love," Steve winked at him. "That is all you."

  "Love has nothing to do with this." Nick rolled his eyes and downed the rest of his beer while Steve got busy getting drink orders for the waiters.

  He didn't need a matchmaker, and he definitely wasn't looking for a relationship. The truth was, he was bored. He needed some excitement, or he would die from boredom.

  He was about to call it a night and head out when a "breaking news" banner flashed on the news. He grabbed the remote and turned up the volume on the TV.

  "The remains found on the construction site in the city earlier this summer have been positively identified as those of Sharon Novak. The twenty-nine-year-old woman went missing in late October 1995. Novak mysteriously disappeared, and so did three million dollars from her employer's account. Police can now confirm that the death wasn't accidental, and the deceased's family has been notified. Stay tuned as we follow the investigation."

  A photo of Sharon flashed on the screen. The news anchor encouraged anyone with information about her disappearance to contact the police. Nick turned the volume down as the news moved on to another subject.

  "Wasn't it that the woman who lived next door to you guys?" Steve asked as he came up beside Nick.

  "Yeah, she was Mr. Novak's daughter. She lived there for a while with her kid." He remembered talking to her a few times before she went missing. In his twelve-year-old mind, she was the hottest woman he knew. She was also kind and smiled a lot. "I can't believe she's dead."

  Nick thought of his neighbour, Mr. Novak and how this news must have shocked him. Many theories were going around when Sharon went missing. Most of them didn't paint her in a positive light. Over the years, the Novaks staunchly defended their daughter, refusing to believe she ran away with stolen money. Looks like they might have been right. He made a note to check on his neighbour.

  "I gotta go," he said.

  Nick's mind was suddenly filled with unexpected memories of a dead woman and the old man still living next door to his childhood home. Maybe it wasn't his place to get involved, but he couldn't just sit there and do nothing.

  ***

  The news report stirred a lot of old memories. Across town, someone else was watching the news about Sharon with little enthusiasm. A glass flew across the room and shattered as it hit the wall spilling the amber liquid all over the floor.

  After almost twenty-five years, one would think the story would have gone away, but no. Here she was again, making waves. Sharon Novak.

  Sharon was a nosy busybody who had a habit of sticking her nose where it didn't belong. Always asking questions, hanging out with the wrong people and pushing too many buttons.

  Sharon had many valuable skills, but she wasn't indispensable. She always thought that she was smarter than everyone else and could do whatever she wanted without consequences. If she had only learned to stay out of things, life would have turned out differently.

  Hopefully, her daughter was smart enough not to repeat her mother's mistakes. Otherwise, she'd end up like Sharon.

  Sometimes, no matter how much you tried, the past just wouldn't stay buried.

  Chapter 3

  They flew to Toronto the next day. Between meeting with the police, organizing a memorial service for Sharon and dealing with the fact that she wasn't coming back, reality started to set in.

  It was almost a relief when they finally said goodbye to Sharon. Ava wasn't sure she could take any more grief. They all remembered her in their ways, except for Ava. She had no memories to comfort her. A box with her mother's remains was the closest she would ever get to the woman who gave her life.

  The small ceremony brought a sense of peace but no closure as they had hoped for. Michael and Joan flew back to London right after while Ava stayed with her grandfather in Toronto. They met with Detective Burnett, the man in charge of Sharon's investigation, hoping for answers. As it turned out, he had more questions than answers.

  Stan Novak watched his granddaughter pace in the living room. She was tall and lanky, her dark hair pulled back in a messy braid. Long bangs hung like curtains, swinging gently with every step.

  He wrung his hands in frustration just as Ava jammed hers in the pockets of her jeans.

  "Oh, do sit down, Ava," he said. "I'm getting tired watching you."

  She stopped and whirled around. Stan hooked his reading glasses on the V-neck of his button-up shirt. He was a slender and short man, but he was still full of energy and sharp as ever. He had a mop of silver hair and piercing blue eyes. No matter what life threw at him, Stan always tried to figure things out like they were a puzzle. His seemingly endless patience often annoyed Ava, especially when it came to finding Sharon.

  As a professor of classical studies, Stan was used to dealing with the lives of people who have been dead for centuries. His work was all about rediscovering, learning and understanding the philosophies, history and art of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Studying the surviving artifacts, searching for clues and interpreting the data taught him to be a patient man. Well, that and age. Now that he was retired and in his seventies, he looked at life differently. He didn't have decades left to learn what happened to his daughter, and he wasn't going to waste that time he had.

  "I just don't understand, Grandpa," Ava said in frustration, stopping for a moment. "How can they claim not to know anything? She's been missing for almost twenty-five years. What have they been doing all this time?"

  Stan could understand his granddaughter's frustration as she stood there, annoyed. He shared that feeling and wasn't satisfied with how Sharon's case was handled by the investigators. But he
also knew that things could get cloudy very fast, hampering the search for the truth. Sometimes it was hard to find a middle ground between frustration and patience.

  "You know as well as I do that these things take time," he told her. He, too, pestered the detectives on the case for answers, getting nowhere. "Back in 1995, this was a missing person's case, not a murder investigation. It doesn't excuse the way the investigation was handled, but we can't change the past."

  Ava stood still, considering his words. He could feel the energy bursting from her. It made him dizzy. There was anger there, but he could also see the wheels turning in her head. The missing pieces of a larger puzzle stared at them like giant gaping holes. Just like him, Ava liked puzzles. She needed to solve this puzzle even more than he did.

  "So, basically, they wasted all this time," she said with disgust. "They never bothered getting any evidence because it was easier to believe that she ran away. Meanwhile, she's been here all this time."

  She started pacing again. Stan didn't have insights into what the cops knew and how they went about their investigation. God knows he tried to find, but the freedom of information act requests he submitted over the years got him nowhere.

  Stan still remembered the pain of losing his parents and cherished the memories he had of them. His wife's death devastated him, but he was grateful for the years they spent together. He carried the memories of his daughter in his heart and mind, hoping that one day he would see her again. Now that he knew Sharon wasn't coming back, it felt like his heart was breaking all over again. But he was thankful that there was so much of Sharon in her daughter. In a small way, it lessened his pain.

  As he watched Ava, he wondered what a toll this loss took on her. Living in the shadow of a woman she never got a chance to know. They all became blinded by their own pain that they overlooked hers. Ava was such a quiet child, very unlike Sharon at that age. She was a distraught and hurt little girl that grew up to be an inquisitive and compassionate woman standing before him.

  "Ava," he got up, frustrated by her pacing and motioned for her to come and sit. "The police will be meeting with us soon. They share with us what they know, and hopefully, we'll know more."

  "That's if they even bother to tell us the truth."

  "You know, your mother would be very proud of you."

  "You think?"

  "Absolutely. Listen, I know that as her father, I'm a bit biased," Stan told her. "But she was a good person, no matter what they say. Sharon always believed in doing the right thing. It's how we raised her. Don't forget it."

  Ava nodded. She really wanted to believe that her mother wasn't a thief and a liar. There were so many sides to Sharon, and they changed depending on who you talked to. She hoped to find the one closest to the real woman one day, but she was doubtful it would ever happen.

  "Ava, this is what you do. You help search for missing people," her grandfather reminded her. "Investigate this like you do all your cases. We'll leave the police to do their job, but that doesn't mean we stop investigating ourselves. We have a huge advantage here."

  She smiled at him in that Sharon-like way. "You're right. We know what happened to her. We now have to figure out the who and the why."

  For the first time in a very long time, Stan Novak felt like there was a light to guide him out of this darkness. He wasn't a religious man, but right now, he thanked whoever was out there for the gift that was his granddaughter.

  "You know," he added with a smile. "Your grandmother never stopped believing that Sharon would one day come back. She even kept many of her things in boxes."

  They exchanged knowing looks and sly smiles. It was going to be okay, Stan thought. Together they would find the answers. They would do right by Sharon.

  "So, what are we waiting for?" She flashed him another smile, and they went to work.

  ***

  After a couple of hours of searching, they didn't find anything useful. She left Stan to rest while she focused on interviewing another batch of potential assistants. So far, there wasn't even one single person that she wanted to hire. Granted, her criteria were broad, but Ava assumed Lori would be better at fielding the applications before passing them on to her.

  Ava listened to the woman currently on her screen as she listed her accomplishments and virtues. She already interviewed about twenty people. None of them had what she was looking for. Ava wondered if Lori picked these people on purpose as if she wanted her to take on a more active role in finding someone. She would have to have a little talk with her producer.

  "That's great, Hannah," Ava said without much enthusiasm. "You definitely have an impressive resume."

  Hannah beamed at her and tucked her long, dark hair behind her ears. She leaned forward, ready for anything else Ava threw at her.

  "I really need someone good at research. Like, really good," Ava said. "I need someone who can find information that isn't always easily available. Someone who can figure out how to get it. Do you know what I mean?"

  "Oh, absolutely," Hannah clasped her hands together. "When I was in school, we did a lot of research and managed to find many things others didn't."

  "That's great," Ava could feel a headache brewing. "Let's say I threw some cases at you and asked you to dig deep into them and get me info. How would you go about finding that information?"

  "That's, like, totally easy," Hannah said. "I'd take the cases and sort them by what information is needed, in what order and by priority. Then I would assign them to appropriate interns. Once it was all collected, I'd put it together for you."

  Ava just stared at her.

  "I think you misunderstood," she said slowly. "There is nobody else. No interns. You are the person doing the research. I am looking for an assistant, not someone to delegate to other assistants."

  Hannah's lips formed a surprised "oh," but she didn't have anything else to offer. That was the end of that interview. Next candidate listed true crime as his interests combined with a degree in computer science. He definitely had potential.

  "So, Justin," Ava said. "Tell me why you're interested in this job?"

  "Oh, man. I love true crime," he said enthusiastically. "I've, like, listened to every crime podcast out there. I love The Missing Voices. Plus, I've seen all the murder shows and stuff. I think I'd be really good at finding out who did it."

  "I appreciate the enthusiasm," she told him. "How are your research skills?"

  "Good, I think?" Justin said as if he was asking the question. "Will I be, like, you know, going with you to crime scenes? Seeing autopsies and busting up the bad guys? Oh," he perked up. "Do you work with hackers that break into secret government files?"

  "No, to all of it."

  Ava was tired. How difficult was it to find someone who can look for things, doesn't ask millions of questions and has realistic expectations? So far, most of the applicants she talked to had overactive imaginations and were more interested in playing armchair detectives rather than doing the grunt work.

  Maybe she needed someone older, more mature. But age didn't always guarantee a more qualified candidate, as she found out.

  "Tell me, Larry, why do you want this job?" she asked.

  Larry stared at her with a look that bordered on disgust. He was balding, had thick glasses and an impressive mustache that matched the silver tufts of hair left on his head.

  "I'm writing a thriller," he said as if he was talking to a child. "My agent suggested this gig as a great way to gather research for my book."

  "You want this job so you can gather research for your book?" Ava echoed.

  "Didn't I already say that?" he asked. "I need to know how detailed your notes are on the cases you work on. Will this job give me access to complete police files, autopsy reports and DNA samples?"

  "Ugh…"

  "I'll require access to everything you got. Police contacts would also be good to have, especially if they can provide access to the information I need," he continued as he listed his demands. "Medical profess
ionals and the like would also work. I am especially interested in forensics and autopsies. So if you have those, I'd like to start with that. And," he leaned towards his screen and squinted at it. "To be clear, I don't work on weekends and need Mondays and Fridays off."

  "I'll have to get back to you," Ava said and ended the call.

  This was exhausting. Getting an assistant turned out to be a terrible idea. If having one meant she had to suffer all these people, she might be better off not hiring anyone.

  ***

  Detective Tyler Burnett set down his green kale smoothie on his desk as he looked at his visitor. His short, brown hair was still damp from the shower he took at the gym at the station. He liked to stay fit by doing quick workouts at the station whenever he could before his shift. It helped him think.

  "Thank you for coming in, Ms Reed," he said.

  "Call me, Ava," she said. "What can you tell me about Sharon's investigation, Detective?"

  "Right now, there isn't much that I can tell you," he said. "The information on your mother's case is minimal. It doesn't give me a lot to go on."

  "Giving up already?" she asked with a smirk.

  "I didn't say that," Tyler smiled. "Most of the cases that fall on my desk do so because the investigators were unable to solve them the first time around. Cases with lots of evidence, witnesses and viable suspects are rare and typically not the ones that go cold."

  "So what now?" Ava asked. "Where do you start?"

  Tyler smiled as he took a sip of his smoothie. Growing up, he always knew he wanted to be a cop, but not just any cop. He wanted to work on the old cases that sat on the shelves, waiting to be solved.

  Tyler's grandfather, Benjamin Burnett, was a homicide detective with a long and successful career. He often talked about the cases he couldn't solve. They ate at him and followed him, still unresolved, into retirement. Tyler fondly remembered trying to help his grandfather solve the many puzzles. That was also the reason he made the decision to work the cold ones.