“Maybe.”

“Or maybe she really did want the role and she was glad when Amanda disappeared,” I said.

He yawned. “Maybe.”

“And then I started thinking about all the people that might be responsible for Amanda’s disappearance.” I was thinking out loud now. Knowing Jake, he’d be snoring in thirty seconds.

“Of course you did.”

I looked at him. “What?”

“Of course you did,” he repeated. He rubbed his eyes. “I wouldn’t expect anything different. So, come on. Lay it on me. Let me hear your suspect list.”

“You’re mocking me.” I studied him. “And you’re also falling asleep.”

“I’m actually not. On either count. I’m offering you an attentive ear.”

I frowned. “It feels like you’re mocking me.”

He found my hand beneath the sheets and folded his fingers into mine. “I’m not mocking you. I know how your mind works. Tell me what you’re thinking. Get it off your chest.” He leaned closer. “I’m listening.”

I scanned his face for any sign of mockery. I didn’t see any.

I looked a little harder.

Nothing.

So I assumed he was being sincere.

And I was ready to unload my thoughts.

“Okay,” I said, putting my free hand behind my head and staring up at the ceiling. “So I’m listening to Madison today. She’s totally hysterical, right? Clearly upset she didn’t get into school and clearly upset at the idea of telling her mother. What’s the one thing that might take her mother’s attention off of her college admission?”

“Pants that don’t reach her boobs?” Jake suggested.

I bit back a smile. “Close, but no. Her daughter starring in her latest production.” I paused, letting it sink in. “That would absolutely occupy Eleanor in a number of ways. Plus, it would be a boon for Madison.”

“How so?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but let’s say she’s serious about appealing her rejection from the school,” I explained. “She could go to them and say ‘Hey, look. I’m starring in another production right now.’ It’s another thing for her to add on to her resume. Maybe she would look like a better candidate.”

Jake thought about that for a moment, then made a face. “Maybe, but it’s not like she hasn’t been in plays before, right? Isn’t she normally the star of all of her mother’s plays? A leading role isn’t a new thing for her.”

“But in her head, if she’s this desperate to get into a drama program, maybe she thinks it might be something that could turn the decision in her favor,” I said to him. I shifted my gaze from the ceiling to look at him. “And maybe that would make her desperate enough to do something about it. Like make sure Amanda disappears.”

“I think that’s a reach,” he answered. “You’re making the assumption that a desperate teenager would kidnap – or do something even worse – to a rival simply to improve her lot in life. Does the Bandersand kid really seem like that kind of psycho?”

I thought about my interactions with Madison, in addition to the things I’d heard about her. “She’s a brat,” I finally said, “but I’m not sure I could call her a psycho at this point.”

“So then your leap is pretty big. And where on the planet would one teenager hide another teenager, especially when the assumed kidnapper lives with the director of the play?” He eyed me. “Sorry. Planet is too big. Where in Moose River would a teenager hide another teenager?”

“Our coal chute…”

He chuckled. “That was a dead body, not a live, breathing person. And we’ve sealed up the access point.”

“Bet there are other houses with easily accessible coal chutes.”

“Bet there aren’t.” He squeezed my hand. “Regardless of where someone might want to hide a person they’ve kidnapped, I’m just saying – I don’t think it’s that easy. Especially for a teenage girl no bigger than Emily.”

He had a good point. I wasn’t sure how reasonable it was to think that Madison Bandersand would somehow be able to kidnap Amanda Pendleton and then hide her without her mother’s knowledge. That would take a lot of planning. And probably some help.

“Who else might benefit?” Jake asked. “From a missing Amanda?”

I ran through my list of suspects. “The next person that comes to mind is Eleanor,” I said.

“Her mother?” His tone was one of disbelief.

“Yeah, just listen,” I said quickly. “I’ve got two scenarios.” I paused. “Maybe three.”

“Uh, okay.”

I rolled onto my side. “One. Maybe she knows Madison had a decent chance at getting into drama school. Maybe she knows she’s on the bubble – you know, on the line for being accepted or rejected.”

“And how would she know all this? Does she have a crystal ball?”

“Shut up,” I said. “She would know because she knows people at the school. Connections and stuff. And maybe Eleanor thinks that another starring role might push her kid onto the right side of the admission line – maybe someone at the school even told her that. So she realizes she’s made a mistake casting Amanda and decides she has to get her daughter into the starring role.”

Jake’s face scrunched up, like he’d bit into something sour. “I guess that’s possible, but it doesn’t feel realistic to me.”

“Fine,” I said. “Scenario number two. I’ve heard repeatedly now that the theater company is in real financial trouble. Checks are bouncing. Things aren’t good. What better way to drum up publicity than to have your lead actress disappear before the performance? I mean, come on. Everyone in Moose River knows about it. More attention means more curiosity which means more tickets sold. Which might mean money problems solved.”

His face looked less sour as he considered that. “Maybe. Still feels like a reach, but I’d buy that more than I’d buy the whole getting her daughter into drama school possibility.”

“Fine,” I said. “Let me offer you scenario number three.”

He grinned. “You’re so sexy when you get rolling like this.”

“I know,” I said, smiling back at him. “Scenario number three. Madison and Eleanor are in on it together. They both had something to gain and they went ahead and kidnapped Amanda. That would eliminate your concern about how they’d hide her. If they were both in on it, it would be way more doable.”

Jake considered this. “Sometimes, you really scare me,” he said. “The way you convince yourself that all this crazy stuff makes sense.”

I thumped him in the middle of his chest. “Come on! That’s absolutely a reasonable hypothesis.”

“Yeah, but you’re forgetting the most reasonable hypothesis of all.”

“Which is what?”

“Which is that nothing sinister happened to Amanda,” he said, waving a hand in the air. “Nothing that would show up on CSI: Moose River. Nothing evil.”

“We barely have a police department, much less a crime scene unit,” I pointed out. “Fine, smarty-pants. So where is she, then?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But you told me she has a history with this. And she just broke up with her boyfriend. A boyfriend who is now sniffing around our daughter.” His expression darkened at the mention of Andy. “And she’s starring in a play. She had a lot going on. Isn’t it possible that she just took off and is holed up somewhere, wanting a little peace and quiet?”

“Of course it’s possible,” I said. “But why would she just take off?”

“Uh, because she’s a teenager and teenagers rarely use their brains to think. Because teenagers are emotional and irrational. We have two of them. I’m kind of an expert.”

I rolled away from him and exhaled. I hated it when he was right. But he was. His scenario was far simpler and far more likely than anything I’d come up with. Maybe he needed to get his investigator’s license. He could moonlight as a PI.

“Look, I’m not telling you you’re wrong,” he said, rolling into me and wrapping me up in his arms. “I’m just saying that sometimes the simplest answer is the right answer. It isn’t always like it is on television or the movies.”