Austin released the door handle and dropped his hand to his side. “Look, Mrs. Portman, I am not the same kid I was back then. My dad had just gotten thrown in jail, and my mom was in a bad state. I hated myself, and I took it out on Vera, and I’m sorry for that. If it makes you feel better, I got kicked out of school and held back. But I always felt terrible for what I did to her. It’s why I went to her personally to apologize. That’s actually when we first started being friends.”

Empathy wormed its way through me. A tiny little burrow.

“I thought you were boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Eventually, yes. But we started off as friends in middle school…and it kind of grew from there.”

“So what happened? I understand you broke up.”

“Yeah, we realized we were better off as friends.”

I knew what that meant. “That’s not what I heard. I heard you were pressuring Vera to have sex and treating her poorly.”

Austin scoffed. “Who told you that? Blythe? That’s not what happened at all. It was a mutually agreeable breakup. We both wanted to end the relationship.”

I doubted that. No hormone-amped teens approached a breakup with such amicability. “Who first had this revelation—you or Vera?”

“Why does it matter? Do you think I’d hurt Vera for breaking up with me?”

“I don’t know. Would you?”

“No! Never. I loved her, but she was also my best friend. I only wanted what was best for her, and I know I wasn’t it. She’s brilliant and beautiful and funny and has money and a future…while I’m just…well, nothing like her. But we were still friends after the breakup. Sure, I was still in love with her, but I had no reason to hurt her.”

All this talk about this tormentor’s love for my daughter made my skin crawl.

“Did Vera ever talk about anything that might give you an idea of where she went?”

“No, I don’t think so. Look, like I told Miss Marin, I wasn’t home the night she dropped Vera off here, so I didn’t see anything. I don’t know why Vera came here, or where she really went.”

My brain was buzzing with too many facts all at once. “Wait. I don’t understand. What do you mean? Did Marin bring Vera here the night she disappeared?”

“Yeah, Miss Marin dropped her off out front, but like I told her, I wasn’t home. I have no idea where Vera went after that.”

“As you’ve said several times,” Cody interjected.

Austin’s attention flashed to Cody, eyes narrowing in on him. “Because it’s the truth.”