Evidence of Life - By Barbara Taylor Sissel Page 0,15

anymore why Nick came out here. He and Lindsey spent Friday night in San Antonio for some reason. You don’t know why, do you?”

“I know he made the trip to give you time to yourself. He was always talking about how much you treasured having time to yourself.”

“He told you that?” Tears thickened in Abby’s throat. Time to herself. How could she have ever wished for it?

“Yes. Not that he had to. Anyone with eyes could see—”

“You blame me, is that it? You think it’s my fault Nick came here.”

Louise began an answer, but Abby cut her off. “That’s fine, Louise. You’re free to think whatever you like, but as you have often pointed out to me, your son has a mind of his own. I couldn’t have stopped him if I’d begged.” Unless I’d never been born, Abby thought. Unless I’d never met Nick, never married him. She half expected Louise to say these things.

But Louise was backing down. She said she was sorry. She said, “You and Jake are all I have left.”

But Abby said, “No, we’re going to find them, Louise. You’ll see.” And she wondered when she hung up how Nick’s own mother could have so little faith. If it were Jake, Abby thought, she would never give up searching. She would never stop until she knew exactly what had happened to him.

Chapter 4

Abby and Kate spent a portion of every day searching the area around the ranch, or they chose a section near one of the rural county roads that seemed to meander in every direction. Abby knew it was complete folly, and she hated that she felt compelled to do it, that she couldn’t stop herself. Kate went, too, every time, and when Abby struggled to put into words what it meant to her, Kate hugged her and shushed her and said, “It’s all right,” or “Never mind,” or “You’d do the same for me.”

One day, after searching a shallow gorge, they were coming back to the car—they’d driven Nick’s BMW that day—and they caught Nadine Betts looking inside it.

“I don’t believe it,” Abby said to Kate.

“I do,” Kate answered.

“What are you doing?” Abby shouted, quickening her steps.

The reporter jumped back. “I was just passing by,” she said as if anyone would find that believable. “I saw the car and thought there’d been an accident, that you might need help.”

“Oh, right.” Abby shot Kate a look.

“But now that we’ve met up this way—” the reporter ignored Abby’s sarcasm “—exactly what are you doing out here, Mrs. Bennett?”

“Do you have nothing better to do than to follow me around?” Abby demanded. “Do you think if you spy on me long enough, I’ll do something that’s, what—newsworthy? Incriminating?”

Kate said, “Really, Nadine. You need to find another story. Isn’t it bingo night at the Knights of Columbus? Didn’t I hear that Pratt Street United Methodist Church is having a pancake supper?”

“Very funny,” Nadine said. “What have you heard from your husband, Mrs. Bennett?”

“Leave me and my family alone, and that includes my mother-in-law.” Abby brushed by the reporter and got into the car. Kate did the same.

“Will she ever give up?” Abby looked in the rearview as she drove away. Nadine was still there, standing inside the open door of her car, watching them.

“She just wants a story, a headline. Her ticket to the big leagues, I guess.”

“Maybe.” Abby said, but she thought there was more to it, that Nadine’s interest was more personal, and it scared her.

* * *

On what turned out to be Abby’s last afternoon at Kate’s, Dennis dropped by. Kate saw him and Abby into the living room, and after she had served coffee, she excused herself and left them sitting on opposite ends of her cream-colored leather sectional. Abby was nervous. She didn’t know what to say.

After a moment, Dennis sat forward. His hands were strong, long-fingered and graceful, and he held them in a loose clasp between his knees. He was dressed in jeans and a blue work shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows.

She said, “I’ve never seen you out of uniform.”

“I was ordered to take the day off,” he said.

“My daughter and my husband have been missing nearly a month,” she said.

Dennis’s gaze was intent, gentle. “It’s possible we’ll never find them.”

Abby pressed her lips together, feeling heat gather in the front of her skull.

“It was some thirty-plus inches of rain in two days. We lost nearly all the crossings and a lot of the bridges on most