Evidence of Life - By Barbara Taylor Sissel Page 0,86
have to know it had been located and where and what it might mean. How could she tell that to Jake? How would she frame in words what seemed unspeakable?
“Mom, listen, I’ll be at Aunt Kate’s in about an hour. Go there, okay? I talked to her. She knows what’s going on.”
“But I want to go where the Jeep is.”
“It’s dark. You’d never find it. Just go to Aunt Kate’s and wait for me.”
Abby agreed reluctantly and Jake started to break their connection, but she stopped him. “We’ll be all right, honey. Okay? No matter what happens, what we find out, we’ll be fine, do you understand?”
“Sure, Mom. You have to believe it, too.” He sounded bright and calm, and Abby knew he wanted to reassure her, to help her hold herself together, hold them together.
He wanted to preserve the very world she would have to dismantle, or so it seemed to her then, and dread coiled like a wire around her heart.
Chapter 21
Kate ran down the front porch steps as Hank pulled to a stop in the driveway.
Abby got out of the car. “Tell me everything Dennis said.”
Kate pulled her into a tight embrace. “It’s not much.”
“Other than the car is light in color.” George came up behind Kate.
“The same as my Jeep,” Abby said, stepping back. She nearly collided with Hank, whom she’d forgotten. He caught her elbow with his good hand, mumbling something that sounded to Abby like, “Take it easy.” There was a silence while Kate and George looked him over, while they registered the hand wrapped in its kitchen towel, then looked questioningly at Abby. The moment was awkward, but she managed the introductions.
“Mama called you,” Abby said to Kate.
Hank shifted his weight. George cleared his throat.
Kate said, “You should have told me. I would have gone with you.”
“He’s not Charles Manson,” Abby said. Kate eyed Hank’s wrapped hand before ushering them inside, into the kitchen, where she had coffee and brandy waiting.
Abby sat at the table, not trusting her legs.
Hank held up his cell phone. “I should call Kim,” he said and stepped outside, pulling the door closed.
Abby wondered how much he would tell his sister, if he would say they’d found Nick’s jacket, if he would tell Kim he’d put his fist through the window. She found her own cell phone. “I should call Louise,” she said.
Kate offered the brandy. “You should probably have a shot of this first.”
Abby shook her head. She couldn’t swallow.
Consuelo answered and explained that Louise was ill, that she had the flu. Abby could hear Louise in the background, asking who it was, then insisting Consuelo give her the phone. Louise did sound terrible, and Abby explained the situation as briefly as possible.
“I’m coming there,” Louise said, and Abby could hear the struggle it was for her to find enough breath to make the words.
“No, you shouldn’t be out of bed,” she said. “Just rest, do what your doctor says. I’ll call as soon as I know anything.”
For once Louise didn’t argue.
“She must be really sick,” Abby told Kate, stowing her phone.
Hank came through the backdoor, rubbing his ear as if it ached.
“Is everything all right?” Abby asked.
“Caitlin’s upset that I won’t be home tonight.”
“Who’s Caitlin?” Kate asked.
“My daughter,” Hank said. He pulled out a chair and sat down.
“What’s going on here, guys?” Kate put a mug in front of Hank.
He stopped her when she’d only half filled it with coffee and reached for the brandy decanter. “Could be one of two things,” he said topping up his cup. “Assuming that car is Abby’s, they’ll either find nobody in it or they’ll find her husband and my wife.”
“What?” Kate’s head jerked comically.
“Her husband and my wife were fucking each other, that’s what.”
Abby set her jaws together and stared into her lap.
“Abby?” Kate sat down by George.
“We found Nick’s jacket, the leather one I gave him last Christmas, at the cabin.”
“How did it get there?” Kate was incredulous. She exchanged a quick glance with George, a glance that struck Abby as furtive and full of alarm.
Her stomach lurched. She said, “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.” Hank drank noisily from his mug, then refilled it with brandy. “Don’t mind her. She’s just having a little trouble facing reality.”
Kate found Abby’s gaze. “Is he trying to say Nick is alive?”
“I’m not trying to say anything. The fact is unless they find the bastard in the car, I’d bet every last nickel I have that he and my wife, and quite possibly that bastard