The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - By Joshilyn Jackson Page 0,90
said, “I believe the universe, everything that exists, is made out of thousands of billions of infinitesimally small rubber bands. The bands vibrate in a variety of ways, and those vibrations create matter and every kind of energy.”
She turned over again, bracing herself up on his chest and peering down in the dim light, trying to read his face. “Seriously?”
“Yes. That’s the nutshell version of string theory,” he said. “You believe me? You think I’m crazy?”
“Little bit,” she said. She dropped her face down onto his chest. “But no more than before. So now what?”
“Now, please God, you go get Thalia a rental car,” he said. “Then it sounds like we need to take Shelby and Bet down to talk to Detective Moreno.”
“Yes,” she said, relieved. “But I meant bigger than that. What happens after today and tomorrow? What happens next?”
“For the rest of our lives, that kinda thing?” David said.
Laurel nodded.
“I don’t know. We go on, step by step. We get through today, talking to Moreno, going to Molly’s viewing. Next week, when you take Bet home, I go with you. To DeLop.”
“Mother will have a cat,” Laurel said, and realized she was done caring about that. Mother could have twenty cats. “Good, then.”
“Right now the important thing to focus on is the part where you take Thalia to get a rental car.”
“All right, already,” Laurel said. “There’s a load of whites in the dryer back there, and some of your jeans are hanging up by the ironing board.”
David kissed her and said, “Let’s get this day started. It’s going to be an ugly one, but on the bright side, we’re already halfway through it. I’m going to take a shower down here real quick, okay?”
He got up and walked naked back toward the laundry room and the little bathroom. Laurel dressed as she went back up the stairs, picking up her panties from the bottom step and pulling her bra down off the banister a few steps up from that. She found her jeans in a heap near the top step and pulled them on. Her shirt had caught on the doorknob and was hanging by a single strap, waiting for her.
In the keeping room, Thalia’s bags were lined up in a row by the stairs. Laurel found Thalia back in her workroom, behind the kitchen, walking around the worktable to look from every angle at the bride in Laurel’s quilt. Laurel had forgotten that she’d left it out.
“You ready?” she said.
Thalia started. “I didn’t hear you,” she said. “God, Laurel, this is really good.”
Laurel blinked, surprised, and then said, “You’re kidding, right? Because Mother liked this one, too.”
“Really?” said Thalia, with that long-drawn skeptical E stretching out in the middle.
“Mm,” Thalia said. “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen you do.” She reached out with one finger and traced the place where the bride’s mouth should be. “Is it you?”
“I don’t think so,” said Laurel. “Not anymore.”
They stood quietly together for a moment, feeling the end of something long and living pass between them.
Thalia said, “Shelby’s still bagged out. Teenagers, eh? Do you mind if I go poke my head in and say bye to her?”
“She’ll be heartbroken if you don’t, and she needs to get up anyway.”
Thalia nodded. It seemed like she had something else to say. Whatever it was, Thalia, for a wonder, let it pass. She went on upstairs.
Laurel waited by Thalia’s bags. A minute passed, and then another. She didn’t hear Thalia talking, or Shelby’s wailing protest at her aunt’s abrupt departure, and she felt unease run up her spine on little mouse feet.
Then Thalia called, “Laurel? Shelby’s not here.”
Something in Thalia’s tone set Laurel’s heart pounding. She took the stairs two at a time. “She slept in Bet’s room,” she called back as she climbed.
Thalia appeared at the top of the stairs. “I mean, she’s no place up here.”
Laurel pushed past, going straight to the little guest room.
“Maybe they went out in the yard? The park?” Thalia said.
“I don’t think so,” Laurel said.
The nice clothes Laurel had bought Bet had been stripped from the shelves, and Bet’s Hefty bag was gone from the spot beside the bed. Laurel ran across the hall to Shelby’s room, Thalia following. Shel’s closet was open, and on the top shelf was a blank space where her black-and-silver overnight bag usually sat.
Shelby was gone.
CHAPTER 16
Thalia navigated Victorianna’s streets, fast and precise, as if she were on