only noise was from the rain on the roof, the wind against the windows, the distant rumble of thunder. “Daniel!” I called from the bottom of the stairs. Getting no reply again, I took the steps two at a time to the second-floor landing and paced the hall, calling his name.
The rooms were empty.
I went back downstairs for my phone, called his cell, and heard the familiar ringing from somewhere in the house. I pulled the phone from my ear and followed the noise into the kitchen, saw his phone on the edge of the table, beside his wallet and car keys. “Daniel!” I called louder.
I threw open the back door, eyes drilling into the woods. Surely he wouldn’t be out there in this storm. I switched on the back porch light and stood in the rain calling his name. Down the steps, around the side of the house, and no sign of Daniel. I ran to his car, peering in the window, now completely drenched. I saw a few tools in the backseat but nothing too out of the norm. Then I heard a sharp thud, like a hammer, just under the thunder—from the garage. A faint light seemed to be coming from the side window. I shielded my eyes from the rain, walking closer.
The sliding doors to the garage were shut, and Daniel had hung something over the windows. I pounded on the side walk-through door. “Daniel!” I yelled. “Are you in there?”
The noise stopped.
“Go in the house, Nic,” he called through the door.
I pounded more. “Open the fucking door!”
He unlocked the handle, pulled it open. His hands were covered in white chalk, and the floor was fractured and splintered—chunks of concrete off to the side, the earth below it exposed.
“What the hell is this?” I asked, pushing past him into the room. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He closed the door behind me. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m digging.” He ran his hand over his face, the white chalk streaking down with his sweat. “I’m looking.”
“You’re looking . . . for what?” I asked.
“What do you think, Nic?”
For something buried. Something that’s been buried for ten years.
“And you think it’s here? You know this?” I stuck my finger in his chest, but he backed away. “Why do you know that, Daniel? Daniel, look at me!”
“I don’t know, Nic. Not for sure.”
“Really? Because you’re tearing up the goddamn floor. You seem awfully sure of yourself.”
“No, but I already dug up the fucking crawl space and the garden, and this is the only place left I can think of. We were getting ready to lay the floor the day Corinne went missing. But it wasn’t done.”
“You didn’t finish it?”
“No, I didn’t finish it. I assumed it was Tyler and his father, but don’t know for sure who finished it. And isn’t that a little troubling?”
His face was all shadows. I was shaking from the rain, and I wanted to be anywhere but here.
“Now, get out of here,” he said. “Go check on Laura. Tell her I’m working on the house. Tell her not to worry.”
I ran through the rain, back into the house, pacing the downstairs. I dialed Tyler, and he answered on the first ring. “Hey,” he said, “I’m just finishing up here. I’ll be over in a bit, okay?”
“Daniel lost his shit. He’s digging up the garage.”
A pause, and his voice dropped lower. “He’s doing what?”
“He’s digging up the garage, because he doesn’t know who finished the floor ten years ago.” I gripped the phone tighter, waiting for him to provide a safe explanation, an answer that made sense.
Silence.
“Was it you, Tyler? Did you lay the concrete? With your dad?”
“God, that was ten years ago. I don’t really remember.”
“Well, think,” I said. “Was it you?”
I heard him breathing on the other end before he answered. “I really don’t think so, Nic.”
“He’s got a sledgehammer and a shovel, and he’s digging all over the property. He’s lost his mind.”
“Hold on,” he said. “I’m coming.”
* * *
I WAITED THE FORTY-FIVE minutes for Tyler to show up so we could handle Daniel together. I couldn’t go back in there and have a real conversation with him alone—I had no idea how to talk to him about anything. He was paranoid. He was crazed. He had a sledgehammer, and I didn’t know if I believed him about why he was digging up the floor.
I stood on the porch when I heard Tyler’s truck. He pulled something out of