To Love and to Perish - By Lisa Bork Page 0,27

think she was entitled to a few dollars from Brennan after enduring all that.

“Where is she now?”

Ray dealt the plates onto our oak table. “It’s been twelve, almost thirteen years. She could be anywhere.”

“You didn’t ask the detective?”

“He didn’t know.”

Hah. Ray had asked, which meant we were sniffing down the right path. Cory and I could never match a hound dog like Ray, but it pleased me to know we were only a few yards behind him.

I gathered silverware from the kitchen drawer and walked around the table, setting each place. Ray followed me with paper napkins and glassware.

I took a deep breath and plunged. “Cory isn’t going to be satisfied unless he can ask a few questions himself. He wants to go to Albany tomorrow, and he asked me to go with him. I agreed to go, if you can get Danny on the bus and home from football practice.” I didn’t say, “Is that okay with you?” because I had promised to go. No need to ask permission—it was more like I was calling for back up. “Let’s keep this between the three of us for now. Catherine and Brennan don’t need to know unless we come up with something.”

Ray got the milk out of the refrigerator and filled our glasses. Even after he returned the gallon to the refrigerator and bellied up to the table, he hadn’t replied.

I spooned rice and stir fry onto everyone’s plate then set a loaf of bread in the center. I guessed we’d be talking more about this later. “Danny, dinner.”

Danny appeared in a flash, dropped into his chair, and started shoveling food into his mouth.

I sat down and watched him. Ray’s gaze was on him, too.

After a few mouthfuls, Danny looked up and caught us staring at him. He glanced back and forth between us. “What? What I’d do?” A few grains of rice fell out of his mouth and onto his plate.

I smiled and shook my head, always amused by his insatiable appetite.

Ray’s massive hand reached out to muss Danny’s hair. “Nothing. Jolene’s going to Albany with Cory tomorrow. I’m going to get you on the bus and pick you up from practice, okay?”

Danny’s eyes lit up. “Great.” He forked another load of rice into his mouth with gusto.

I mouthed “thank you” to Ray.

He picked up his fork. “I just hope Cory knows what he’s risking.”

_____

I kissed Ray and Danny goodbye at six a.m. Both were still in bed, with another half hour of sleep to go before Danny had to get up to be ready for the bus. When I bent over Ray, he slid his hand behind my head and pulled me in tight. “Be careful.”

I inhaled his warm scent and brushed my lips over his neck, pulling back to Eskimo kiss him. “We will.” My tone was light, belying the fear his words struck in me. Ray must think we might be onto something, too.

This early in the morning my breath made clouds in front of me as I jogged down the sidewalk and climbed into Cory’s navy BMW. The radio blasted the news.

“Hey, Cory, did you hear anything from Brennan last night?”

Cory pulled away from the curb and hit the gas. “Nope.”

“Hear any more about him on the news?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

I clicked my seat belt into place and fussed with my beige suit jacket, trying to avoid wrinkling it. “Where are we headed first? To see Elizabeth Potter’s parents?”

“That’s the address I put in the GPS”

Ah, the GPS Ray referred to it as the greatest marital aid known to mankind. Since I used to be the map reader, I tried hard not to take offense.

“What are we going to say to them to explain why we landed on their doorstep?” I glanced around the interior of the car, looking for clues. All I saw was Brennan’s yearbook, but with Cory’s background in theater, he’d been known to write entire scripts and insist I learn my lines before we tried to purchase a car. Although the last time he did, it ended tragically for me. Hopefully this time I would be spared.

“I looked on the high school’s website last night. Brennan’s class is coming up on their twentieth reunion and the alumni news said the class wants volunteers now to start planning the festivities. No one is named yet as chair of the reunion committee or signed on as a volunteer. I thought we could pretend to be involved in the planning, looking for more