In Sickness and in Death - By Lisa Bork Page 0,22

Was he keeping her against her will? I couldn’t sit idly by and wait to find out, not when she’d called me in distress.

I glanced at Danny, who tried to avert his eyes back to his book before I caught him watching me. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah.”

“How about pizza?”

“Okay.”

“Get your coat and shoes. We’re going out.”

____

I pulled the Lexus into the parking lot of The Lincoln House, the restaurant and bar where Erica worked. Erica’s car sat in the far corner of the lot. My heart rejoiced. Could she have shown up for work?

Danny studied the picture of Abraham Lincoln in the lobby of the log cabin restaurant while I scanned the bar. I didn’t see Erica, but the place was full.

The hostess seated us near the fieldstone fireplace. When the waitress arrived, I ordered sodas and sent Danny to get his pizza from the salad bar. I hustled into the barroom and caught the bartender’s eye.

“Hey, Jolene. Did you and Ray come in for dinner?” Bernie, the bartender and half-owner, went to high school with us. He was a star on our high school football team, but his renowned brawn had since aged into paunch.

“Ray’s at work. I brought our new foster child, Danny. He’s twelve.”

Bernie swiped a towel over the bar. “I got a twelve-year-old. Jacob. Maybe they’ll be in the same class.”

“That would be nice. Is Erica working tonight?”

He folded the towel in his hands and looked at it. “She’s off tonight. She was here last night.” He didn’t sound too happy about it.

“Her car’s in the parking lot.”

His gaze remained trained on the towel. “I noticed.”

“Do you know if she went home with someone last night?”

He frowned. “Not for sure. She walked out with a new guy.”

“An employee?”

“A customer. He’s been in a couple times this month.”

“Do you know his name?”

“No. He’s quiet. Not really her type.”

“What do you mean?”

He gave his nose a nervous swipe. “Your sister likes excitement. Lately she’s been spoiling for a fight.”

“In what way?”

“She’s irritable. She’s jumpy. She gets mad if things don’t go her way. I had to sit her down the other day and tell her that she needs to sweeten up or she’s outta here.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I thought she was doing well here.”

He brought his gaze to meet mine. “She was, Jolene. She was. I knew her record when I hired her, and I warned her then. She did fine for a while, but the last few months …” He trailed off and avoided my eyes again.

“What about them?”

“To be honest, since you lost your baby, she’s been different.”

I shouldn’t have felt surprised. Erica did shoot a man the day before we surrendered Noelle. Surely that had affected her, whether she admitted to it or not. “Different in what way?”

“It’s like she’s desperate for attention.” He washed a few glasses in the sink under the bar. “I think she misses you.”

“Misses me?”

“Yeah. She talked about you and the baby all the time. Then suddenly she didn’t have anything to talk about anymore. I’d ask her how you were doing and she didn’t know.”

Guilt washed over me. I’d neglected my sister, my surrogate child. Erica needed support, and I hadn’t been there to give it to her. “What does this guy she walked out with look like?”

“Dark hair. Maybe six foot. Okay looking, for a guy.”

“If he comes in again, can you call me?”

Bernie stopped drying the glass in his hand. “What for?”

“I don’t know where Erica is, and she’s been off her medicine. I need to find her and make sure she’s all right.”

“Sure. Sure. If he comes in, I’ll call you. And if Erica comes in, I’ll let you know, too.” He leaned closer. “I gotta tell you, though, if she doesn’t come in for her next shift, she’s through.”

“Fair enough.” If that happened, I would pay Erica’s bills just like always.

After thanking Bernie, I rejoined Danny at the table. He had four slices of pizza stacked on a plate with a side of heavily buttered bread. No vegetables.

I let it go. “I’m going to grab a piece of pizza and some salad. Then we need to go to Erica’s apartment, okay?”

Danny nodded, his cheeks bulging with pizza.

____

Erica lived in the apartment I’d leased when Ray and I separated four years ago. He and I’d been unable to come to terms over his desire to have a baby and my desire to avoid perpetuating my bloodline’s mental health issues. When Noelle fell into our arms

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