The Silent Wife (Will Trent #10) - Karin Slaughter Page 0,124

when she’d realized that Will’s phone was turned off. That it was still off this morning felt devastating. She was desperate to see his pin moving on the map. Her brain told her he was probably still inside the building. He would’ve stopped by the vending machine for a sticky bun before going to Faith’s office. Sara had forgotten to put a Band-Aid on his hand. The damn thing was still bleeding. Too much time had passed for sutures. She should write a script for antibiotics. She should find him right now and—

And what?

Sara was seized by the desire to leave before she did something incredibly stupid. Which, considering what she had done the night before, was a very low bar. She grabbed her purse on the way out of her office. She responded to Amanda’s texts as she walked toward the parking lot.

Going to see Brock in person. Still searching for Humphrey’s contact info. When I get updates, will notify you ASAP.

The first part of the text was easy. Brock had moved to Atlanta when his mother had needed more care than he could give her. He’d sold the family business and used the proceeds to put her in one of the best assisted-living homes in the state. Brock’s work was a twenty-minute drive south from GBI headquarters. Sara caught up with him a couple of times a year for lunch or dinner. He would be eager to help, especially when he found out which cases she was working on.

The Tommi part of the text filled Sara with apprehension. She was still incredibly conflicted about reaching out to the girl.

Girl.

Tommi Humphrey would be thirty years old now, nearly a decade out from the brutal rape that had almost taken her life. Sara wanted to imagine Tommi as healed, possibly married, maybe adopting a child or perhaps, if fate worked in her favor, of being able to give birth to a child on her own.

The prospect of finding out that none of these things was true felt overwhelming. Especially the last piece. Sara’s own rape had robbed her of the ability to carry a child. She did not want to look at Tommi Humphrey and see her own unspeakable loss reflected back at her.

Sara looked up at the sky. Rain was in the forecast, which felt about right. She let out a long breath when she saw Will’s car parked in his usual space beside her own. She touched the hood as she walked by. She climbed behind the wheel of her Porsche Cayenne. Her BMW X5 had been totaled a few months ago. She had bought the Porsche because Will loved Porsches, the same way she had bought a Z4 to piss off Jeffrey.

It seemed Sara’s feminism came to a screeching halt inside of car dealerships.

She pressed the ignition. The engine growled to life. She looked over at Will’s car, then she admonished herself for being so emotional. Will would eventually forgive her. Things would go back to normal. Intellectually, Sara knew this, but she still fought the urge to run back into the building like a forlorn lover.

Or a batshit crazy one.

She dialed her parents’ phone number as she was pulling out of the parking space. Sara instantly visualized her mother cooking in the kitchen, her father reading aloud from the newspaper. The phone on the wall had a cord that had been overstretched from Sara and Tessa pulling it out onto the deck so they could have some privacy.

“I’m not talking to you,” Tessa said by way of a hello. “What do you want?”

Sara felt her eyes threatening to roll. She really hated caller ID. “I was calling Mom. I need to get in touch with Tommi Humphrey.”

“Delilah moved somewhere out of state after Adam died. No idea where Tommi is.”

“Does Mama have Delilah’s number?”

“You’ll have to ask her.”

“That’s what I was trying to—” Sara stopped herself. “Tess, I need a pass. I’m full up with people being mad at me right now.”

“I thought you were perfect,” Tessa quipped. “Who else could possibly be mad at you?”

Unexpectedly, Sara felt tears edge into the corners of her eyes.

Tessa gave a put-upon sigh. “All right, you’ve got your pass. What’s wrong?”

Sara wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Will and I got into a fight.”

“About?”

Sara took a shaky breath. “I mentally cheated with Jeffrey all day, and then when I realized Will knew exactly what I was doing, I made it worse and he walked out on