touched Ashley on her smooth cheek. “I’m not saying that to worry you, but I want you to be prepared.”
“What should I do?” Ashley clung to her sister’s hand.
“Talk to your husband. You need to comfort one another.” Cooper hesitated and then felt compelled to add, “And pray. For the cops, for the victim’s family, for strength.” She smiled tiredly. “Then rest. That’s all you can do. Call me tomorrow, okay?”
After the sisters embraced again, Cooper stepped into the darkness. The clouds had thinned, allowing for a scattering of lonesome stars in the tar-black sky. Their weak twinkling seemed cold, standoffish.
Light from Ashley’s open garage spilled onto the pebbled driveway in the form of a slanted square. The shadow of a gurney and of the two men lifting their burden into a white van fell upon the light and then, even the shadows were gone.
Within a few hours, the house would grow still, the lights would go off, and the silence would spread out and reclaim its dominion.
4
And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.
1 Kings 3:14 (NIV)
Cooper felt like a zombie the next day at work. After briefly telling Angela what had happened the night before, the office manager quickly restructured the daily schedule, giving Emilio the repair calls and putting Cooper on shredder detail.
Moving through office after office as she emptied document bins stuffed with tight nests of white paper proved to be the perfect occupation for Cooper’s fatigued body and restless mind. She called Ashley during her lunch hour but barely recognized her sister’s voice.
“What a nightmare!” Ashley croaked as though her throat was inflamed. “I had to go to the police station and give a formal statement this morning. Early!” she added indignantly. “It’s not like we got any sleep last night. When we finally did crawl into bed, I told Lincoln that if he had the slightest notion about what was going on, it was his one and only chance to come clean with me.”
“And?”
“He swore that he was as shocked as I was,” Ashley said through a yawn. “I believed him. But we still couldn’t sleep, so we talked about all kinds of stuff, Coop—the way we used to when we were first married. I know this sounds awful, but that poor man in the trunk reunited us.”
Taking a bite out of her Chick-fil-A sandwich, Cooper murmured tiredly, “I’m glad for you.”
“The police tramped all through the house again this morning and those two investigators are at the West End dealership right now. That’s where Miguel worked as the head lot attendant. The poor man,” she repeated. “Now that I know his name I can think of him as a real person and not . . . the body in the car.” She paused. “I can’t stop wondering about him. Has his mama heard about what happened yet? Was he married? Does he have little children waiting for him to come home?” Ashley’s voice cracked on the word “home.”
“I’ve been thinking the same things,” Cooper admitted and pushed her waffle fries away. She no longer had any interest in her lunch. “I feel like I’ve been moving through a fog bank today. I can’t get the image of him out of my mind.” She gazed around the eatery. Although she saw hassled mothers, raucous children begging for ice cream, and a group of old men in wool hats arguing about local politics as they stuffed their pockets with condiment packets, they left no impression on her. Not even the man making balloon animals could displace the sallow, waxen face and the tape-covered mouth of a lot attendant named Miguel.
Ashley sniffed. Cooper could hear her blowing her nose delicately in the background. When she spoke again, she was calm and clear-headed. “Thanks for coming over last night, Coop. I couldn’t have handled it without you. Did you get home okay?”
“Edward had my truck ready to go, as promised.”
“Ah, the mysterious Edward. The dark knight to the rescue,” Ashley attempted levity. “And what does Nathan have to say about his competition?”
Cooper stuffed the remains of her lunch in the trash and tried to ignore the guilt stirring in her stomach. “I haven’t told him yet. All I wanted to do last night was crawl into my warm bed and sleep for days, but I’ll call him later. Maybe I’ll cook him a nice dinner. It depends how tired I