“Just thought I’d bring you up to speed.”
“Yes?”
“First of all, they took the bait. Again.”
“That’s good, right, Reggie?”
“Yes and no. What we’re finding is, there’s not just one hiding place. She could be anywhere. It’s a risk-reduction strategy. Multiple spots. I get the wisdom of it. And like I said before, there’s a chance for a real payoff here. Something I wasn’t expecting at the outset.”
“I want you to come out okay. You deserve it.”
“It just means I may have to come up with another strategy. I can’t hit a dozen locations at once. I’ve got help — I’ve had to bring in a couple of extra guys — but it’s not like I’ve got an army. Instead of us finding a way to get it, maybe we’re going to have to find a way to get them to bring it — and her — to us.”
“You think she’s okay?”
“I’ve got no reason to think otherwise. But we need to move quickly because we’re not the only one looking for her.”
“He can’t have her back. I won’t allow it.”
“I know.”
“You know, I nod off watching TV, but when I actually go to bed, I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking about her. About how we met.”
“It was at a funeral, wasn’t it?”
“We both went to Milford High — this was before they closed it and turned it into offices — but she was a year ahead of me. Couple of years after I graduated, and there was this kid name of Brewster. Clive Brewster. Not that bright, drunk half the time. One night he’s goofing around and — You know that little bridge downtown, past the green, with those turrets at one end and those big stones with people’s names on them?”
“Yeah.”
“He decides to jump in. Water’s not that deep there, but it hardly matters because he does this little spin and whacks his head on one of those stones. That was the end of him. So lots of kids came to the church, and I end up sitting next to her, and she nudges me, whispers that the minister’s got this funny little strand of hair that’s sticking out the side of his head, and every time he moves this hair goes waving along with him, like it’s an antenna. And she starts to get the giggles.”
“Wow.”
“It was kind of like — you remember that Mary Tyler Moore episode where Chuckles the Clown died? He was in a peanut costume at a parade and got crushed by an elephant?”
“Before my time, Unk.”
“She can’t keep it together. Her body’s starting to shake, so I put my arm round her, like I’m consoling her, like she’s crying instead of laughing, and whisper, ‘Follow my lead. Act really upset.’ We’re right at the end of the pew, so I stand and take her with me, my arm still around her, and she’s making these noises that sound like sobs but she’s actually laughing. I get her out of the church, and the door closes, and she explodes with laughter. But I’m worried the people in the church can still hear, so I pull her in close to me, practically smother her, and I can feel her heaving in my arms, and when she slows down and has herself under control, she looks up at me, and I don’t know what happened, but right then, I looked at her and thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and I kissed her. I kissed her, Reggie, right on the mouth.”
“What a story.”
“Yeah. And the second I did it, I thought, Shit, this is wrong, I’m going to get my face slapped, but she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me back. Know what we did then?”
“Tell me.”
“Drove to Mystic, got a motel and stayed there till the next day.”
“You dog, you.”
“I was never happier.”
“I know, Unk.”
“Get her back. Do whatever you have to do.”
Twelve
Terry
I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge for Grace as we headed out of the house. I opened the car door for her, assisting her as though she’d suffered some physical injury. She was on autopilot, going through the motions in a daze. I uncapped the bottle and told her to drink, which she did. I got her buckled in, and by the time I’d gone around the car and settled myself in behind the wheel, she’d drunk a third of the bottle.
“I need to know how you’re feeling,” I said.
She turned her head. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, this is a serious question. Your breathing seems okay. Are you still feeling sick to your stomach?”
“I guess not.”
“You dizzy?”
“I just feel... I feel like I’m in a dream.”
“Chest pain?”
“Am I going to have a heart attack?” she asked, alarmed.
“I need to know whether you’re going into shock,” I told her.
Grace blinked a couple of times. “I... I don’t even know what I’d be feeling if I was in shock. Mostly I’m just really scared. And numb. It’s like I’m not feeling anything, like I’m watching all this happen to someone else. It can’t be me.”
I wished. I reached out, touched her knee. “You can do this. Where should we start?”
“I guess the gas station,” she said. “Maybe I can figure it out from there.”
So back we went.
“Mom can’t know about this,” she said. “She can’t be home when they come to arrest me and charge me with murder, like in Law and Order.”
“We’ll find out first what we’re dealing with,” I said. “But whatever happened tonight, it’s probably not going to be the kind of thing we can keep from your mother. Unless this whole thing turns out to be some huge practical joke.”
I didn’t believe we’d get lucky that way.
“I guess, if I end up in jail, she’ll start wondering what happened to me, so she’ll have to know. Or she’ll see me on TV, when they walk the killer past the cameras and put them into the backseat of a police car.”
“Don’t talk that way.”
“That’s what’ll happen. They’ll send me off to one of those juvie places, with other kids who’ve killed people. I’ll probably get stabbed in a shower. I’ll never come out.”
“Grace,” I said, trying to keep my voice level, “let’s get some facts before we go off the deep end. Okay? I need you thinking clearly. You get that?”
“I guess.”
“No, not a guess. Tell me again. What happened just before there was a shot?”
She closed her eyes briefly, trying to put herself back into that house. I had a feeling she’d be having to tell this story many times before this mess was over. To me, to Cynthia.
To the police.
To lawyers.
I had to prod her. “Tell me about when Stuart gave you the gun.”
“Okay, like I said, he dropped it, when he was looking for the keys, and then he told me to hang on to it and I said no.”
“But eventually you took it.”
She nodded. “He was getting really mad at me. So I took it, and tried to keep my finger off the trigger like he said, so I just held on to it by the handle part.”
“The butt.”
“Yeah, I guess. And then I thought I heard something, and then Stuart thought he heard it, too, in the kitchen. I mean, I guess it was the kitchen. It was dark and I’d never been in there before. Stuart wanted to check it out, but I wanted to leave, but he told me to follow him.”
“The gun’s still in your hand.”
“Yeah. I think... I might have moved it to my other hand, and then back again. I’m not sure. It’s all mixed up in my head.”
Up ahead were the lights of the gas station.
“Okay,” I said. “Then what?”
She cocked her head slightly to one side, as if she was remembering details she hadn’t thought about before.
“Someone said, ‘You.’ I remember that.”