The Burying Place

On the highway, from the southeast, she saw the twin beams of headlights. A black Hummer came around the curve. The heavy vehicle slowed sharply and turned into the church parking lot across from Valerie's Mercedes. She felt her heart rate accelerating and, out of nowhere, anger bubbled up and made her fists clench. She didn't know who was in the Hummer, but whoever it was, she wanted to kill them. If they had taken her daughter, she wanted them to pay.

The door opened. A woman climbed down. She wore a winter coat with a fur hood pulled up over her head, cloaking most of her face. She was thin, with legs like drainpipes. Valerie watched her come closer. She stopped in the snow ten feet away and slipped her hood back from her face. Her skin was white, and she had dark, almost purple make-up.

Valerie erupted. 'Where's my baby?'

She launched herself off the steps and threw her body across the short distance between them. Her sudden assault took the woman by surprise, and she didn't have time to move before Valerie collided hard with her chest, tumbling both of them to the ground. The woman landed on her back in the snow, and Valerie climbed on top of her, pummeling her torso with her fists and shouting in her face.

'Tell me! Tell me where she is!'

The woman shoved hard with one hand against Valerie's shoulder and dislodged her, but Valerie climbed back and struck her repeatedly until her tears and the cold got the better of her, and she ran out of strength. The woman grabbed Valerie's fists and held them and then pushed her away again as she rolled out from under her. Both women breathed heavily. Valerie lay on her back like a snow angel, watching the sway of the pine branches above her.

'Who the hell are you?' Valerie asked. 'What have you done with Callie?'

The woman staggered to her feet and braced herself against the railing beside the church steps. 'I don't have her.'

'Who are you?' Valerie repeated.

'I'm Regan Conrad.'

It took Valerie a moment to remember the name. She scrambled to her feet and drew back to throw herself on the woman again, but Regan held up her hands to stop her.

'Wait! Hear me out.'

'What is this about? What are you trying to do to me?'

'I didn't think you'd come if I told you it was me.'

'You're right.'

Regan shrugged. 'I know you hate my guts. That's OK. I spent a lot of time fucking your husband. I could tell you I'm sorry, but I wouldn't mean it, and you wouldn't believe me. So I won't waste your time.'

'What do you want?' Valerie asked.

'To talk.'

'About what?'

'Your husband,' Regan said.

'I have nothing to say to you.'

'Then listen to me.' Regan sat down on the steps. She touched her chest gingerly and twisted her neck. 'You pack a punch for a rich bitch. I figured you for the girly type who wouldn't get her hands dirty.'

'You figured wrong.'

'You didn't call the cops like I said. That was smart.'

'I can call them right now if you'd like.'

Regan didn't look concerned. 'Go for it. I'll just tell them what I was going to tell you. I told you not to call the police because I figured you'd want to hear this for yourself. Then you can decide what to do. You're the only one who knows whether you can live with it.'

'What are you talking about?' Valerie asked. 'You told me you knew what happened to Callie.'

'We both know, don't we?'

'No, I don't. Tell me.'

Regan shook her head. 'You're closing your eyes because you don't want to see it. But everyone else knows. That reporter, Blair Rowe, she knows, but she has to dance around it to keep the lawyers happy. The cops know it, but they can't prove it. And you know it, too. You feel it in your gut. Right?'

'No. You're wrong.'

'Maybe you can't say it out loud. I get it. I'll say it for you. I'm a nurse, and I work with mothers, so believe me, I know how awful this is for you. But Callie is gone. Marcus made her go away. Maybe it was an accident and he had to cover it up, but I don't think so, and you don't think so. We both know what kind of man he is. He's cold to the bone.'

Valerie turned her back on Regan. 'I'm leaving.'

Regan let her get halfway back to her Mercedes before she called after her. 'Run away if you want, but don't you want to know why?'

Valerie stopped. She knew she should get in her car and go. She knew she was being manipulated, but she couldn't resist. She had to know what else Regan was going to say. The evil bitch had put her sharp red fingernail squarely on all of Valerie's doubts and fears. She had echoed the voice in Valerie's head that had been whispering like a drumbeat ever since Callie disappeared. The same whisper, over and over.

Marcus.

She turned around. 'Why?'

Regan got off the steps and marched closer. Valerie stared at her, this woman who was barely younger than she was. A woman with no curves and ragged hair and a face marred by purple make-up and ugly piercings. Valerie tried to imagine what it was her husband could have seen in a woman like this, what could have possessed him to bring her into their bed.

It was as if Regan could read her mind.

'It doesn’t matter whether you're beautiful,' Regan said. 'That's not what it's about, and you know it.'

'What I know is that you were in my hospital room while I was in labor. What I know is that you slept with my husband while my baby was being born.'

'Doesn't that tell you something?' Regan asked.

'It tells me who you are.'

'It should tell you who Marcus is, too. He never cared about Callie. He never wanted her.'

'You're wrong.'

'You think that whore in Vegas is the only girl he confessed to? He told me the same thing. How he wished you would lose the baby. I low he wished she'd never been born. That's the man you're married to, Valerie.'

Valerie yanked her glove off her hand and slapped Regan across the face. The blow raised a spidery welt on the nurse's pale face the color of a strawberry. Regan stumbled backward, but otherwise, she didn't react.

'Don't kill the messenger,' Regan said calmly.

'If you think you're messing with my head, you're wrong.'

But she wasn't wrong. They both knew it. Valerie's face betrayed her. She felt as if a flood were washing away the foundations of her world, and Regan could see her grasping for a lifeline.

'I don't have to tell you why, do I?' Regan asked.

'You're crazy.'

'Come on, Valerie. Isn't it obvious? Don't you know?'

'I don't know a thing,' Valerie snapped. 'I'm not listening to any more of this. Marcus loves Callie.'

Regan laughed. Her teeth were as white as her skin. 'My God, you really don't know. That's hilarious.'

'Go to hell!'

Valerie stormed away, but Regan took two hurried steps and stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder. 'Wait.'

Regan unzipped her parka and extracted a sealed envelope from an inside pocket. Valerie recognized the logo for St Mary's Hospital on the paper. Regan extended the envelope in her outstretched hand, and when Valerie didn't take it, Regan moved closer and nudged the top of the envelope into the waist of Valerie's jeans.

'I can't believe you didn't know,' she whispered in her ear.

She sidled past Valerie, who stood frozen, listening to the sound of the woman's footsteps. Behind her, Valerie heard the door of the Hummer open and close. She still didn't move. She stood there like an ice sculpture while Regan drove away, leaving her alone in front of the church.