Bottled Abyss by Benjamin Kane Ethridge Page B

woman, but that was hardly surprising. She was a fellow parent at the Horrace home childcare where Melody had gone. They had seen each other in passing when picking the kids up, but her son Jacob had only been going to the childcare a couple weeks before the tragedy, and lucky for him, he’d been punished that day and was inside writing sentences rather than playing in the front yard.
    In weeks following the hit and run, Janet vaguely recalled Davis reaching out to help coordinate with the police manhunt, but they’d never taken her up on any of her offers, because whether the criminals were caught didn’t matter at the time. For her, it hurt too much to concentrate on anything except drinking, and for Herman, he dragged himself off to that volunteer job at the plant and working nights at the machine shop. When sadness finally boiled into rage, they did get involved around six weeks after the death. By then, Officer Davis was just another useless cop who couldn’t bring back Melody.
    Perhaps that was unkind, but a grieving heart doesn’t have a natural capacity for kindness. Janet supposed Becca Davis was a decent woman and regretted not being friendlier with her. However, this was another bad time that had brought them together and it was easier to resent her presence than embrace it. Another tragedy. Another cop asking pointless questions. Another road of pain.
    To make matters worse, a house fly kept circling around them, unseen, yet thick with buzzing. Its annoyance went deeper than distraction—it reminded Janet that it didn’t matter if she was sober now, there would still be flies, still be shit, and life would go on this way because good things didn’t happen for any other reason except to make bad ones stick out more prominently. Such a cheery life I lead…
    She took a swat at the fly and Officer Davis and Faye glanced over together.
    “Pesky,” Officer Davis commented and filled out some other items on the back page of her form. She pursed her lips as she scribbled. Janet noticed she had a quite daring shade of red lipstick for an authority figure. It was almost inappropriate. In her quest to find a reason not to like the woman, Janet put a check on her own form, right by low self esteem. Yet, she probably shouldn’t cast stones on that matter.
    And as though reading her mind, Becca Davis lifted her stunning brown eyes and stated with alarming tranquility, “Have you ever been unfaithful to your husband?”
    Faye shook her head like she’d been BB gunned between the eyes. She quickly recovered and went on defense for her Janet. “Hey excuse me, what do—?”
    “Or, do you suspect he’s been unfaithful to you?” Davis added, showing no detour around this line of questioning. “It will help, of course, if we know that there are any third parties involved. I’m sorry if this is painful.”
    What a bitch. Of course she wasn’t sorry.
    “You think Herman ran off with someone?”
    “Is that impossible? After your daughter, things have been rough.”
    “He wouldn’t.”
    “And there’s nobody for you, either?”
    Faye gave her a sidelong look.
    “I love my husband,” said Janet.
    “Okay but—”
    “So no, the answer is no.”
    “Sorry.” Davis scrawled something else down, which Janet could imagine said, Possibly not a jealous boyfriend. “I hate to ask that question, but for Herman’s sake, I can’t afford to tap dance around anything that will get us closer to finding him.”
    “That’s fine,” said Janet.
    “I think this should just about do it.” Davis shuffled all the paperwork and the photos into the manila folder she brought. “I’ll stop by and get this processed before I head home.”
    “Thank you so much for coming in person,” said Faye.
    Yeah, thanks a heap, thought Janet.
    Davis sighed through her nose, troubled about something. The fly buzzed around and she absently waved it off. “There’s another reason why I came today, besides wanting to help.”
    Janet