Dancing in the Dark by Mary Jane Clark Page B

wherever ‘there’ was. He would
come back once in a while to bring me something to eat, but I ate very
little. And each time he came back, he would pull me up and want me to
dance with him.”
    “Dance with him? I don’t understand,” said Diane.
    “There was no music or anything, but I think you’d call it dancing.
He’d pull me up and press his body against me, rocking back and forth,
almost in rhythm with the waves flowing in. We must have been near the
ocean. I could hear it.”
    With every word Leslie spoke, Diane was more certain that the piece
she would be offering on Weekend Evening
Headlines in a few hours would be mesmerizing.
    “It was horrible. So horrible. The only way I could get through it
was thinking of dancing with my boyfriend Shawn.” Leslie’s voice rose
plaintively. “But the worst part is that I don’t think anyone believed
me.”
    “Another young woman is missing, Leslie. Do you think people will
believe you now?”
    “I hope so,” Leslie answered softly as tears welled up in her brown
eyes. “And I feel sorry for her.”

CHAPTER
32
     
    Though Carly Neath’s father said neither he nor his wife would have
anything to say to the press, Matthew thought it was a good idea to go
over to their house anyway. People could easily say no on the phone,
but when actually face-to-face with another human being, they sometimes
changed their minds. Without the intimidation of a camera crew, Matthew
felt he might have a better chance of getting the Neaths to talk with
him.
    He found the house in the middle of the block on Surf Avenue. There
were no shutters or window boxes on the aluminum-sided colonial. Though
it was a bland dwelling now, Matthew suspected that beneath the worn
white siding there were the wooden boards and elaborate moldings of the
original Victorian structure. Someone’s idea of progress had left the
house totally without charm.
    He knocked on the front door, waited, and then knocked again.
Matthew couldn’t be sure if the Neaths were inside or not. He pressed
his cupped hands against the window and tried to see through the glass.
     
    “They’re in there all right.”
    Matthew spun around in the direction of the voice. A very elderly
man stood on the porch of the house next door.
    “I know they’re in there in case that daughter of theirs calls. They
don’t want to miss out if the police call with news, neither.”
    Matthew walked away from Neaths’ front door, sensing that this old
guy, with his bony shoulders and arms sticking out of his sleeveless
undershirt, might be a good source of information. He went next door
and struck up a conversation.
    “So, I guess you know Carly?”
    “Yep. I’ve known her since she was a little kid. Always get-tin’
into everything, that one. It looks like she got into something bad
this time.”
    “Have any theories on what might have happened to her?” Matthew
asked.
    The old man shrugged his shoulders. “I have my suspicions.”
    Matthew waited for the man to continue.
    “You know, it’s tough gettin’ old. You don’t even think about that
now, do you, sonny?”
    “Not much,” Matthew said, noticing the flaking skin at the man’s
temples. There were a couple of teeth missing from the old guy’s bottom
gums, and a vague odor of decay reached Matthew’s nostrils.
    “I didn’t think about it when I was your age either. But it comes
before you know it. And it brings with it all sorts of miserable
things. For me, the worst is not sleepin’. Can’t tell you when the last
time I slept through the night was.”
    “That’s too bad,” said Matthew, wishing the old codger would get to
the point. The man took a seat in the rocking chair on his porch.
    “It was so hot last night. Lord, was it hot. I don’t have
air-conditionin’. Don’t usually need it here, even in the summertime.
And it costs money to run those things, and that’s something I don’t
have enough of.”
    Matthew was growing impatient. He had to keep