locked.”
Between sobs, Suzanne said, “But…I need my place .”
“It’s not a good place for you. If you need to cry, you can do it in the house. You’ve been spending too much time out here.” He pulled her to him and started walking, forcing her away from the locked door.
“But I don’t just come out here to cry. I’m not so lonely out here, Daniel. It just melts away. Sometimes…” and the sobs began to shake her again. “…sometimes I don’t feel alone at all. I think she’s here, too. Sometimes…”
“Baby, Annie’s gone. You’ve got to stay in the real world. Stay with me.”
Daniel walked his wife in the house. Or maybe he just walked her body in the house. Joe had the feeling that Suzanne herself stayed behind, wishing she could just go in the garden shed and close the door behind her.
***
People said cigarettes helped them think, but Joe thought that was a load of crap. Joe thought cigarettes were an excuse to let the mind go blank…which made it way easier to ignore the looming specter of lung cancer.
So Joe’s mind had been comfortably blank since he finished his cigarette. The nicotine couldn’t wipe away his worry over Faye, but it had allowed him to think of something else. Then, a couple of puffs later, it allowed him to stop thinking altogether.
He was picking up the root beer can he used as an ash tray, preparing to go inside and face a woman who was mad at him for smoking, when his mind woke up and asked him why Daniel had picked tonight to lock the garden shed. Suzanne seemed to have been going there for a long time, maybe years. The only thing different about today was that two people were missing.
He reached for his phone and dialed the phone in their room, because he knew that Dunkirk Manor’s great concrete bulk rendered Faye’s cell worthless. Quietly, he said, “Faye. Get your detective friend on the phone.”
***
Joe sat on the damp grass and watched the stars wheel overhead. Faye had seriously suggested that she should join him in this vigil.
He didn’t often use a deep, forbidding, manly tone of voice with her—mostly because it didn’t work—but he hadn’t been able to help himself tonight. No, she wasn’t going to torture her overworked body by sitting on the cold ground. No, she wasn’t going to risk herself and his unborn child by sitting outside in the open, waiting for the police to come check this shed for an imprisoned woman, or worse. Just no.
Faye wasn’t completely unreasonable, so she had agreed to his terms. She would call Detective Overstreet. She would then call Joe back and tell him what Overstreet had said. He knew that nothing he could say would keep her from peering out their tiny window, but he knew that it pointed the wrong direction. She’d be looking across the back garden in the direction of the river. The garden shed was on the other side of the house, near the gravel drive to the employee parking lot.
The tiniest edge of panic had entered her voice, and that was so unlike Faye. “Glynis could be in that shed, Joe. We can’t just leave her in there. She could be hurt.”
“You know Overstreet said not to do anything until he gets here, and it’s gonna take him awhile to get a search warrant. I’ll just sit here and watch. If somebody opens the shed door and Glynis is in there, I won’t let them take her away or…hurt her. You know that. But if they don’t, we need to sit tight.”
“Overstreet said he searched the shed this morning and it was empty. Nothing but a dirt floor and yard trash. If she’s in there now, where was she this morning?”
Daniel and Suzanne certainly hadn’t acted like they had anything to hide while the police were searching the house. They’d welcomed them, begging for help finding their friend Glynis.
Joe shifted his weight, so that his legs wouldn’t stiffen. A lifetime of woodcraft had taught him to keep his body useful at all times. “Suzanne and Daniel are going to feel a lot
Between sobs, Suzanne said, “But…I need my place .”
“It’s not a good place for you. If you need to cry, you can do it in the house. You’ve been spending too much time out here.” He pulled her to him and started walking, forcing her away from the locked door.
“But I don’t just come out here to cry. I’m not so lonely out here, Daniel. It just melts away. Sometimes…” and the sobs began to shake her again. “…sometimes I don’t feel alone at all. I think she’s here, too. Sometimes…”
“Baby, Annie’s gone. You’ve got to stay in the real world. Stay with me.”
Daniel walked his wife in the house. Or maybe he just walked her body in the house. Joe had the feeling that Suzanne herself stayed behind, wishing she could just go in the garden shed and close the door behind her.
***
People said cigarettes helped them think, but Joe thought that was a load of crap. Joe thought cigarettes were an excuse to let the mind go blank…which made it way easier to ignore the looming specter of lung cancer.
So Joe’s mind had been comfortably blank since he finished his cigarette. The nicotine couldn’t wipe away his worry over Faye, but it had allowed him to think of something else. Then, a couple of puffs later, it allowed him to stop thinking altogether.
He was picking up the root beer can he used as an ash tray, preparing to go inside and face a woman who was mad at him for smoking, when his mind woke up and asked him why Daniel had picked tonight to lock the garden shed. Suzanne seemed to have been going there for a long time, maybe years. The only thing different about today was that two people were missing.
He reached for his phone and dialed the phone in their room, because he knew that Dunkirk Manor’s great concrete bulk rendered Faye’s cell worthless. Quietly, he said, “Faye. Get your detective friend on the phone.”
***
Joe sat on the damp grass and watched the stars wheel overhead. Faye had seriously suggested that she should join him in this vigil.
He didn’t often use a deep, forbidding, manly tone of voice with her—mostly because it didn’t work—but he hadn’t been able to help himself tonight. No, she wasn’t going to torture her overworked body by sitting on the cold ground. No, she wasn’t going to risk herself and his unborn child by sitting outside in the open, waiting for the police to come check this shed for an imprisoned woman, or worse. Just no.
Faye wasn’t completely unreasonable, so she had agreed to his terms. She would call Detective Overstreet. She would then call Joe back and tell him what Overstreet had said. He knew that nothing he could say would keep her from peering out their tiny window, but he knew that it pointed the wrong direction. She’d be looking across the back garden in the direction of the river. The garden shed was on the other side of the house, near the gravel drive to the employee parking lot.
The tiniest edge of panic had entered her voice, and that was so unlike Faye. “Glynis could be in that shed, Joe. We can’t just leave her in there. She could be hurt.”
“You know Overstreet said not to do anything until he gets here, and it’s gonna take him awhile to get a search warrant. I’ll just sit here and watch. If somebody opens the shed door and Glynis is in there, I won’t let them take her away or…hurt her. You know that. But if they don’t, we need to sit tight.”
“Overstreet said he searched the shed this morning and it was empty. Nothing but a dirt floor and yard trash. If she’s in there now, where was she this morning?”
Daniel and Suzanne certainly hadn’t acted like they had anything to hide while the police were searching the house. They’d welcomed them, begging for help finding their friend Glynis.
Joe shifted his weight, so that his legs wouldn’t stiffen. A lifetime of woodcraft had taught him to keep his body useful at all times. “Suzanne and Daniel are going to feel a lot
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