The Way You Look Tonight by Carlene Thompson

waist. Joe looked at her with a mixture of curiosity and surprise in his gray eyes, and she realized he’d never seen it down before. She gazed back at him defiantly. ‘I know I look awful,’ she snapped.
    â€˜You don’t look awful, you just look so different,’ he answered easily. ‘I didn’t know how long your hair was.’
    Embarrassed by her flare of defensiveness, Deborah murmured, ‘It has gotten pretty long. I guess I’m due for a cut.’
    Joe shook his head. ‘When I was growing up, our housekeeper on the ranch, Ramona, sometimes let her hair hang free. It was just as black and just as long as yours. I always liked it.’
    â€˜I didn’t know you lived on a ranch,’ Deborah said, suddenly self-conscious at the oblique compliment.
    â€˜Yeah. Three hundred acres down near the Mexican border. We raised horses and cotton.’
    â€˜Do you miss it?’
    â€˜Sometimes.’ No, all the time, Deborah thought, judging by the tone of Joe’s voice. But he quickly got up to pour another cup of coffee and the subject was dropped.
    At eight o’clock Evan arrived, looking as if he hadn’t slept all night. His eyes were slightly sunken, his skin not as golden-brown as usual. He dropped his coat on a kitchen chair, took a cup of coffee from Barbara, and looked at Deborah gravely. ‘Kids upstairs?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yes. They’re getting ready for kindergarten. Joe said he’d take them this morning.’
    â€˜Then they can’t hear us.’
    Deborah’s spine stiffened. ‘No. What’s happened?’
    â€˜The state police found Steve’s car about five o’clock this morning. It was parked near Yeager Airport.’ He hesitated. ‘There’s blood inside.’
    Barbara gasped and Deborah’s heart began a slow, steady thudding. Her vision darkened, then cleared. ‘Blood?’
    Evan nodded. ‘Not a lot. Just a streak on the back seat.’
    â€˜Oh, God.’
    â€˜Take it easy. Be calm and think. Do you know Steve’s blood type?’
    â€˜B positive. I know because I lost a lot of blood when the twins were born. Steve wanted to be my donor – he always had this fear of AIDS being transmitted by transfusions in spite of all the screening they do these days – but we had different blood types. I’m AB positive. That’s the rarest type. We weren’t compatible.’
    Deborah ran out of words and breath at the same time. Suddenly air flooded painfully back into her lungs and she gulped, then knocked over her coffee. Barbara was beside her, wiping up coffee with a paper towel and crooning softly to her, as if she were a child. ‘Deb, it’s okay. Just take it easy, honey. This doesn’t mean anything.’
    â€˜Doesn’t mean anything?’ Deborah cried, ignoring her reddening hand and the hot coffee dripping down on to her white terry-cloth robe. ‘My husband has been missing for almost twenty-four hours, his car turns up abandoned with blood on the seat, and it doesn’t mean anything?’
    Joe’s face had taken on a stony look, the gray eyes more narrow than usual although his voice sounded steady and offhand as opposed to Evan’s, who was barely able to mask his intensity. ‘How close to the airport was the car?’ he asked Evan.
    â€˜Half a mile.’
    â€˜Was there any damage to it?’
    â€˜Not a scratch.’
    â€˜And they’re checking flights?’
    â€˜Sure. Nothing so far.’
    â€˜Checking flights !’ Deborah exclaimed. ‘What do they think? My husband left the car a half-mile from the airport, smeared blood on the back seat, then took a flight ?’
    Evan looked distressed. ‘Deborah, checking departing flights is—’
    â€˜Standard procedure. I know. But none of his clothes except what he was wearing is missing.’
    â€˜But the money is gone from his