easy to miss if one didn’t understand the significance of the cup itself.
Maura slung the strap of her purse higher on her shoulder and dug back into the mailbox with both hands, checking to see if there was anything that she had missed in the recesses of the metal box. Heart pounding, she opened the front door and deposited her purse, keys, and the pile of mail on the front hall table. She walked swiftly into the kitchen to her computer on the small built-in desk and clicked on the symbol for her e-mail, something she’d rarely done since the accident. She groaned softly as the in-box rapidly filled with all the unanswered messages from well-meaning people, mass e-mails from the kids’ schools, and spam. She had let all of this go for so long. Maura saw it there, delivered in the last hour. “Vet Check-Up Appt” the subject said, so innocuous that Pete or anyone else would most likely leave it unopened. She hesitated for a moment and clicked on the e-mail as the words filled the screen.
“We need to talk about Rascal’s medical condition. Please call the office. Art” was all it said. She read it a second time and closed her eyes, letting her breath out in one thin stream. What an eerie coincidence that she’d just been to Gull’s Bay. Instinctively she reached toward the kitchen cordless phone and then stopped, moving her hand back to the desktop and rooting her feet to the floor. No, she told herself. Six months. She’d given herself at least six months. Although it would take every ounce of her self-command, she owed this to herself and Pete. Maura reread the message one last time, parsing it for clues, before she pressed delete.
11
“So I saw the kid today.” Pete said it casually, crumpling his napkin on the empty dinner plate and sliding it toward the center of the table. Outside the kitchen window, darkness had begun to arrive early and a flock of geese, honking in a sloppy V formation, flew by above the trees. “I went to the Hulburds’ house after work.” He took a pull of his beer bottle and set it down on the table too hard, looking directly at Maura with a neutral expression. There was a speck of gravy on the front of his shirt.
“Yeah? How did it go?” She kept her voice even, relieved that Pete had waited until the kids were finished with dinner and glued to a video in the family room. The dishes and Sarah’s bath could wait.
“Well, I think he was pretty scared. I gotta say, he seems like a good kid, but it was really awkward at first. Uncomfortable for all of us.”
“Tell me about him.” Maura realized she had been holding her breath and exhaled.
“I went over there after work, and they were all kinda sitting there, really stiff, like they’d been waiting for me. They had cheese and crackers, wine, stuff like that. The parents are decent people, nice. Alicia and Ray. Like us, I guess. And get this …” Pete smiled and looked down at his cuticles for a moment. “They have their homeowners’ policy with us, with Corrigan Insurance. Dad wrote their first one years ago, when they bought on Chestnut.” Pete shook his head with incredulity. “Life in a small town, right?”
“Mmmmm, go on,” Maura urged him.
“Well, he said the stuff you’d imagine he’d say, how sorry he was, how this was an accident but he can’t get it out of his head. He met my eyes when he spoke, you know? The kid is in a lot of pain, Maura. He looks … I don’t know exactly, haunted, I guess. I mean this all has obviously taken a toll.” Pete stopped to take a sip of his beer, and Maura sat still for a moment, imagining what it had cost Pete to knock on their door.
“The kid, Alex, is almost eighteen, and he goes to New Trier High School. He’s a swimmer but when he went upstairs after we talked, his parents told me they’re really worried about him. He quit the swim team, and his grades have tanked. He used to hang out with one set of guys who were athletes, and from what his mom can
Maura slung the strap of her purse higher on her shoulder and dug back into the mailbox with both hands, checking to see if there was anything that she had missed in the recesses of the metal box. Heart pounding, she opened the front door and deposited her purse, keys, and the pile of mail on the front hall table. She walked swiftly into the kitchen to her computer on the small built-in desk and clicked on the symbol for her e-mail, something she’d rarely done since the accident. She groaned softly as the in-box rapidly filled with all the unanswered messages from well-meaning people, mass e-mails from the kids’ schools, and spam. She had let all of this go for so long. Maura saw it there, delivered in the last hour. “Vet Check-Up Appt” the subject said, so innocuous that Pete or anyone else would most likely leave it unopened. She hesitated for a moment and clicked on the e-mail as the words filled the screen.
“We need to talk about Rascal’s medical condition. Please call the office. Art” was all it said. She read it a second time and closed her eyes, letting her breath out in one thin stream. What an eerie coincidence that she’d just been to Gull’s Bay. Instinctively she reached toward the kitchen cordless phone and then stopped, moving her hand back to the desktop and rooting her feet to the floor. No, she told herself. Six months. She’d given herself at least six months. Although it would take every ounce of her self-command, she owed this to herself and Pete. Maura reread the message one last time, parsing it for clues, before she pressed delete.
11
“So I saw the kid today.” Pete said it casually, crumpling his napkin on the empty dinner plate and sliding it toward the center of the table. Outside the kitchen window, darkness had begun to arrive early and a flock of geese, honking in a sloppy V formation, flew by above the trees. “I went to the Hulburds’ house after work.” He took a pull of his beer bottle and set it down on the table too hard, looking directly at Maura with a neutral expression. There was a speck of gravy on the front of his shirt.
“Yeah? How did it go?” She kept her voice even, relieved that Pete had waited until the kids were finished with dinner and glued to a video in the family room. The dishes and Sarah’s bath could wait.
“Well, I think he was pretty scared. I gotta say, he seems like a good kid, but it was really awkward at first. Uncomfortable for all of us.”
“Tell me about him.” Maura realized she had been holding her breath and exhaled.
“I went over there after work, and they were all kinda sitting there, really stiff, like they’d been waiting for me. They had cheese and crackers, wine, stuff like that. The parents are decent people, nice. Alicia and Ray. Like us, I guess. And get this …” Pete smiled and looked down at his cuticles for a moment. “They have their homeowners’ policy with us, with Corrigan Insurance. Dad wrote their first one years ago, when they bought on Chestnut.” Pete shook his head with incredulity. “Life in a small town, right?”
“Mmmmm, go on,” Maura urged him.
“Well, he said the stuff you’d imagine he’d say, how sorry he was, how this was an accident but he can’t get it out of his head. He met my eyes when he spoke, you know? The kid is in a lot of pain, Maura. He looks … I don’t know exactly, haunted, I guess. I mean this all has obviously taken a toll.” Pete stopped to take a sip of his beer, and Maura sat still for a moment, imagining what it had cost Pete to knock on their door.
“The kid, Alex, is almost eighteen, and he goes to New Trier High School. He’s a swimmer but when he went upstairs after we talked, his parents told me they’re really worried about him. He quit the swim team, and his grades have tanked. He used to hang out with one set of guys who were athletes, and from what his mom can
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