an adult and as such there’s really not much we can do.”
“Are you kidding me? What the hell kind of help is this, Detective?” She spit out the last word as if it were bitter poison.
“It’s the only type of help we can give you at the moment, Mrs. Bittman. If you find evidence that foul play has been involved, feel free to call us back, but until then, there’s nothing we can do.”
The police wouldn’t help her? They wouldn’t help Isaac, who might be in trouble? She thought that that was what the police were for. Now what was she supposed to do? She pressed her hands against the sides of her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She needed to drown out her thoughts and burn some of the energy she could feel building in all of the little muscles and nerves in her body. She stomped out of the kitchen, down the hall, yanked the vacuum out of the closet, and began to suck up all of the fuzz and specks and particles that peppered the carpets. She finished the floors, fastened the attachments, and began to clean the furniture. Thanks to the noisy machine, which was only mildly successful in muffling her screaming thoughts, she didn’t hear the door open and close. She caught a flash of movement in the backyard, turned off the vacuum, and rushed to the window to investigate. Just as she saw Dominic hop on his swing, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She yelped and spun around to come face to face with Max.
Max cringed. “Whoops. Sorry, Reese. I didn’t intend to startle you.”
“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re not an intruder. Apparently I’d be screwed, then, because the police aren’t any help to anybody.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”
Reese filled him in, concluding by snapping, “And I know I don’t have ‘evidence,’” she made air quotes and adopted a rather mocking tone as she said the word, “but I’d think they could at least try something. What if someone hurt him, Max?” She paused. She stared at Max’s face. His mouth was open and his eyes had grown wide. “What is it?” she asked.
“I totally forgot.” He put his hand to his forehead and rubbed his eyebrows with his thumb and forefinger. “How could I forget about this? Maybe the police are right. Maybe this isn’t foul play.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“What if he’s just with his band, Reese? Have you called any of them yet?”
It took several long seconds before Reese could find her voice to ask, “What on earth are you talking about, Max? Isaac isn’t in a band.”
Max took a few steps back and stuck his hands in his pockets. “You mean you don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“About his band.”
Reese crossed her arms across her chest. “No, I don’t. Can you maybe enlighten me?”
Max filled her in about the people he met after he and Isaac played tennis on Monday. He tried to think of the name of the band. “They called themselves, what was it? It was different. Oh yeah! Your Grandma’s ’Hose. I remember because the name is kinda funny. Your Grandma’s ’Hose, as in pantyhose, but it’s funny because it also sounds like—”
“Max!” Reese shouted. When she saw the stunned look on Max’s face, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Max,” she tried again, “I’m sorry for shouting. I just don’t care about the name of this band that Isaac is supposedly a member of.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Isaac isn’t musical. He’s not in a band. Wouldn’t you think I would know it if my husband was a trumpet player in a band?” She could hear the stress in her voice, but at the moment she had no ability to control it. “None of this makes any sense. None of it!” She threw her arms up in frustration as she began to pace. “He’s been fired. He’s gone. He’s supposedly in some band. All weekend he acted more strangely than usual.” She stopped pacing and spun to face Max. She knew that he didn’t know the answer, but still, she beseeched anyway, “What’s going on?”
“Maybe—”
Reese talked over him. “I don’t understand this at all. He was so mad at Gretchen for leaving. And despite his weirdness that night, afterward he was so very loving, and so desperate for our love, too. He said that he wanted us to be together for always and forever. Those were his exact words, Max. The last thing he wanted was for something to happen to us like it did to you, yet two days later he disappeared!” Her voice wavered, and she couldn’t continue. She looked imploringly at Max, as if she could make him wave a magic wand and fix this for her. What she saw was a friend struggling for control. He shifted not quite imperceptibly on his feet. He bit his lower lip, and tears filled his eyes. Almost in slow motion, her hands came to her face and covered her mouth lightly. Words edged past them. “I am so, so sorry.”
She watched Max’s Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed hard. She saw him blink rapidly and shake his head. Finally, he spoke. “You don’t ever need to apologize.” He paused and took a ragged breath. “This whole situation just plain sucks.” When he pressed his hands hard into his eyes and choked on a sob, Reese rushed to him. They clung tightly to each other and, each supported by the other, gave in to every strong emotion that had been building for four long days.
The four long days turned into more. She felt as though she were far out on a stormy ocean, lying face down on a splintered, water-logged raft, gulping and choking on wave after wave of water crashing over her and Dominic. When Max was around, though, he was her mast. He couldn’t calm the storm for any of them, but at least he gave her something to cling to and stay upright. However, when he offered to take more time off work, Reese insisted that he go back on Monday. She was eager to fall back into her daily routine with Dominic and now Elise. They all needed routine, Max included. Yet sticking to routines meant that life marched on relentlessly. Although she managed to act normal and cheerful with Dominic, the storm continued to rage on deep inside of her. She felt chaotic and sick and angry and devastated and worried on the inside. Every single night she left a light on in the den so Isaac could see it from the street and be greeted by its warm glow when he walked through the front door. Every single morning when she switched it off, the click echoed painfully in the empty room.
On Thursday, she was outside in the front yard, playing hopscotch with Dominic while Elise cheered them on from her stroller. Dominic tossed his rock, and it landed on the nine. Nine. Reese mused that it had been nine days since she had last seen her husband. She wanted to snatch up the rock, draw a zero on the hopscotch board, and glue the rock to it for zero days since she last saw him. As she was lost in this thought, she heard tires crunching on pebble-dusted pavement, signaling an approaching vehicle. She ignored it until she realized that it was pulling into her driveway. Isaac! Her stomach lurched and her heart beat wildly. She spun around to face the driveway, but instantly froze. Her heart, continuing its frenzied pounding but now doing so for another reason altogether, dropped into the pit of her stomach when she saw that the vehicle was a police car. The world around her seemed to stop; even the birds had stopped their chirping, squawking, and flapping. Everything was freeze-framed, other than the laborious, mechanical motion of two police officers extracting themselves from their patrol car and beginning to close in on her. With sweaty hands, she rubbed her eyes to clear her vision. These men looked like zombies shuffling stiffly and crookedly toward her, but a part of her mind was still rational and knew they were walking to her like human beings. Dominic’s enthusiastic peal of delight broke her out of her stupefied trance.
“Mommy, look! Police officers!”
“Um, yes, sweetie. I see them.”
The
