to urge calm and not sounding very effective.
His cell phone rang.
Hauck reached for it, pleased to see Karen’s name on the caller ID.
“So, how the hell was your day?” He exhaled, throwing himself on the couch in front of the TV.
“Ty…” Karen exclaimed. “I just heard. I can’t believe what I just saw on the news down here…”
“See what happens,” he sniffed, “when you bail out on me.”
“Ty, don’t joke about this, please. I just saw you being interviewed. You were there?”
“Jess and I were getting ready to take the boat out one last time. We were waiting in line to pay.”
“Jessie was with you?”
“Don’t worry, Karen, she’s okay. They took her to Greenwich Hospital, just for precautions. She’s back in Brooklyn with Beth now.”
“My God, Ty, that must have been awful! What about you? Are you okay?”
For a moment he thought about telling her. His horror as he turned at the register and saw the red pickup’s window roll down. The feeling of hugging his daughter with everything he had, flashes of orange death all around. Seeing her body lying there, covered with blood.
Instead, he just took in a breath and shut his eyes. “Yeah, I’m doing okay, Karen.”
“I saw that someone was killed,” Karen said. “A lawyer.”
“Not just a lawyer, a United States attorney. Based in Hartford. He lived here in town. We were all just sort of standing at the cooler a minute before picking out drinks.”
“They’re saying revenge?”
“Not on him. Just the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Oh, God, that’s so horrible, Ty.”
“Yeah. The guy’s cell phone started to ring. The body’s just lying there on the floor, eyes wide, whatever he’d been carrying, cans of soda, off to the side…And his phone starts chiming. His wife calling in. It goes into his voice mail. What the hell do you do then, Karen?”
“I don’t know, Ty. I don’t know what you do.”
Hauck paused, lowering the volume on the TV. “You just let it ring; what the hell else is there? You just stand there and suddenly you realize—she’s just wondering where he is, why’s he taking so long. He just went to fill up the fucking car. Like any day…Except her whole world is about to implode on the other end of that line. It’s already imploded—she just doesn’t know it yet.”
“I do know what that feels like, Ty. Having someone walk out the door and never come back.”
“Yeah.” He caught himself. “I know you do, Karen.”
For a moment, they didn’t say anything. Then Karen asked, “Ty, are you alright?”
“Am I alright?” He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “I don’t know if I’m alright. I tried to go after the truck, to get a read on the plates, and when I looked back around I—” He chugged a swallow of beer, cooling the dryness in his throat. “I saw Jess. Curled on the floor, this little mound, not moving, blood…”
“Blood? Whose blood, Ty?”
“His blood. The guy who was killed. He stood right behind her in line. For a second, I just looked at her and I thought…”
“I know what you thought…”
“I was just so relieved and happy when she came to. That the blood wasn’t hers. That it belonged to someone else. That she was okay. You know what I mean?”
“Of course I know what you mean. It’s alright to feel that way.”
“Yeah.” He let his head drop back. “I know it’s alright.”
Tobey jumped up on the couch. Hauck drew the dog to him, bringing his face up to the phone. “I’ve got your little pooch here. He wants to say hello.”
“Hey there, baby…” Karen called, her voice both cheery and forlorn. “Mommy misses you.”
“He’s wondering when you’re coming back. I think he needs to shit on his own lawn. He says he’s looking forward to Thanksgiving…”
There was a pause, which Hauck expected would be followed by Yeah, honey, I am too…But instead he heard only a long, stretched-out silence.
Finally, Karen said, “Listen, we’re gonna have to talk about that, Ty…”
“Talk about what?”
“Not now. It can wait. You’ve got other things…”
“We’re gonna have to talk about what, Karen?” He sat up and brought in his legs off the table.
“About Thanksgiving. I was going to tell you, Ty, just not today…” She cleared her throat. “Listen, I’m not going to be coming back up there. At least not for a while.”
It hit him like a fist to the solar plexus. Air rushing out of him. The feeling, from out of left field, that his heart had just been kicked.
“I just can’t now,” Karen said. “Do you understand? Mel’s not well. He’s not getting better. I asked the kids to come down here on their school breaks. I was gonna have Samantha bring Tobey down for a while…”
“Jesus, Karen…” Hauck took the phone out of the crook in his neck.
He had felt her pulling away, just a bit. Her dad was in the latter stages of Parkinson’s. And deteriorating. That’s why she had gone back home. To be with him and help her mother through. That and maybe to find out who she was after picking up with Hauck so quickly. But the couple of weeks had turned into a month. Now a month had become…At least not for a while.
“You could come down here,” she said. “I just need to be here right now, Ty. You can understand that. They need me. I was with my husband for twenty years, then when everything happened last year with Charlie, and you…I love you, Ty—you know that. I owe my life to you…” She cleared her throat. “But this is where I need to be, honey, until whatever happens does. Not just for them, but for me, too. Don’t be angry with me. I didn’t know it was going to be this way. I told you from the start there were things I couldn’t promise…”
“I’m not angry, Karen. I’m hoping the best for Mel.”
There was a lull, both of them stumbling over what they could say. Karen ultimately broke the silence. “Well, I guess this caps off one helluva day…”
“Did
