It was just that the house seemed so empty. Everything felt slightly wrong without him there. He should’ve been sitting in front of the television, drinking his after-dinner coffee, watching the news.
Grace delayed leaving for her exercise class as long as she could. Before she went to the gym, she jotted a note and left it on the kitchen counter where Dan would see it when he came in the back door.
Driving into the lot at the YMCA a few minutes late, Grace noticed that Olivia was waiting for her. Her friend seemed positively lighthearted, and Grace wondered if her good mood could be attributed to the news about James or her dinner date with Jack Griffin.
“You’re looking terrific,” Grace commented, as they walked into the building.
Olivia laughed. “I feel terrific.”
“How was your date?”
Olivia didn’t answer right away. “Interesting.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I find Jack Griffin an interesting guy. He’s thoughtful, well-read, has strong opinions. He seems open and honest, and yet there’s a hint of…mystery about him. It’s probably nothing important, but you know how much I hate secrets and deceptions.”
“What kind of mystery?”
“Well, for one thing, he’s friends with Bob Beldon. Apparently they’ve known each other for ten years, but he never once mentioned how they met. It seemed odd, you know?”
Grace wasn’t sure she did, but she let her friend continue talking because it distracted her from worrying about Dan. She was overreacting, she told herself again, but then she had a tendency to do that. Her imagination frequently got the best of her. The girls were never just late, they’d been in a horrible car crash and were lying in a ditch bleeding, calling out for her. That was just how her mind worked. It was probably all the murder mysteries she read.
“You’re certainly quiet,” Olivia remarked.
“Me?” Grace returned, acting surprised.
“Yeah, you. Is something wrong?”
“What could be wrong? I’m fine—great. Excited about Kelly’s news.”
“How’s Dan?”
Olivia always did have a way of homing in on the problem. Grace glanced toward her and sighed.
“It is Dan, isn’t it? Is he in another one of his moods?”
They entered the crowded locker room and Grace found a place on the bench. “No. Actually, his spirits have been good lately. I know we’ve had our ups and downs over the years, but this is a positive time for us both.”
“Stan and I had our own roller-coaster ride.”
This wasn’t encouraging, seeing that her friend had been divorced for nearly fifteen years.
Olivia looked away. “You know what I mean.”
Grace nodded. Olivia might be divorced but, regardless of anything she might say to the contrary, she remained linked to Stan by more than their children. He’d been the love of her life, and the death of their oldest son and the divorce that followed hadn’t changed that. Stan would always be part of Olivia’s life, even while he was married to another woman. Grace understood this. She doubted that Olivia fully recognized the strength of her bond to him.
“What’s up with Dan?” Olivia pressed.
Grace changed into her sweats and running shoes. “He isn’t home from work yet.” Then, before Olivia could chastise her for worrying, she added, “He probably had an appointment and forgot to tell me.”
“He might have said something and it slipped your mind,” Olivia suggested.
“Sure.” Grace had already considered that scenario, but didn’t really believe it. Something was wrong. Her heart told her and her head echoed that certainty, pounding with fear.
Probably because of her pent-up anxiety, Grace had the best workout of her life. By the time class finished, she was so weak she could barely walk back to the change room.
“Call me,” Olivia said as they strolled toward the parking lot. The air was damp and cold, and their breath came out in little puffs of fog. The huge lights in the asphalt lot cast a bluish glow.
“I’m sure Dan’s home by now,” Grace murmured.
“I’m sure he is, too,” Olivia said, but her words rang false.
Grace waited until Olivia was inside her car before she got into her own. As she turned down Rosewood Lane, her heart beat so loudly it sounded like a distant drumbeat in her ear. She felt almost as though she were sitting in a theater and the music preceding a tense moment in the story had begun, growing louder and louder around her.
Other than the porch light, the house was still dark. Dread suffused her whole being. She could hardly breathe.
Where the hell was Dan?
Then it occurred to her that he might be in bed. If he’d had to work overtime or been delayed in traffic, he’d probably arrived home exhausted. In that case, he’d have showered and gone straight to bed.
Only Dan’s truck wasn’t in its usual parking space. Going inside, Grace sat her gym bag in the laundry room, then moved into the darkened living room and slowly lowered herself into her husband’s recliner. The cushion gave, broken down by years of use, and she sank into the comfortable old chair he loved so much. That was when she started to shake.
She waited fifteen minutes, then walked into the kitchen and reached for the phone. Without turning on the light, she dialed Olivia’s number and let it ring until her friend answered.
“Dan isn’t here.”
Olivia didn’t say anything for several tense moments. Then calmly, as though this was an everyday occurrence, she said, “I’ll be right over.”
Seven
Grace sat up all night, her fears out of control. Olivia had stayed up with her until after midnight, when she’d fallen asleep on the sofa out of sheer exhaustion. Grace let her friend sleep. There wasn’t anything Olivia could say that would reassure her. Nothing either one of them could do, for that matter. None of this felt real.
At six-thirty, just as the first light of morning crept toward the horizon, Olivia woke. Bolting upright, she blinked rapidly and looked around.
“Have you heard anything?” she asked, rubbing her face with both hands.
Grace shook her head. She’d brewed a pot of coffee, more for something to do than any desire for caffeine.
“I think it’s time I called Troy Davis,” Olivia said in that no-nonsense way of hers. “It’s been almost twenty-four hours, hasn’t it?”
Grace nodded, and automatically poured them each a cup of coffee. She stood in the kitchen, sipping hers, while Olivia made the call to the local
