Already Gone

– 30 –



I step back and look around the room.

“Who?”

Lisa shakes her head. “I’ll walk you out.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I move past her and through the beaded curtain into a small, sunlit kitchen.

Lisa follows.

The room is warm and clean, and there’s no one inside.

“Where are ‘they’?”

“Mr. Reese, stop. You don’t—”

There are two doors at the other end of the kitchen, and I open them both. The first is a pantry filled with cans of food, and the other opens onto a wooden deck and large backyard. There is a thick jumble of trees beyond the grass, and a rusted metal swing set in the corner.

I slam the door and try to leave the kitchen, but Lisa steps in front of me.

“Enough,” she says. “Leave or I call the police.”

“Who’s watching us? What do they want?”

“I can’t. Not here.”

“Why?”

She doesn’t answer, and I push past her.

“Wait.”

I walk back to the living room, then down the hall, opening every door I see, ignoring her.

Lisa pulls at me, but I’m twice her size and I’m not going to be stopped. I’ve come too far, and I’ve got nothing else to lose.

I open a door to a bedroom filled with candles and flowing curtains. There’s a king-size bed against one wall with a shelf full of china dolls above it.

“I told you there’s no one here.”

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know.”

I cross the hall to the last door. This time Lisa manages to get in front of me, blocking the way.

“I’m calling the police.”

“Who are they? Tell me.”

“Not now. I can’t.”

I pull her away from the door.

It’s locked.

I step back to kick it in, then hear a sharp metal click behind my left ear. I turn around, slow, and see Lisa holding a small black gun, pointing it at my head.

Neither of us moves.

“Are you going to shoot me?”

“I don’t want to, but I will.”

“Tell me who they are.”

Lisa steps back, never lowering the gun. “Come on.”

She leads me down the hallway to the living room. I ask her again to tell me what she knows, but she doesn’t answer me. Instead, she motions toward the front door and says, “Out.”

I walk to the door then turn back. “Were you part of it? Did you kill Diane?”

Lisa’s mouth opens, and she looks at me like I slapped her. She shakes her head. “No.”

“Then who did?”

Lisa looks past me to the front door. “Open it,” she says. “Get out.”

I open the door and almost walk out, but something won’t let me.

“What are you doing?”

“There’s nowhere for me to go. I have to know what happened to my wife, and you’re all I’ve got.”

Lisa adjusts her grip on the gun. For a second I think she might shoot me after all, but instead she says, “You shouldn’t have come here. They let you go.”

“Let me go?” I force my voice to stay calm. “What are you talking about?”

Lisa starts to say something else, and then the look on her face changes, grows softer. She lowers the gun. “You really don’t know, do you?”

I laugh. I’m not sure where it comes from, but once I get started, I can’t stop. “I have no idea what I know anymore, no idea.”

I can tell she’s trying to decide if I’m lying or not. Eventually, she makes up her mind. “The Church on the Rock. Do you know how to get there?”

I tell her I don’t.

“You’ll find it. There are signs all over town. I’ll meet you in the parking lot at ten o’clock tonight and tell you what I know, for what it’s worth.”

“Tell me now.”

“Tonight,” she says. “And if you’re not there, I won’t wait for you.”

I nod, silent.

“And don’t come here again.” She waves the gun at the door. “Now out.”

I open the front door and step out onto the porch. I want to keep talking, I want to say something that’ll make her understand, but I don’t know where to start. It doesn’t matter anyway, because once I’m outside, Lisa closes the door behind me.

A second later, I hear the deadbolt slide into place.





I drive back to my hotel in a daze.

I went to see Lisa because I was looking for answers, but all I walked away with were more questions. Was I really being watched? If so, by who? And what did she mean when she said they let me go?

There are too many questions, but the thing that bothers me the most is the photograph of Lisa and her father in the restaurant. The same man who had me identify Diane’s body.

It’s too much of a coincidence, and I can’t shake the idea that Lisa might’ve had something to do with Diane’s death. If whoever is after me could get to Nolan, a police detective, it wouldn’t be hard to get to a small-town psychic and her coroner father.

I wonder if I made a mistake by leaving. What if she doesn’t show up tonight? What if whoever’s watching her comes for her?

A lot could happen between now and ten o’clock.

I can’t focus, and I end up missing my turn. I drive several miles out of town before I realize and have to pull over and double back. On the way I stop for gas at a station on the edge of town. There is a single red star on the sign, old and faded by the sun.

I stand at the pump and watch the numbers roll by. There’s a warm breeze coming from the south, and for the first time since I left Lisa’s house, I feel my thoughts start to slow down, and I begin to see my situation in a clearer light.

When the counter on the pump clicks off, I replace the nozzle and walk inside to pay. On the way, I pass a pay phone next to an ice machine in front of the building. Seeing it reminds me of my promise to Doug.

I try to ignore it, but I can’t.

When I pay for the gas, I get change for the phone.





“Christ, Jake, the police have been here all day.”

“What did you tell them?”

“What could I tell them? I don’t know anything.”

“You know where I am.”

Doug breathes into the phone. “Must’ve slipped my mind when they asked.”

I smile.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to explain this one to Anne,” he says. “Not sure I’d even know how.”

“I understand.” I pause, then add, “You know I didn’t kill anyone, right?”

“Of course you didn’t. The entire thing is ridiculous, but Anne doesn’t see it that way. If I look at it from her side, I don’t blame her.”

“What does that mean?”

“She’s got the university to think about, and this is the wrong kind of press. This kind of thing doesn’t help convince parents to send their kids to the school.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not coming back.”

Doug pauses. “Where will you go?”

I lie and tell him I haven’t decided, but my voice sounds strange, even to me. I think Doug notices, because he doesn’t say anything right away.

When he does speak, he doesn’t press.

He wishes me luck.

“I’ll take it,” I say. “All I can get.”

I hang up the phone and walk back to my car. The sun is starting to set in the west, and the red cliffs reflect the low evening light and burn like embers against the sky.

I stand out there for a long time, watching.