Evidence of Life

Chapter 4



Abby and Kate spent a portion of every day searching the area around the ranch, or they chose a section near one of the rural county roads that seemed to meander in every direction. Abby knew it was complete folly, and she hated that she felt compelled to do it, that she couldn’t stop herself. Kate went, too, every time, and when Abby struggled to put into words what it meant to her, Kate hugged her and shushed her and said, “It’s all right,” or “Never mind,” or “You’d do the same for me.”

One day, after searching a shallow gorge, they were coming back to the car—they’d driven Nick’s BMW that day—and they caught Nadine Betts looking inside it.

“I don’t believe it,” Abby said to Kate.

“I do,” Kate answered.

“What are you doing?” Abby shouted, quickening her steps.

The reporter jumped back. “I was just passing by,” she said as if anyone would find that believable. “I saw the car and thought there’d been an accident, that you might need help.”

“Oh, right.” Abby shot Kate a look.

“But now that we’ve met up this way—” the reporter ignored Abby’s sarcasm “—exactly what are you doing out here, Mrs. Bennett?”

“Do you have nothing better to do than to follow me around?” Abby demanded. “Do you think if you spy on me long enough, I’ll do something that’s, what—newsworthy? Incriminating?”

Kate said, “Really, Nadine. You need to find another story. Isn’t it bingo night at the Knights of Columbus? Didn’t I hear that Pratt Street United Methodist Church is having a pancake supper?”

“Very funny,” Nadine said. “What have you heard from your husband, Mrs. Bennett?”

“Leave me and my family alone, and that includes my mother-in-law.” Abby brushed by the reporter and got into the car. Kate did the same.

“Will she ever give up?” Abby looked in the rearview as she drove away. Nadine was still there, standing inside the open door of her car, watching them.

“She just wants a story, a headline. Her ticket to the big leagues, I guess.”

“Maybe.” Abby said, but she thought there was more to it, that Nadine’s interest was more personal, and it scared her.

* * *

On what turned out to be Abby’s last afternoon at Kate’s, Dennis dropped by. Kate saw him and Abby into the living room, and after she had served coffee, she excused herself and left them sitting on opposite ends of her cream-colored leather sectional. Abby was nervous. She didn’t know what to say.

After a moment, Dennis sat forward. His hands were strong, long-fingered and graceful, and he held them in a loose clasp between his knees. He was dressed in jeans and a blue work shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows.

She said, “I’ve never seen you out of uniform.”

“I was ordered to take the day off,” he said.

“My daughter and my husband have been missing nearly a month,” she said.

Dennis’s gaze was intent, gentle. “It’s possible we’ll never find them.”

Abby pressed her lips together, feeling heat gather in the front of her skull.

“It was some thirty-plus inches of rain in two days. We lost nearly all the crossings and a lot of the bridges on most of the major roads. There’s a lot of wild country, a lot of canyons and gorges. There were rock slides, places where the entire cliff face came down. We’ve got secondary roads buried under rubble or torn up by the water from one end of a three-county area to the other. Every river flowed out of its banks, and when you get that kind of water raging that way, it gets a hold on things—cars, houses, trees, what-have-you—and it takes them wherever it wants.”

Dennis spoke of the water as if it were conscious, as if it had mind and will, a brain. “There’s a lot of ground to cover, miles and miles crisscrossed by rivers and streams and creeks, and frankly, there’s just a whole lot of it that’s not accessible at all, not even on a good day.”

Abby studied the pattern of veins on the backs of Dennis’s hands, the cording of blue that traced the pale flesh inside one wrist and disappeared into the crook of an elbow, a sprinkling of freckles on his forearms. She looked at his kind face, his hazel eyes. The delicate netting of lines at the corners suggested exposure to sun and laughter. He didn’t like having to tell her these things, having to prepare her for the worst. He hadn’t liked questioning her in the first hours after her arrival here. She was sorry for him.

He pushed his untouched mug of coffee a little farther toward the center of the coffee table and continued. “Let’s say they were on Highway 46 like the attendant at the Shell station said, but they got off for some reason, took one of the ranch roads, by accident maybe, and we don’t know that, but if they did, then— Well, there’s no telling. Now there are still crews out, clearing and repairing, and so forth. They’ll be at it for weeks so it’s possible they could come across something, you know?”

She nodded.

“I just don’t want to give you false hope.”

She thought of saying she would settle for any kind of hope, false or otherwise.

He shifted his elbows off his knees and straightened, looking uncomfortable, and as if he could read her anxiety, he spoke quickly. “It’s like I’ve said before, it would be really helpful if I knew what your husband had in mind coming out here, or where he was headed after he left Boerne, assuming that was your Cherokee the kid saw leaving the gas station.”

It would be helpful if you knew? The retort rose like acid. It brought Abby to her feet. She went to the wall of glass and looked out, seeking relief in the view. The scene was as still, as quiet and lovely as a painting. Even the water was undisturbed by all but the faintest tracing of ripples. It was impossible to imagine that it had ever flung itself over its banks and run amok across ground that wasn’t its own. Nature was so full of cruel tricks.

She wondered how she could take on the mystery that the water had left behind, the one Dennis seemed to think she should be able to resolve. He kept asking her questions, all manner of questions, to which she had no answers. What must he think of a wife who didn’t know her husband’s destination, a mother who would let her daughter leave home without knowing exactly where her father was taking her? You can make a lot of mistakes in your life trying to figure out what matters. Nick’s line to Jake passed through Abby’s mind. What mistakes?

She turned to face Dennis. “We’ve been over this a dozen times.”

“I know, but it’s always possible you’ll remember something new. So, you mentioned that you and your husband had talked of retiring out here. Could he have been looking at land?”

“No. We couldn’t possibly afford to buy property right now.” Abby thrust up her hands. “We have two children, one in college, another one on her way there. There’s the mortgage, car payments. Nick just bought a new BMW. He’s crazy about cars, so is my son.”

“He was worried about finances, then.”

“I’ve told you, not more than the average husband and father.” Exasperated, Abby crossed her arms. “Did you talk to Joe Drexler, Nick’s law partner? Did he tell you how unfounded those allegations are about the settlement money?”

“He confirmed what you said. Helix Belle’s legal team is trying to muddy the water, which is what I figured. It’s just—” Dennis stopped as if to consider.

“Just what?” Abby prompted.

Dennis met her glance. “Can you think of anyone who might have had a reason to follow your husband? Maybe an associate or one of your husband’s clients? Someone who could have had a grudge or just wanted to talk with him? Outside the office, so to speak.”

“Why are you asking me that? The firm does mostly civil litigation. Even Nick would say it’s boring, not that it doesn’t get stressful at times. Some clients can be very—” Abby broke off, looking at the tag end of a memory...a discussion from a few weeks ago, a heated discussion she’d had with Nick about his hours. He’d brought up a client then, a woman who was being difficult about some real-estate matter Nick hadn’t adequately represented her interests in or something. Abby hadn’t listened really. She frowned now, hunting in her mind for a place where Nick might have mentioned the woman again, not finding it. Why hadn’t she paid closer attention? It seemed as if she’d let so many things, little telling details, slip by her.

“You remember something?” Dennis asked.

Abby shook her head. Why go into it? She had no facts, not even a name. “Nick’s had his share of difficult clients, but nothing out of the ordinary. He would have told me. We don’t keep secrets from each other.” That I know of...

The words hung unspoken.

* * *

The morning following Dennis’s visit, Abby showered and dressed in her own clothes, the ones she’d arrived in. She stowed her toothbrush and the assorted toiletries and underwear she’d purchased in a grocery sack, then changed the sheets on the guest-room bed. She was folding back the coverlet when Kate appeared in the doorway.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I have to go,” Abby said, gathering the bed linen and the small pile of dirty clothes she’d borrowed from Kate into her arms.

“Go where?” Kate followed Abby through the kitchen into the laundry room.

“Home,” Abby answered.

“You can’t stay by yourself,” George said from where he was sitting in the kitchen having toast and reading the morning newspaper. Abby noticed the headline concerned the cost of the flood damage. Three quarters of a billion dollars so far, it read. Did that figure include the loss of her family, she wondered. Could a dollar amount be put on that?

“It’s too soon,” Kate said. “We want you here, where we can keep an eye on you.”

“I have to go home sometime,” Abby said. “I don’t like leaving Mama on her own for so long, and there are the horses. My neighbor, Charlie Wister, has been looking after them for me, but I can’t expect him to keep feeding them forever.”

George and Kate eyed her worriedly.

“Come on, guys. I’ll be fine.” She made herself smile. “I’m ready. As ready as I’ll ever be.”

It wasn’t true. In fact, she was afraid of going home, of being alone. For the rest of your life? asked a horrified voice in her mind. But there was another voice in her mind, too, a louder one, that kept asking questions, such as what if Nick and Lindsey had amnesia and somehow recovered and went home, and no one was there? What if they didn’t remember her cell number and called the home number and no one answered? What if they were already there and Abby was the one missing?

She was convinced, and rationality had nothing to do with it, that if only she were home everything would fall into place. Nick and Lindsey would arrive there, too. Their survival would make headline news. Someone from Primetime or 48 Hours would call to do the story. Even Nadine Betts would say it was a miracle.

But when Abby returned, her house was deserted, the same as the day she’d left it, and Kate was right. It was too soon. Abby wouldn’t last a month on her own.