Chapter Two
STEPH WAS WAITING in front of Elizabeth’s apartment the next morning, two Starbucks lattes in her hands. The September morning was just cool enough to hint at autumn’s impending arrival, the sun bright, the sky a brilliant cobalt. Elizabeth’s cotton cardigan felt good, though by the time school was out, she wouldn’t need it.
With a grin, she adjusted her purse on her shoulder and took one of the lattes. “You are the best friend, evah.”
Steph laughed as the two started down Wisconsin Avenue NW toward Georgetown and Adams Middle School, where Steph taught music and Elizabeth math. The weather was lovely, the road narrow and tree-lined, the architecture quaint, filling her with pleasure despite the heavy traffic and morning crush.
“I figured the morning after a breakup deserved something special.”
“And how do you know Tim and I broke up?” Elizabeth asked primly. Steph always knew what Elizabeth was going to do before she did it.
“The writing was on the wall. You did break up with him, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” Elizabeth sighed. “I did.”
They walked side by side, past the Naval Observatory, the sidewalk crowded with people heading to work, or looking for coffee, or just meandering with a dog on a leash.
“What are you doing after school?” Steph asked. “I’m thinking about checking out the new health club. Come with me. We can ogle the hotties together.”
Elizabeth snorted. “You’re married.”
“Yeah, but I’m not dead, girlie. Garrett doesn’t mind in the least if I work myself into a lather. Not as long as I come to him for relief.”
With a smile, Elizabeth took a bracing sip of hot latte goodness. Hazelnut, just the way she loved it. “I’m up for a workout as long as you don’t try to fix me up with anyone.” Before Steph could profess innocence of any such plan, Elizabeth continued, “I didn’t have time to check the news this morning. Anything interesting that I missed?”
Steph sobered. “Another person’s gone missing, this one down by the Navy Yard. He was on his way to a Nats game, and his friends say he just disappeared. Which is impossible, of course.”
“What does that make, now? Fifteen, sixteen?” People all over the city had disappeared over the past few months, some in broad daylight. Some purportedly into thin air.
“Nineteen. The most popular theories are space-alien abductions, or the rapture, though if it’s the latter, it’s taking forever and leaving most of the superreligious behind. They’re pissed. Garrett’s worried, but I keep reminding him that nineteen out of well over a million means my odds of being snatched are small enough to be approaching zero.”
“You sound like the math teacher.”
“Am I right?”
“You are. Still, I feel bad for the families left wondering where they went.” She had a sense of what that felt like, the void a missing loved one created in one’s life. The never knowing where they’d gone or why, or if they were ever coming back. It had crossed her mind that Lukas’s disappearance might be related though it seemed unlikely, given that the spate of disappearances had started only a couple of months ago.
“So share the deets on the health club,” Elizabeth said, steering the conversation to a less depressing topic.
“They’ve got a grand opening special . . .”
As Steph talked, and they walked the mile to school past colorful Georgetown row-house shops, Elizabeth sipped her latte and drank in the sights and sounds of the hectic morning rush, consciously embracing all that she loved about her life. And there was much to love—her friends and family, her math kids, the teaching itself, and the constant, familiar bustle of the city she’d grown up in.
For eight months, she’d been more than just happy. She’d felt . . . complete . . . as if her world and her life had finally snapped into full, brilliant focus. Though, if she were honest, that brilliant focus had always suffered more than a handful of shadows. Shadows in the form of Lukas’s secrets. She’d never called him on his unwillingness to share more about himself, hoping that eventually he’d trust her with the truth. Instead, he’d left without a word. And she’d never quite be the same again. Not with her heart now missing an elemental piece.
If she was lucky, someday another man . . . the right man . . . would come along and fill the hole Lukas had left. But deep inside, her heart stubbornly insisted that Lukas Olsson was the only right man for her.
As they reached P Street, the crosswalk flashed with the red-handed “wait” sign, and Elizabeth took another sip of coffee. Steph had a way of shifting conversational directions on a dime, and they were now talking about the new fall television season.
“You’ve got to see it,” Steph enthused about yet another amateur singing hour.
Elizabeth smiled. “I’ll set it to record on my DVR when I get home.”
The light changed to “walk,” and they started forward again. But halfway across P Street, a cool draft of air shivered over Elizabeth’s skin.
And with her next step, the lights went out.