“Where’s Goober?” I demanded, looking around at the three men inside Perry’s. It was dusk. Most of the tables inside the little restaurant were filled now. Miriam was racing around the room, serving plates of their famous chicken stew and biscuits. The white-haired woman was still there, reading the newspaper now, in between bites of chicken stew and a small bowl of peas. I leaned on the back of an empty chair next to Jimmy and glared at them one by one.
“Goober?” Walt said. “Who’s Goober?”
I pointed at Jimmy shakily. “Sophie…she said you talked to her all the time.” I struggled to keep my voice steady. “That’s what she said. She told me you only talked to people you felt like talking to, and that Goober was one of them.” I was pleading now, begging Jimmy for information.
He did not look up from his coffee cup.
“Who is Goober?” Walt said again.
I collapsed into the empty chair so that I would not fall to the floor. “Sophie’s daughter. She’s four. Her name is Grace, but we’ve all called her Goober since she was born.”
Lloyd raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Gracie!” he said. “Yeah, yeah, we know Gracie. You call her Goober? I quiz her on the state capitals all the time. She already knows about ten of them.” Lloyd nodded at me. “She probably got your brains. She’s a smart little thing, I’m telling you.”
Walt was studying me carefully. “Why’re you panicking about Gracie? She’s probably up at her father’s place. In Rutland.”
I shook my head. “Greg gets her every other weekend. That’s it. Goober’s been gone for almost three whole weeks now. And every time I ask her where she is, Sophie makes up some excuse about them going camping.” I slammed my hand on the table. “Who camps for three whole weeks with a four-year-old?”
Patrons looked up, alarmed at the sound of my voice, and then kept eating. Miriam glanced over at Lloyd and raised an eyebrow.
I struggled to lower my voice, turning to Jimmy. “Listen to me. I know something’s wrong. I can feel it. Please, please tell me what’s going on. Please just tell me what you know.”
Jimmy looked up. He touched the brim of his Red Sox hat lightly and then cleared his throat. “Sophie come back yet?”
“No.” I planted my hands flat on the table in front of me. “She hasn’t. We were…having a…a discussion…and she got upset and left. She walked right out of the house. I didn’t see where she went and I don’t know when she’ll be back.” I leaned forward. “Where’s Goober, Jimmy? Do you know?”
Jimmy gazed at me. His eyes, a slate blue color, were grave. “You need to find Sophie first.”
“Oh my God, are you kidding me? I told you I don’t know where she went!”
“She’ll be back,” Jimmy said calmly.
I paused, clenching my fists in frustration. “What are you hiding? What do you know about Goober that you aren’t telling me?”
Miriam came over then, and set her coffee pot deliberately on the table. “Would someone like to tell me what’s going on here?” Her eyes scanned Walt, Lloyd, and Jimmy, before settling finally on me. “Is there any reason you’re giving my dinner crowd a collective heart attack?”
I shook my head and buried my face in my hands. I was spent.
Walt reached out and put a hand on my arm. “Easy there. Just take it easy.”
“Next outburst, you’re going to have to take a walk.” Miriam picked up her coffee pot. “I’m sorry, but I mean it. I can’t have this kind of drama in here. People are trying to eat their dinner.”
“Okay.” I nodded behind my hands.
Next to me, Walt sighed. “Anyone ever tell you that you jump to conclusions before you know all the facts?”
“You think so well on your feet, Julia, which is exactly the kind of trait you need to become a good lawyer.”
I sat back slowly. Blinked. How was it that nothing—not one single thing—made sense anymore? When had everything I knew, or everything that I thought I knew, been turned upside down, shaken out, and trampled until it was unrecognizable?
I looked over helplessly at Jimmy again. His eyes were still fixed on me. “Go find Sophie,” he said.
“Where?” I struggled to control the impulse to reach over the table and throttle him. “Where would she be? Where should I look?”
Jimmy shrugged. “Don’t know. Doubt she’s gone too far, though.”
I stood up, leaning my weight on my fingertips. I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this guy, apparently. He had absolutely no intention of offering assistance. “Thanks for all your help,” I said.
Jimmy tipped his hat forward. “Anytime,” he said softly. “And Julia?”
“What?”
“Let me know when you find her.”
chapter
48
Someone said the night is darkest just before the dawn.
But they lied.
Night is dark the whole way through, from the beginning all the way to the impossible, interminable end.