“Where are you staying here in town?” Joe asked Jeremy bluntly.
“I’m renting an old house over on Essex,” he told Joe, reminding himself that the old guy had been through a lot, so no wonder he was protective of Rowenna. God knew, he didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like to lose a son. Parents weren’t supposed to outlive their children. Sons should bury their fathers, not the other way around.
“I’ll come join you after we eat,” Rowenna said.
“I’ll walk her over,” Joe promised.
“Okay, see you then.”
As Jeremy walked away, he was aware that they were all watching him until he had left the restaurant. He knew that he would be the topic of conversation for at least the next few minutes.
It was just a few blocks down the quiet streets to the hotel bar where he was planning to meet Brad Johnstone. The night was cool and crisp. Streetlights lit the way, but the businesses were closed for the day, and a forlorn feeling had settled over the street, along with the fallen leaves of autumn.
The hotel had been built in the early part of the twentieth century, but it was surrounded by buildings that dated back to the late 1700s. It was near the town green, where Pilgrims had once grazed their livestock. Now a concert was advertised for the following weekend.
The hotel offered a wave of warmth after the chill of the streets. He found the bar, and there, slumped in a stool at the bar, head resting in his hands, was Brad.
Jeremy walked over and set a hand on his shoulder. When Brad looked up, the hope in his eyes was so great it was almost alarming. He stood and threw his arms around Jeremy, hugging him tightly. Jeremy patted his back, feeling awkward, and extricated himself from his friend’s grasp.
“What’s your poison?” the bartender asked, coming right over.
“I’ll take a draft, thanks,” Jeremy said.
“We can move to a booth over there,” Brad said, grabbing his glass, which was filled with what looked to be bourbon. “Hugh,” he said to the bartender, “this is my friend Jeremy Flynn. He’s here to help me find Mary.”
“Sure hope so,” Hugh said, handing Jeremy a beer. Apparently the bartender was on Brad’s side, Jeremy thought.
But not everyone was. That was apparent immediately. Three women and two men were sitting nearby, and as he slid into the booth that Brad had pointed out, he saw one of the women nudge the other and whisper something as they stared at Jeremy. The second woman shuddered visibly.
“Thank God you’re here,” Brad told him.
“I’ll do anything I can to help,” Jeremy assured him. “You know that. Still nothing?”
“If I’d heard anything,” Brad said glumly, “the world would know.” He groaned. “To tell the truth, I’m just waiting for someone to come and slip the cuffs on me.”
Jeremy shook his head. “Brad, no one can arrest you without evidence, and there isn’t any evidence, because you would never hurt Mary. The thing is, no one disappears into thin air, so there will be evidence of something, somewhere. What we have to do is track down that evidence.”
“Do you know how many times I’ve gone over our every footstep?” Brad asked him.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re going to do it again,” Jeremy said.
Brad nodded glumly.
“I’m so afraid.”
He was definitely telling the truth on that score. His fingers were trembling as he picked up his glass. “Last night…for just a second, I thought…”
“You thought…what? You saw her? Heard her? What?”
Brad shook his head ruefully. “I thought she called me on the phone. But it wasn’t her, it was her mother. She was crying, begging me to give Mary back to them. I think she’d been drinking. Then Mary’s dad got on the line and told me he was going to kill me.”
“He isn’t going to kill you.”
Brad ignored that comment and went on. “He’s given her up for dead. I can’t do that.” He hesitated and looked at Jeremy, his eyes unfocused, as if he’d had a few bourbons before this one. “She isn’t dead, Jeremy. I think that I’d feel it. I know that sounds stupid, but I really think I’d feel it. But she’s…she’s in danger. If we don’t find her soon, she will be dead. Oh, God.” Bourbon nearly sloshed over the rim of his glass when he picked it up this time, draining half the contents of the glass in a swallow. “Jeremy, we walked into the cemetery and Mary disappeared. That was it.”
“Brad, it was Halloween. There were dozens of people around. Someone must have seen something. We just haven’t found that person yet.”
Brad went on as if he hadn’t even heard him. “Now the whole world knows we were having problems, that we’d just gotten back together. They write about me in the papers as if I’m a monster.”
“What they write in the papers doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, yeah? People stare at me, Jeremy.”