“Adam, no one likes going to the doctor, but if you’re sick, you don’t have a choice.”
“What if…what if I’ve done something horrible in the middle of a blackout?” he asked, his eyes and voice filled with torment. He reached into his jacket pocket for gum, started to open the pack, then looked at it in confusion, as if he’d completely forgotten what he was doing.
“Let’s just deal with the blackouts,” Rowenna said. “You have to get help. I think you should go to an emergency room right away, before you get hurt or…or something.” She just couldn’t bring herself to upset him any more than he already was by saying or hurt anyone else. She looked at him with more confidence than she felt and said, “Come on. We’ll go tell Eve together.”
Adam was still for a minute. “She’ll leave me,” he whispered. “If something is really wrong, she’ll leave me.”
“She loves you, Adam. She always has, since we were kids. She won’t leave you.” Unless you’re a killer, a little voice inside her brain pointed out.
He was very still for a long moment, his expression thoughtful, and then he rose slowly.
“I’m going to tell her myself. I need to tell her myself. Now. I’ll put the Closed sign on the door and tell her. And we’ll make arrangements. Then we’ll call you,” he said gravely.
“It will be okay,” Rowenna said, mentally crossing her fingers in the hope that she was right.
He breathed a thank-you and left.
With trembling fingers, she reached for her cell phone. She had to call Jeremy. Or maybe she should call Joe; he was the real cop. No, she would call Jeremy, and have him call Joe, assuming there was a need to call Joe at all. Because if there really was something wrong with Adam, that could explain everything that was worrying Eve and prove that he wasn’t a killer after all.
She snapped her phone closed when the door opened. This time, it was Daniel. Luckily, he didn’t notice her panic, because he was staring back over his shoulder as he came in. “That was nice. I haven’t seen Adam in here in, well, forever.”
She stood. “That’s great, but listen, I’ve got to run…. I’ll be back later. See you.”
She fled past him, anxious to get Jeremy on the phone and tell him everything that was going on.
Alone.
“Oh, God,” Brad breathed, then buckled over, shaking.
The remains were just inside the first ragged row of corn, the one so far to the rear that the farmer would be unlikely to inspect it often. It was almost like a buffer row, the one in which he would expect some loss. It was also clearly a row the searchers hadn’t yet reached.
There was very little left of the body. The elements, rodents and crows had seen to that.
It had been there some time. At least a month, maybe two, Jeremy thought. He wasn’t an M.E., but he’d seen enough bodies. This much decomposition didn’t happen in a matter of weeks. The face was mostly gone, the white of the skull gleaming in the sun. The flesh of the body had been so consumed that the clothing was only a dirty, matted tangle, and the bones of the arms and legs lay at strange angles, disarticulated by the attentions of the carrion eaters.
Brad was on his knees by then, sobbing.
Jeremy set a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not Mary, Brad. It’s not Mary,” he repeated.
Reason would take over, Jeremy knew. Brad had seen the ravages of time and the elements on the human body at least as often as he had. As soon as he got over the shock of their discovery, he would realize that these sad remnants couldn’t be his wife.
Brad gasped, drawing a long, cleansing breath, then stared at Jeremy.
“But she’s gone. Mary is gone. And now we’ve found two…”
“We don’t know that Mary was taken by this man,” Jeremy said, but even as he spoke, he knew the words were patronizing. Brad wasn’t stupid. The truth was becoming more and more obvious. “Mary is strong, and smart. If he has her, she’s found a way to stay alive,” he said.
“But for how much longer?” Brad whispered. “This woman, oh, God, this poor woman! Someone thought she was just missing. They’ve been hoping all this time. And here she is.”
“Maybe he made mistakes this time, Brad. Maybe the crime-scene unit can find something. And now that it’s a serial case, the FBI will come in on it. We’re going to find Mary, Brad. Let’s back up and not contaminate the scene any more than we already have.”
He took Brad by the arm and dragged him away. He didn’t think they could contaminate the scene much more than nature had already managed to do, but he wanted to get Brad away from there, and any excuse would do.
He called Joe Brentwood and tensely informed him of what he had found. Joe told him to stay put, he would get cars out there immediately. Then he said something else, but Jeremy didn’t hear it, because his phone went suddenly dead.
“What the hell?” Jeremy muttered.
He looked at his phone. Searching for Service was streaking across the screen. He swore.