Love You More: A Novel

Mrs. Ennis lived on the second floor, Unit 2C. Bobby and D.D. took the stairs up, knocking lightly on the scarred wooden door. Mrs. Ennis opened before D.D.’s fist had even dropped down, obviously waiting for them.

She gestured them inside a small but tidy studio apartment. Kitchen cabinets to the left, kitchen table to the right, brown floral sleeper sofa straight ahead. The TV was on, blaring away on top of a cheap microwave stand. Mrs. Ennis took a second to cross the space and snap it off. Then she asked them politely if they’d like some tea or coffee.

D.D. and Bobby declined. Mrs. Ennis bustled at the cabinets anyway, putting on a pot of water, getting down a package of Nilla wafers.

She was an older woman, probably late sixties, early seventies. Steel gray hair cut no-nonsense short. Wearing a dark blue running suit over a petite, stoop-shouldered frame. Her gnarled hands shook slightly as she opened the box of cookies, but she moved briskly, a woman who knew what she was about.

D.D. took a moment to wander the space, just in case Sophie Leoni was magically sitting on the sofa with her gap-tooth smile, or maybe playing with duckies in the bath, or even tucked inside the lone closet to hide from her abusive parents.

As she closed the closet door, Mrs. Ennis said calmly, “You may sit now, Detective. I don’t have the child, nor would I ever do that to her poor mother.”

Sufficiently chastised, D.D. shed her heavy winter coat and took a seat. Bobby was already munching on a Nilla wafer. D.D. eyed them. When her stomach did not flip-flop in protest, she reached out carefully. Simple foods such as crackers and dry cereal had been good to her thus far. She took several experimental bites, then decided she might be in luck, because now that she thought about it, she was starving.

“How long have you known Tessa Leoni?” D.D. asked.

Mrs. Ennis had taken a seat, clutching a mug of tea. Her eyes appeared red, as if she’d been crying earlier, but she seemed composed now. Ready to talk.

“I first met Tessa seven years ago, when she moved into the building. Across the hall, apartment 2D. Also a studio, though she changed to a one bedroom not long after Sophie was born.”

“You met her before Sophie was born?” D.D. asked.

“Yes. She was three, four months pregnant. Just this little thing with this little belly. I heard a crash and came out into the hallway. Tessa had been trying to carry a box filled with pots and pans up the stairs and it had broken on her. I offered to help, which she declined, but I picked up her chicken fryer anyway and that’s how it began.”

“You became friends?” D.D. clarified.

“I would have her over for dinner on occasion and she would return the favor. Two lone females in the building. It was nice to have some company.”

“And she was already pregnant?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“She talk much about the father?”

“She never mentioned him at all.”

“What about dating, social life, visits from her family?”

“No family. No boys either. She worked at a coffee shop, trying to save her money for the baby’s birth. It’s not an easy thing, expecting a baby all alone.”

“No male companionship?” D.D. pressed. “Maybe she went out late a couple of nights, hung out with friends …”

“She doesn’t have friends,” Mrs. Ennis said emphatically.

“She doesn’t have friends?” D.D. repeated.

“It’s not her way,” Mrs. Ennis said.

D.D. glanced over at Bobby, who also appeared intrigued by this news.

“What is her way?” D.D. asked at last.

“Independent. Private. Her baby mattered to her. From the beginning, that’s what Tessa talked about and that’s what she worked for. She understood being a single mother was going to be tough. Why, it was sitting here at this very table she came up with the idea to become a cop.”

“Really?” Bobby spoke up. “Why a trooper?”

“She was trying to plan ahead—she couldn’t very well support a child working in a coffee shop her whole life. So we started to discuss her options. She had a GED. She couldn’t see herself behind a desk, but some kind of job where she could do things, be active, appealed to her. My son had become a firefighter. We talked about that, and next thing I knew, Tessa had homed in on joining the police force. She looked up applications, did all sorts of research. Pay scale was good, she met the initial requirements. Then, of course, she found out about the Academy and the wind went out of her sails. That’s when I volunteered to babysit. Hadn’t even met little Sophie yet, but I said I’d take her. If Tessa could get that far into the recruitment process, I’d assist with childcare.”

D.D. was looking at Bobby. “How long’s the state Police Academy again?”