I’m coming up. Don’t bother saying no.
She felt a mingling of relief and annoyance. They were joined together, wrapped around each other whether they always liked it or not. There was too much history, the children, shared investments, joint property. The very idea of legal divorce was as enervating as it was heartbreaking. It was one thing to drift like she was doing, neither here nor there. It was another thing altogether to bring the axe down on everything they shared, splitting it cleanly in half. Of course, nothing like that was ever clean.
It was midnight.
She picked up the phone and dialed. He answered after one ring, as if he had been waiting for her to call.
“Hey,” he said. Merri could hear Claire’s voice in the background. He answered her gently. “It’s Merri.”
Is she all right? “Are you okay?” he asked, echoing his wife’s question.
“Yes,” she said. “I don’t know.”
“She’s okay,” he said.
Merri listened to the covers rustling, heard their bedroom door close. She could envision their apartment as clearly as she could bring to mind her own. She could see the runner on the hardwood floor, the night light glow from the chaos of the girls’ room. He probably walked into the gourmet kitchen, the white door swinging.
“What’s happened?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said. The sound of his voice calmed her. “No news. I’m sorry. I was just dreaming of Abbey.”
He breathed on the line, and she could see him. He’d be hunched over the phone, leaning against the counter, his brow wrinkled with worry. He’d be wearing a tee-shirt, some kind of flannel pajama bottom. Not like Wolf, who always insisted on sleeping naked. It’s the only time I’m ever free, he’d say. What if someone breaks in? What if there’s a fire? Merri wanted to know. That he could allow himself to be so vulnerable always annoyed her.
Blake had never touched her except as a friend—a warm embrace, a kiss on the cheek. The night they met didn’t hover between them, not really. There was no wondering: what if? It simply didn’t matter. The currents of their lives had swept them along parallel paths, close but never to touch. Neither of them could ever be unfaithful, even if they wanted to—which they didn’t. Now there was friendship, deep and abiding. Somehow that was more solid than anything else in her life.
“I saw Wolf tonight,” said Blake. “He’s a wreck.”
“He’s coming up here,” she said.
“Good,” he said. He had a kind of relief in his voice, a tone he got when Wolf managed to do the right thing. “He should. You shouldn’t be up there alone.”
The wind was wailing outside, and Merri pushed back the covers to walk over the creaky floor to the window.
“It’s snowing,” she said, peering through the curtain. The streetlamp across the road gave off a weak amber light, the flakes glittering as they fell. The sight of it filled her with dread. Abbey. The second winter.
“He asked me about that missing real estate developer,” said Blake.
This surprised Merri. It wasn’t like him to indulge Jackson that way.
“Jackson told me about it, too,” Merri said.
“Well, apparently the guy had some kind of chip in his car put there by the leasing company. It’s a new technology, allows them to locate and even disable the vehicle in the event that someone doesn’t make their payment.”
She didn’t quite know why, but she felt a little lift, a rush of hope. It was ridiculous to think this had anything to do with Abbey.
“When I got home, I made some calls,” he said. “I was debating whether to call Wolf or not. It’s probably nothing.”
“What is?”
“The leasing company released the GPS coordinates, and local police are mobilizing, probably as we speak if they’re not up there already.”
“Where?”
“About twenty miles north of The Hollows.”
“Do you have the coordinates?”
“Merri,” he said. “This probably has nothing to do with Abbey.”
“I know that,” she said. And she did know that. But then why was her whole body tingling? And why had she hired a psychic? And why had Abbey been dreaming about a monster in the woods? And why did Jackson know that something bad was going to happen that day? And why was he obsessed about the missing developer?