Dropping her cellphone into her skirt pocket, Jessica ambled toward the kitchen for a drink of water. The cell vibrated against her hip before she finished filling her glass.
She set her drink on the counter, checked the ID screen of her phone and pressed the green key. “Hello?”
“This is Steven Ruckle. I had a message to give you a call.”
Jessica’s heart began to race. “Hi, Mr. Ruckle. My name is Jessica Nobles. My husband and I bought the house next door to the old Dayton place. I wondered if I could ask you a few questions about what happened there?”
A pause ensued. “What would you like to know?”
Jessica grew more nervous by the second. “The articles I read online stated that there was some suspicion surrounding the Dayton boy’s disappearance, yet it doesn’t give specifics about those suspicions.”
Steven sighed through the line. “I’m really not the person to question about this, Mrs. Nobles. Perhaps you should speak to the detective assigned to Terry’s case.”
Odd that he’d used the child’s first name, Jess thought. That told her one thing for certain, that he’d been closer to the Dayton case than he wanted to let on.
“Okay, Mr. Ruckle. I apologize for wasting your time.”
She moved to end the call when his next words stopped her. “Is the Dayton house still empty?”
“Yes. It’s owned by a Mr. Martin. He’s the man—”
“Unfortunately, I know exactly who Mr. Martin is. Have you met him yet?”
Jessica moved to the dining room to take a seat at the table. “I had the displeasure my first day in the new neighborhood. I’d gone over to the Dayton house to check on a child I’d seen in the upstairs window when I was nearly accosted by Mr. Martin.”
“Accosted?”
“He accused me of trespassing, threatened to call the police on me. But it wasn’t until later that night that things got physical.”
“What do you mean, things got physical?”
Jess proceeded to tell him about the child she’d seen in the upstairs window, her illegal entry into the house, and Mr. Martin’s unexpected appearance.
“Can we meet in person?” Steven suddenly asked, catching her off guard.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, Jessica calculated how much time she had before Owen would be home from work. “Sure. Where would you like to meet?”
“I haven’t had lunch yet. How about Happy’s Bar and Grill on Highway 2, in say, twenty minutes?”
Jessica fought back the anxiety that assailed her. She was sneaking around behind Owen’s back. Though, he left her no choice. If he knew that she was digging around into the missing Dayton boy’s case, he’d cart her off to the nearest psychiatrist. “I’ll be there.”
Ending the call, Jess ran into the bedroom and grabbed her purse. She fished around inside until her fingers touched on the bottle of antianxiety pills she had for emergencies.
She twisted off the lid and popped one into her mouth before hurrying back to the kitchen and downing the glass of water she’d poured.
Normally, Jess would have bypassed the medication unless things began to feel out of control, but today was important. She would be meeting with the reporter on the old Terry Dayton case. She needed to be calm and not come across as the lunatic she no doubt was.
Jessica pulled up in front of Happy’s Bar and Grill and switched off the engine. The place appeared crowded from what she could see through the row of windows across the front.
“What am I doing here?” Jess muttered aloud, her fingers moving back to the keys still in the ignition.
Her cellphone vibrated from the console, startling her out of fleeing.
She picked it up and took in a number she didn’t recognize. Pressing the send key, she brought it to her ear. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Nobles?”
“Yes.”
“This is Steven Ruckle. I got here a little early. I’m in the back-left corner in a booth.”
“I’m here as well. I’ll be right in.”
With little choice but to leave or go inside and get the answers she sought, Jessica opened the door and climbed out.
She hoisted her purse onto her shoulder, entered the establishment, and made her way to the back.
A man sat in a booth on the far-left side of the room holding a menu in his hands. He looked up as she approached, a smile on his face. “Mrs. Nobles?”
Jessica nodded and took a seat across from him. She set her purse against the wall next to her and extended her hand across the table.
“Steven Ruckle,” he informed her, accepting her palm.
Jess noticed several things at once. His light brown hair appeared windblown, and laugh lines rested at the corners of his eyes. Her gaze lowered to his smile to take in his even, white teeth. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Releasing her hand, Steven nodded toward the menu lying in front of her. “I hope you’re hungry.”
She wasn’t, but she picked up the menu anyway. She’d rather have something in front of her to fidget with besides her hands. “I could eat.”
The waitress arrived to take their orders before bustling off and returning with their drinks.
Jessica stirred some artificial sweetener into her glass of tea, surprised to find Steven had ordered coffee. “I read that you’re in editing now.”
He took a sip of his coffee. “For nearly nine years. How about you, what do you do?”
“I worked in the school system for quite some time. I haven’t gotten a job since moving here. Though, I’ve only been here for a few weeks.”
Steven set down his coffee cup. “I’ve always been a get-right-to-the-point kind of guy, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. When you said that you saw a child in the Dayton house, what exactly did you see?”
Jessica wondered about his blunt question but decided to be as honest as she could without appearing to be insane. “I saw a young boy in the upstairs window. When I got up there, he was already gone.”
“I see. Can you describe him to me?”
“Not really. He had long, dark hair and wore a striped T-shirt. Why?”
Steven leaned back in his seat. “When I was covering that case, there was a woman who lived across the street claiming to have seen something similar. I spoke with her briefly. But when I went back to question her further, she’d moved without leaving a forwarding address.”
Jessica’s stomach flipped. “Do you think she had something to do with Terry’s disappearance?”
“I doubt it. She and her kids were out of town on vacation when he came up missing.”
Letting that information soak in, Jessica asked, “What happened to the child’s parents?”
“After losing their home, and no doubt their minds, they had no choice but to move. Last I heard, they were living in Morhaven, which is about a twenty-minute drive from here.”
Jess nodded, unable to get the image of that painting out of her mind of that boy with the tousled hair, striped shirt…and that grave. “Do you think Eustice Martin had anything to do with Terry’s disappearance?”
Steven shrugged. “I think he was involved in something, I’m just not sure what. Why do you ask?”
“I know what I saw in that upstairs window, Mr. Ruckle. What if Terry is still alive and Eustice Martin is holding him somehow?”
Steven’s eyebrows shot up. “You do realize the police went over every inch of that place. There’s no way Terry Dayton could have been in that house.”
“Not at that time, but the Martins bought the house shortly after the Daytons moved. It’s been sitting empty for nearly thirteen years.
“Mrs. Nobles…Terry would be twenty years old today. Do you really think old man Martin could keep him locked up in that house? And even if it were possible, the boy you saw was a child, right? It’s just not feasible.”
Realizing she sounded like a headcase, Jessica grabbed her purse and moved to stand. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”
Steven reached across the table and closed his fingers around her wrist. “Please, sit back down. I didn’t mean to be so insensitive.”
“I’m not crazy,” Jessica whispered, her voice sounding weak to her own ears.
“I never said you were. I asked you here because of what you told me on the phone.”
Relaxing the grip she had on her purse, Jessica searched his face. “What do you mean?”