The New Husband(96)

“What is it, honey?” Mom asked.

“The camera,” he said. “It’s still operational. It’s not running at night to save battery, but if he has Daisy, we might be able to get a picture of her.”

“Who cares about pictures? Let’s go there now and get our dog back,” I said.

“No!”

I jumped at the sound of Mom’s hand slamming against the kitchen table.

“Nobody goes back to that house. Nobody. Is that understood? I’ll call the police. You let me handle this,” Mom said.

I wasn’t about to disagree.





CHAPTER 52


They spent the weekend without Daisy—a whole heart-wrenching, gut-churning, sleepless, brutal weekend.

Nina arrived at the Seabury Police Department for her scheduled meeting with Detective Eric Wheeler, hoping for some kind of development. This was her second trip here.

On her first visit, the detective had assured her he was conducting a thorough investigation, and while he had yet to update Nina on his latest findings, she wasn’t entirely in the dark. She knew something of Simon.

According to her spies, Ginny and Susanna, he was at school, teaching his Monday classes like all was normal. Maggie was staying home under protest. In her mind, it was unconscionable to give Simon any control over her life. Nina did not want her daughter to be in the same building as that man, but Maggie did have a point that school was the safest place for her. Glen was still out there, somewhere, and the police were no longer keeping watch over the house.

Nina had hoped she’d have proof by now that Simon had taken Daisy, or poisoned Maggie, and then he’d be put on leave or fired outright with criminal charges pending, so her daughter could return without worry. Such wasn’t the case.

Her other option for getting Simon out of the picture wasn’t panning out either. She had called Hugh Dolan, texted him numerous times, sent him Facebook messages, but gotten no answer. She had imagined marching into Wheeler’s office holding irrefutable evidence that Simon was a killer. Unfortunately, Hugh had vanished, proving himself unreliable, which really wasn’t surprising.

Nina had fretted the last few days away—everyone had, with Daisy gone. Twice she had nightmares about Glen showing up at the house with a knife to annihilate his family, his anger boiling over into a murderous rampage.

She had awakened bathed in sweat. Nina was left on her own to protect her children, and Ginny’s suggestion to buy a gun no longer sounded ridiculous to her.

Meanwhile, other stresses began pinging away, including paying the mortgage. She was formulating plans to move out. Let Simon have the damn house; she’d go live with Ginny or Susanna if she had to.

In an ironic twist, Simon had at last gotten what he desired: Nina decided to take a leave of absence from her job. She had stopped by The Davis Center first thing in the morning to deliver the news to her boss, Rona, in person. She gave vague excuses of a difficult family situation and no timetable for her return. Nina filled out some paperwork and that was that. Maybe they’d fire her, but she couldn’t trouble herself with those concerns, at least not until she got her dog back and Simon was out of the picture.

There was no perfect time to step away, but this moment was as good as any. She’d finished her report on the Cooper case, recommending joint custody for the children. There’d be fallout from Wendy for sure, but Nina wouldn’t be in the office to hear it. Instead, she was at the police station, seated in an interview room, getting Wheeler’s take on his part of the investigation. He did not look like a man about to deliver good news.

“Let me go over what we’ve done and where we’re at,” he began. “We interviewed most of your neighbors, and nobody saw Simon leave your house with Daisy.”

“Okay,” said Nina, nodding. She had expected this answer, because she had checked with her neighbors as well. She had also contacted Granite State Dog Rescue, put up posts on the Seabury community Facebook page, and once again pinned missing dog posters around town, but so far none of those efforts had yielded any results.

“What about the burglary?” Nina asked.

“We investigated and found nothing. The person who reported the incident said he was a tourist from out of town and heading home when he saw something suspicious.”

“Have you spoken to him?”

“Called. No answer.”

“That’s because it was Simon.”

“Not according to the name he gave us.”

Nina knew when a conversation was going nowhere.

“What about Simon, have you spoken with him?”

“Of course,” Wheeler said. “And you can guess what he told us.”

“He doesn’t have Daisy. And before you ask, his neighbors haven’t seen a dog out in the yard, or seen Simon walking a dog, or heard barking, for that matter.

“Simon did tell us that you two got into a fight and he’s living at his other home until you work something out. That’s not a crime, Nina. People break up all the time.”

“Sure, but they don’t always steal a dog when they go. Detective, Daisy is part of our family, and we need her back.” Nina’s voice shook with a mix of frustration and sadness.

“Look, Nina, we want to help, but we’ve got our hands full with you. Glen, Simon, your dog—you’re like a full-time project here. Have you tried talking to Simon?”