The Night Before(12)

“I’m here,” she answered.

The door creaked open. Joe stood in the hallway, holding Mason. As usual, he was bare down to his diaper. Mason hated clothing.

“Whatcha doin’?” Joe asked.

Rosie looked at him with wide, manic eyes. She could feel her expression and she could see its reflection on Joe’s.

“She didn’t come home.”

Joe nodded. He let their squirming child down and he ran to Laura’s bed and climbed on top of the covers. She had a fluffy down comforter and Mason liked the way it felt against his skin.

“Okay,” Joe said calmly. “You been in here since before? When you woke me up?”

Rosie didn’t answer. She looked at her son, then back at her husband. Suddenly she felt as crazy as the person he was seeing.

“Hospital?” Joe asked.

“Four times.”

“Her phone…”

“Every fifteen minutes. Goes right to voicemail. Why won’t she answer?”

“Because it’s dead. Look,” he said, pointing to an outlet near the floor. “She left her charger—again. She does it all the time.”

Rosie nodded. “I tried to find this guy on that website, but there are so many of them! And they use screen names … and I can’t get into her account unless I have the password, but I can’t change the password without access to her email.… I’ve tried everything—her birthday, initials … and there’s nothing in all this stuff—just work. Christ, Joe—I even tried ‘Deer Hill Lane.’”

“She would never use that … not after what happened there.”

“I know! I’m losing my mind.…”

Joe walked to the table where Rosie was working. She looked up at him, afraid to let him see her and what was going on in her head.

“I don’t know what to think. What to believe.”

“Listen to me. Your sister is lying in a bed, trapped beneath some old dude’s hairy arm. She’s got a wicked hangover and she’s desperate to sneak out of there without having to fuck him, because that’s what he’ll want if he wakes up. You’ll see.”

Joe reached out and stroked her hair, waiting for a smile. But she couldn’t comply.

“Did you find any evidence suggesting that my theory is wrong?”

“There is something strange,” Rosie said. “Look…” Rosie typed the name Jonathan Fields into a search engine. “There’s no divorce record, at least not in Connecticut.”

Joe sat down on the edge of the bed next to the table and turned the laptop to face him. “So maybe he got divorced in New York or New Jersey, or anywhere. Did Laura say where he lived?”

“I assumed he was local.…”

Joe shook his head quickly. “No, no … see that’s what I’m saying—he could be from anywhere in driving distance.”

“Then we’ll never find him!”

Mason crawled into his father’s lap, rolled over, and hung upside down across his legs.

“Take a deep breath. It’s still early—at least take a shower and have some coffee. You look deranged right now.”

“Thanks. That was the look I was going for.”

Joe tickled his son’s belly. Mason laughed.

“Come here, baby.” Mason found his mother’s arms. She pulled him close and tried to smile.

It was unconvincing.

“I’ll take a shower.”

Joe got up, Mason back in his arms. “I’ll make coffee and feed this guy. I can go in late today.”



* * *



Seven turned to eight. Eight turned to nine.

By nine thirty, Rosie was inconsolable.

And obsessed with Jonathan Fields.

She was in the kitchen now, with Laura’s laptop open on the table. She stared at the screen as she scrolled through images of men with the same name on Google. But the name was so common, there was no way she would ever find him.

Joe stood with Gabe at the center island, holding Mason in one arm and Rosie’s bag in the other.

Gabe had come the second they’d called him.

“So what’s the plan here?” Gabe asked.

“I’m gonna drive around, look for the car. Mason can watch shows on the iPad.”

“Richmond—also the garage on Main…”

“Yeah, and the harbor. But she only left fifteen minutes to get where she was going, so downtown’s a better bet.”

Rosie heard them. She heard every word. She heard the silence that followed and felt their eyes on her back. But she couldn’t turn away from the images.

Joe started to move. Two steps and he was standing behind her.

He kissed the top of her head.

“I’m going now,” he said.

Rosie reached her hand back, finding his face. Joe pressed her hand to his cheek, then kissed her palm.

“I’ll call if I find something. You do the same.”

She couldn’t turn around. She didn’t want to see the worry that had crept behind his eyes. This guy, whoever he was, supposedly had a job that he would now be at if nothing had gone wrong last night.

Gabe answered for both of them. “You got it.”

Rosie heard the door to the garage open and close. Gabe pulled up a chair beside her.