Don't Look for Me(68)

“Yeah?”

“Just keep your shit together, okay? I’m sorry I called. I’m so sorry…”

Then a knock at the door. And Reyes’s voice.

“Are you decent?”

Then Evan again. He’d heard it—the man’s voice.

“Who was that?”

Then Reyes.

“Are you ready?”

Nic jumped out of the bed, raced to the bathroom for a towel which she wrapped around her body. She called out to Reyes, covering the phone with her hand so Evan wouldn’t hear her.

“Just a second…”

Then to Evan on the phone, “I’m fine. I have to go … I just needed to hear your voice.” She made quick excuses, then hung up the call.

She opened the door, her hand still clutching the phone.

Reyes stood there with two cups of coffee and a disarming smile.

He walked inside, his eyes moving over her, head to toe, wrapped in the towel.

“Good morning,” he said. He set down the coffee and pulled her close.

She buried her face into the crease of his neck. She wanted to cry, with despair, or relief. All of this was disorienting.

He held her until she let go first. Then he handed her a coffee and sat on the bed.

“Are you all right? You seem upset. Is it about what happened last night?”

She told him the truth. “I don’t know.”

Had it been like all the others? She had told herself it was different somehow.

Sweet and tender. Wasn’t it? She could still hear his soft voice on warm breath. We are the same. We are just the same. Whispering in her ear as they fell onto the bed. And then the silence of his voice, but the words his body spoke as he touched her and kissed her and held her. They were kind words. Loving words. The silent conversation of lovers, not just people fucking, but making love, connected by the role they’d played in the death of another human being. It was something few people could understand.

“It’s okay,” he said to her. “Why don’t I wait outside. You take your time. Get dressed. Come down when you’re ready and we’ll head back to town.”

When the door closed behind him, Nic took a shower. Got dressed. Drank the coffee he’d left for her.

It was different, wasn’t it? How could she not know?



* * *



They drove half an hour back to Hastings, then another fifteen minutes through winding roads before arriving at the parcel on Abel Hill Lane that Reyes had found in the land records. It felt like they’d been driving in circles.

“It’s such a maze of woods and cornfields,” Nic said.

Reyes nodded. “It’s a small town, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to get lost.”

They pulled into the dirt driveway. Then they stopped in front of a metal gate. On either side was a tall, wire fence with coiled barbed wire lining the top.

Nic stared at it for a long moment, then got out of the car.

Reyes joined her.

He went to the gate and swung it open. It was not locked, though a loose chain hung from one side.

“Strange,” he said. “Why go to all this trouble to hang a lock on the gate but not close it?”

Nic looked up at the fence, then touched one of the wires. She could feel the small barbs.

“This is the same fence!” she said.

Reyes started walking back to car. “I guess you were right about it.”

They got back in the car and drove up the long driveway to the top of a hill. They stopped just past the front porch of a house. It was exactly as Booth had described it. An old ranch with a partial renovation.

“Stay here,” Reyes said.

Nic didn’t argue. He walked around the car, but then stopped by her window. She rolled it down.

“What?” she asked.

He leaned in and gave her a kiss. It was the first kiss all morning and it made her want more.

“Is that okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” Nic answered.

She leaned out the window, watching as he walked to the porch steps, then up the steps to the front door. He rang the doorbell and waited. He knocked, and waited. He looked back, shrugged. Rang again. Knocked again. Waited.

He placed his hand on his holstered gun.

Then he turned the doorknob. It opened. He looked back to motion that he was going inside. Nic nodded at him, and watched as he disappeared into the house, closing the door behind him.





33


Day sixteen





I hear a car in the driveway. Mick has been gone for two hours. Alice has not come to me, not even to bring me food. I have listened to her play alone in her toy room, making the voices for both Hannah and Suzannah. I cannot hear what they say to each other but it worries me that she stays away.

I get up and walk to the window. I look out the hole to see what it is Mick wants me to see. There is no point in avoiding it.

I have been looking out all morning and I have already turned his plan to my advantage. Beyond the driveway, I see my new weapon.

A row of apple trees flank the side of the driveway. They are mature trees and I imagine they were planted before Mick took over this house. He does not seem to have an interest in property maintenance.

The apples have ripened and fallen days, maybe weeks ago.