My Wife Is Missing(99)
Sunlight gave way to darkness as Natalie steered the truck successfully through the open bay door and into a cavernous building. She heard the rumbling roll of a steel door as it closed shut.
The children sat stunned and quiet. Natalie’s nerves hummed inside her with an electric charge. A knock on her window drew Natalie’s attention. Her savior in coveralls motioned with his hand for Natalie to kill the engine, which she did, but not before she rolled down her window.
“I’m Gus, friend of Kate’s,” the big man said in a deep, resonate voice. “I’ll keep a lookout, so I’ll know when that car is gone and it’s safe for y’all to leave.”
“Thank you, Gus,” Natalie said, feeling both relief and profound gratitude.
“What do you mean, safe?” asked Addie from the backseat. “What’s wrong, Mommy?”
“There’s nothing wrong, sweetheart. There’s just a problem with Kate’s truck and it needs to be looked at. Gus here is going to help.”
“We should go to a gas station then,” said Addie, ever the wise. “This is a warehouse.”
“Yes, I know it’s a warehouse,” said Natalie, finding her calm. “I was worried about the engine overheating, so Kate called ahead, said that Gus here could fix it,” she added definitively. Natalie then thought of Michael, how one lie of his had led to another, and then another still, until he’d erected a city of them, where they all lived under the illusion of comfort and security.
Damn him to hell, she thought.
“We have to give the engine a chance to cool down, so I need you both to be patient and quiet,” said Natalie. “You can play with your iPads while we wait.”
The wait lasted ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Natalie was glad, however, when Gus returned to the truck after opening the bay door, which rose as nosily as a roller coaster going up a track.
“All set,” he said to Natalie through her open window. “That car came and went. Hasn’t come back. We’ve been keeping an eye out and the coast is clear.”
“Thank you, again. I can’t honestly say it enough.”
“Don’t ya mention it,” Gus replied, drawing out each word. “Don’t know what’s going on exactly, but if Kate says you need my help, then I’m more than happy to oblige.”
“Please tell Kate we’re okay, and that I’ll be in touch soon,” said Natalie.
Following a head nod from Gus, Natalie drove the truck out of the warehouse, feeling great relief.
But what now? she asked herself while she was stopped at a red light.
She was at the intersection of Auburn Street and South Third, on her way to 79, lost in her private thoughts, when from the backseat she heard a yowl of delight. Then came the click of a seat belt and the metal squeak of a door swinging open. In her peripheral vision, she caught motion as she was turning her head to have a look. To her horror, she saw Bryce bounding out of the truck and onto the road, his face beaming with pure joy.
“It’s Daddy!” she heard him shout as he bolted from the truck. She could now see that he was headed for the gas station on the other side of the road. To reach the station, Bryce would have to safely navigate two lanes of traffic. He raced ahead, oblivious as the light turned and the traffic surged forward.
Natalie had never moved so fast in all her life. She was out of the vehicle and sprinting in front of her parked truck before her brain even had a chance to register what she was doing. Horns blared as cars swerved to avoid Bryce, who bounded across the road with a smile that wouldn’t dim even in the midst of the danger.
“Bryce!” Natalie screamed, but it was no use. There was no way to stop him now. Natalie saw the car coming at a high rate of speed, Bryce in front of it. She heard the screech of brakes. A horn blared loudly. Her eyes closed tight, she fell to her knees and curled into a ball, unable to look, unable to move. Holding her breath, she waited for the sound, the collision.
Over the blare of another horn she heard Bryce’s delighted little voice cry out, “Daddy! Daddy!”
Natalie opened her eyes to see that Bryce was now safely across the road and wrapped tightly in Michael’s arms. She rose to her feet and crossed the busy street in a daze, ignoring the cars that maneuvered to avoid hitting her. She got to within five feet of Michael and Bryce before coming to a stop.
Her arms hung limply at her sides. She met her husband’s eyes. In them she saw only love and relief.
“Babe,” Michael breathed. “Thank God, Nat. We found you.”
He stepped forward, arms out wide, but a man got in his way. Natalie recognized him as the man who was driving the sedan.
“Natalie Hart,” said the man, taking hold of her wrist.
“Yes,” she said weakly.
“I’m Detective Sergeant Amos Kennett from the New York City Police Department.”
He placed something around her wrist, something cold and metallic.
“I regret to inform you,” he said, locking the handcuffs in place, “that you are under arrest for the murder of Audrey Adler.”
CHAPTER 41
MICHAEL
He sat on a metal folding chair in a barren room located somewhere in the Medford, Massachusetts, police station. Through a grimy window, he could see into another empty room, where Natalie would soon appear. It had been an eventful twenty-four hours—or maybe more, he’d lost track of time—since Kennett had arrested his wife in Elsberry, Missouri. Depending on how her bail hearing went tomorrow, Natalie would most likely be transferred to the women’s facility at MCI-Framingham to await trial on murder charges.