The little boy started wailing inside the truck.
Reenie turned around. “Please. No more, Daisy. Just go. Please.”
She seemed so upset that I hurriedly got back in the Subaru and bumped back out to the main road as fast as I could over the potholes.
Fat raindrops splattered the windshield, and a bright finger of lightning raked the sky.
Jasper slumped down on his seat, his eyes fixed on me. I reached over and stroked his narrow back with one hand as I drove, the thunk of the wipers an uneasy rhythm punctuated by distant rumbles of thunder.
I wondered if there were any fingerprints left on the pen, although between the wet mud, Jasper’s slobber, and me wiping the dirt off, I seriously doubted it. I should take it to the police, but I didn’t trust Ramsbottom. I was getting to be like Reenie with my mistrust of authority.
I could go over Ramsbottom’s head and contact his supervisor, but I didn’t want to make things worse for Angus. And if I did give it to the police, it didn’t prove anything anyway. It wouldn’t get Angus out of jail.
Jasper fell asleep before we got to River Road and I kept stroking his back in a gentle massage, the skin loose on his skinny body.
I’d ask Joe and see what he thought I should do. Although then I’d have to admit I’d been on Reenie’s property without her permission. Crap.
But when Jasper and I arrived home, the house was deserted. There was a note on the table in the ripped-apart kitchen that said Joe and Sarah had gone to the movies and would catch dinner in Sheepville afterward.
I glanced at my cell phone. No messages. Guess no one had bothered to see if I’d wanted to go.
What a darkly serious day.
“Oh, stop being such a baby, Daisy Buchanan. You should be able to make dinner for yourself once in a while,” I said out loud.
Jasper’s tail instantly began wagging at the sound of my voice.
“Guess they abandoned you, too, huh? Never mind, we’ll manage.” I fed him a scoop of his dry puppy food, and then opened the fridge and stared inside, not knowing what I wanted.
I shut the door again and then, in defiance, went down into the wine cellar and picked out a very nice bottle of Shiraz. It was another of those special-occasion wines that Joe and I had purchased in the wine store in Lambertville.
Maybe I’d give the pen to Fiona, I mused as I cut the foil seal around the top of the bottle. Or maybe I’d do nothing with it until I figured things out.
I spied some juice glasses teetering at the top of a nearby pile of dishes. I grabbed one, rinsed the dust out of it, and poured in a couple of inches of the crimson elixir. I took a fortifying swallow and sighed in satisfaction as the essence of crushed raspberries swirled over my tongue.
“I know. A grilled cheese sandwich. If I can find a frying pan,” I said to Jasper. “How does that sound?”
Thunder boomed outside, getting closer now. He rolled his eyes anxiously toward the window.
“It’s okay, buddy.” I set the bottle down and smoothed out the worried wrinkles on his forehead.
I maneuvered a few feet into the sunporch, through the stacks of new hardwood flooring and kitchen paraphernalia, and was searching for a pan when the phone rang. I hurried back out to the kitchen and grabbed the cordless receiver. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Buchanan?”
I recognized the same pleasant-sounding voice from the other evening. “Yes,” I said, gratified he got my name right. Obviously the type who paid attention. “You must be Peter.”
“I hope you don’t mind me calling this number again but I’ve been trying Sarah’s cell all day and she doesn’t answer.”
I retraced my steps into the sunporch, stepping over a mound of dinner plates and cereal bowls. “She went out with her father to the movies.”
“Oh.” The disappointment in his voice was evident in that one simple syllable.
I wedged the phone between my ear and shoulder and, balancing on my left leg, took a huge stride with my right toward an open space. I thought I saw the edge of my red frying pan in a heap against the back wall.
“I’ll tell her you called.” I knew Sarah would be pissed off that I was talking to him, but I wasn’t going to live in fear of her reactions anymore. Sarah was obviously in pain, too. She needed to face up to reality and try to work things out with this guy. Or if they couldn’t, at least they’d both be able to move on.
“Um—I don’t want to put you in the middle of anything,” he said, “but I’d really appreciate it. I need to talk to her.”
I was tempted to encourage him to spill the beans, but I’d overstepped enough.
And then he bared his soul to me anyway.