Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (24 page)

Jessie groaned. “Is that not a bit eager? I mean, wouldn’t that qualify as stalking?”

Ely slapped her forehead with her hand. “You’re dating the guy. How could it be stalking?”

Jessie looked at Josh. “You’re a guy.”

“Thanks for noticing.”
 

“Well, do you think I’m being too forward going over to his house?”

He shook his head. “This guy has a killer bike—he’s probably used to women showing up to his house unannounced. Guys, too, for that matter. What the heck, let’s go.”

Ely pulled Jessie up off the floor. “If you don’t go, it’s all we’re gonna hear about for the next three hours. Don’t make a big deal of it. Just say you were in the neighborhood.”

“He’ll never believe that.” Jessie winced.

Josh laughed. “Why not? It’d be the truth.” He poured the first beer from the now assembled keg and took a sip. Then he nodded in approval and looked back at Jessie. “This is ridiculous. Come on, Jessie. Let’s go visit your boyfriend and his bike.”

Suddenly it seemed out of her control. Her friends had made her mind up for her, and the truth was she wanted to see him before leaving for South Carolina. With only a little reluctance, Jessie got to her feet, handed the empty beer bottle to Ely, and followed Josh outside.
 

“Where are we going?” he asked once they were in the car and he had the GPS working.
 

Jessie didn’t need to double-check Dan’s license—she’d memorized his address and even checked it out on the Internet. Maybe she was getting close to stalking-girlfriend syndrome. This was very unlike her, but then again, Dan wasn’t exactly being the perfect gent. He had sent her a sweet text after their fabulous day in bed on Saturday, and she’d saved his number then. But he hadn’t contacted her on Sunday or Monday. Today was almost over and still no word. She had left one text and one message on his voice mail, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave any more. That would scream of desperation.
 

The car pulled out into the busy traffic on Commonwealth Avenue.
 

She knew she’d told him about going to Ely’s for Thanksgiving. She remembered the conversation well because she had asked him what he was doing. “Nothing much,” had been his reply. He wasn’t a man of many words. Then again, she reminded herself, she wasn’t with him for his conversation skills but rather his talent in a whole other area.
 

“It’s snowing!” Josh said with delight.
 

It wasn’t the first time Jessie had seen snow. They had plenty of wintry weather in the UK but not like this. Huge fluffy flakes landed softly on the hood of the car and on the windshield.

“It’s beautiful,” she said in a whisper.

“You think?” he said. “Wait till you come back after Thanksgiving. It’ll be a complete whiteout. Shit, I hope this doesn’t close the airport.”

The GPS interrupted them and told them to take a left onto Arapahoe Drive.
 

“You don’t suppose there’s any chance of that, do you? The airports closing, I mean?”

Josh shrugged and focused on the road. “It happens sometimes, but they’re ready for big winters up here. They can clear a lot of snow.”

Jessie watched the Newton neighborhood whizz by and saw the snow was beginning to stick. People were walking with purpose, their heads huddled down in their jackets. It made her shiver even though the car was warm. She was glad Josh was driving. She still couldn’t get used to the traffic on the other side of the road, and she’d never driven in a snowstorm.

“You have reached your destination,” the GPS said a few moments later.
 

“That was fast.” Jessie was feeling a bit insecure now that she was outside Dan’s home.
 

Josh stopped the car and looked at the house. “If he’s here, I guess the bike’s in the garage. Doubt he’ll be using it in this weather . . . shoot!” Then he turned his attention to Jessie. “If he asks you in, come back out and tell me. I’m not sitting here all afternoon while you two get cozy inside.”

Jessie wasn’t so sure about being there at all. Something held her back. “Maybe I shouldn’t be calling round unannounced.”

“You tried to phone the guy, didn’t you? Anyway, Ely said you had to give him back his driver’s license. You know it’s illegal to drive without that in the US. You’re doing the guy a favor. Go on, I’ll wait.” He reached across her and opened the car door. A wave of icy air rushed into the warm car. “Man, that’s cold. Hurry, woman.”

Despite her reluctance, she got out of the car.

Jessie got Dan’s driver’s license out of her purse and clutched it for reassurance. She was just bringing it back—no big deal. If his mother or father answered, she’d be polite and say she was a friend of Dan’s.

Jessie wasn’t dressed for snow, with a pair of black boots and gray jeans. She didn’t have a coat with her either. Usually, it hung on the back of the bedroom door, but Ely had cleared away all that stuff, too.

She rang the doorbell. “Maybe there’ll be nobody here,” she whispered. The door opened.

“Hi.” Jessie smiled overenthusiastically. “I’m guessing you’re Mrs. Walker. I’m Jessie, a friend of Dan’s. I was just, um, in the neighborhood, and you see, I have Dan’s driver’s license. That is to say, he dropped it.” She held it out as proof that she wasn’t a crazy stalker. “Um, is he here?” She was sure she sounded like an idiot.

Mrs. Walker’s face was impassive for a second, but then she smiled. “What a nice thing to do.” She took the license and read the name on it. “Yes, this is Dan’s. He’s not here just at the moment. He’s at work, but I’ll see he gets it.”

“Who’s that, Mom?” Jessie heard a younger woman say from somewhere in the house.

“It’s okay, Sadie. I’ve got it. You go put your feet up.” Mrs. Walker spoke over her shoulder. But Sadie, it appeared, had other plans. She came up to the front door and pushed past Mrs. Walker to have a look at Jessie.

“Hullo,” Jessie said, still flashing her bright British grin.

“I’m Sadie Walker. What can we do for you?” She was a small blonde, maybe in her late twenties, Jessie thought, and very pregnant.

“I was just telling your mother here that I was in the neighborhood. I’m a friend of Dan’s. He dropped his driver’s license, so I thought I’d bring it back.”

“Did he drop his license or his pants?” the blonde asked, her voice rising by the second. “He said he was done with this, Mom. He said that was all behind him.”

Sadie wasn’t talking to Jessie anymore. She grabbed the license from Mrs. Walker and started to cry.

“He is, he is. This is just a friend. Nothing more,” Mrs. Walker said. “Don’t get yourself upset. You’re too far along.” She looked at Jessie. “Thank you for this, but I think you better go now.”

Jessie watched. She knew what was happening, but she didn’t want to believe it.

“I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?”
 

Mrs. Walker was closing the door on her now, but Sadie pushed it open. “That depends. Are you screwing Dan Walker, my husband and the father of my child?” she shouted through her tears just as Mrs. Walker pulled her back inside and clicked the door shut.

The snow was falling heavier now, but Jessie didn’t feel it. She turned from the door and walked back to the car.

“I’m guessing he wasn’t there,” Josh said. His voice sounded normal and friendly like nothing had changed.

Jessie got into the car.
 

“Hey, you’re covered in snow. Will you wipe that shit off? You’ll catch a cold.” He looked at her face. “Hey, you okay? You look kinda—I dunno—dazed.”

“Is that what you call it?” she said, but her eyes remained glazed over as she stared, unblinking, out the front window of the car.
 

The engine was running and the car was warm, but she didn’t notice. Josh had the wiper blades on full speed to keep the window from freezing up. She didn’t care. What did it matter? If they got buried in a blizzard, she couldn’t have cared less. The blades whizzed over and back, over and back—
stu-pid, stu-pid
. Was that what they were saying to her?

Josh started to move the car. “Was that his mom I saw you talking to?”

Jessie kept watching the wipers.
Stu-pid.
“Yes.”

“And the other woman? His sister?”

“Um, no. That was his mom with his wife.”

Chapter Seventeen

At the End of the Day

“Your wife is with her mom.” Barbara delivered the news as she delivered their millionth round of double espressos to Rick and his brainstorming team.

At first he thought it was a joke. He laughed at the receptionist, but she gave him a blank look. “Orga is locked in the kitchen, so don’t be too late this evening.”

The other men jeered Rick when they heard that. Rick knew that all of the wives had been complaining about the late work nights, and now his team could see he was getting the same grief. What these guys didn’t know was Rick’s mother-in-law lived in Puerto Rico. It wasn’t like Maria had hopped over to Watertown. It had to be a joke. Just to be sure, he checked his phone. There were no new texts or e-mails, but he did see a missed call from Maria. He tried to call her back but got her voice mail and didn’t have time to leave a message. There were seven men sitting around the table watching at him.

They wrapped up the meeting at nine o’clock, and then he called the house phone. When he got the answering service, he assumed Maria was in the bath or in bed already. She had started going to bed earlier and earlier. He was pretty sure it was to avoid him, but then again, the kids exhausted her.
 

This fight they were having was a bitch. The only way he handled it was by working himself into the ground. The gym helped, too. Thinking about Jessie didn’t help. The less he thought about her, the better.
 

Somebody had mentioned it was snowing when they were working, but he didn’t realize how heavy it was until he whisked his red sports car out of the underground parking lot in Post Office Square. The snowfall was heavy, and he knew only too well the slick roads would make traffic worse. He tried the house phone again. Still no luck. Why would Orga be locked in the kitchen? Was Maria joking? Maybe she was trying to reconnect. Jeez, that would be a relief. He was done fighting. In fact, he couldn’t even recall what the fight was over. Rick tried to remember. It had been the night he brought flowers home.
 

“Aw, shit,” he said to the empty car. “Puerto Rico.” That was what they’d fought about.
 

She had said how great it was, and he had dissed it a little too much. Driving through the snow now, he could sure see its appeal. All he could do was crawl along in the fast lane of the Mass Pike, and that was where Rick got his first jolt of panic. Was it possible Maria hadn’t been joking? Could she actually have gone to Puerto Rico with the kids?
 

“No way,” he mumbled. “Not possible.”
 

He slipped into the middle lane of the jam-packed road, because it seemed to be moving a bit faster. A car honked at him. “Screw you,” he yelled and shook his fist at the SUV behind him, not even sure it was the same driver. “Jesus!”

He turned down the heat in the car because the noise of the fan had started to annoy him. “Work’s hard enough these days without the added bonus of a nagging wife.” If she’d gone AWOL with the kids for Thanksgiving—well, he wasn’t sure what he would do. Rick was getting angrier. He tried her cell again. The traffic began to move, and he slipped back into the fast lane.

It wasn’t smart to drive fast in heavy snow. The roads were slippery—even with the sand that had been put down—but Rick didn’t care. He had to get home. He kept telling himself it wasn’t anything serious because otherwise Maria would have texted or e-mailed. She wasn’t that mad at him—or was she?

The houses on Crystal Lake Lane were lit up with holiday lights, twinkling a warm welcome home. The snow that had settled on the ground in a soft blanket was the perfect backdrop for Thanksgiving. Any other day, Rick might have slowed to enjoy the picture postcard beauty of it. The novelty of the first snowfall always drew the kids out to make snowmen and snow angels.
 

It would be Alice’s first time to really see it. He wanted to hold her and help her catch a snowflake, just like he had with Cody when he was little. Rick knew he had to work the next day, but maybe he could go in late. He wanted to see the kids’ reaction to the winter wonderland they would wake up to in the morning.
 

He pressed the opener for the garage door and waited for it to rise. It was just a few feet up when he saw Maria’s car was gone. “What the—seriously?”

Rick called Cathi. “Is Maria at your house?”

Cathi sounded as annoyed as he. “What? Of course not. It’s almost ten, Rick. Are you at home?”

“No. Sorry I called so late. Forget it. I’m not at home. I’m sure she’s there.” It was a half lie. Technically he wasn’t in the house yet.
 

He wasted no time getting into the kitchen where, just as Barbara had said, Orga was locked inside. The dog was thrilled to see him and needed to get out into the backyard. Rick let her out and then ran through the house. Everything looked normal. The furniture was just as it had been that morning. He bounded up the stairs—first to Alice’s room, then Cody’s, and last his own. There were no bodies in beds.