Part 29 (1/2)

Ben frowned. ”That doesn't make any sense. She's got to have that phone in her hand, just in case there's news about Erny.”

”I know,” said Dawn. ”Believe me, I know.”

”And you have no idea where she went?” Ben said.

Dawn shook her head. ”I wasn't here when she left. Kenneth and I walked up toward the campground looking for some sign of Erny. In vain, it turns out.”

”I was here,” said Julie.

Ben turned to her. ”What did she say exactly?”

Julie was clutching her husband's hand. ”Well, the cops...” Julie turned and looked down the hall, but the officers had not yet returned from the kitchen where they had gone to get a cup of coffee. Julie lowered her voice. ”One of them challenged her. Said she shouldn't be leaving with Erny missing, in case some kind of decision had to be made, you know?”

Ben nodded gravely.

”Tess insisted she had to go and said that if any decisions needed to be made that they could ask me. That she would trust me with...” Julie's voice choked for a moment. ”Trust me with Erny's life.”

Jake shook his head. ”What is she up to?”

Julie frowned. ”I had the feeling...it was just a feeling, mind you...”

”What?” Jake demanded.

Julie shook her head. ”I don't know. Like she didn't trust the police. For some reason, she didn't want them to know where she was going.”

Ben's eyes widened. ”Oh d.a.m.n.”

”What?” said Jake.

”Nothing. Never mind,” said Ben.

”Well, I'm going to look for her,” said Jake. ”I don't know where the h.e.l.l to look. But I know Kelli's car. I'll look for that.”

”Oh don't,” Julie pleaded. ”It's too dangerous.”

Jake turned to her with a surprisingly gentle demeanor. ”Don't worry,” he said. ”I'll be okay. What about you, Mr. Ramsey? Ben?”

”I think...I might talk to Edith Abbott. Maybe she's remembered something useful. It's worth a try.”

Dawn and Julie looked at him anxiously, clearly doubting that he would be getting anything helpful from Edith. ”Jake,” he said, ”let's keep in contact while we're out there. Call me if you hear anything. About Erny or Tess.”

”You, too,” said Jake.

The two men shook hands.

”I can take another turn around, as well,” offered Kenneth.

Jake eyed him suspiciously, but Ben nodded. ”We can use all the help we can get.”

”Call us. And be careful,” Dawn pleaded as the men went out to the driveway, and got into their vehicles.

Jake roared off first in his truck and Kenneth followed. But Ben sat in the driveway idling for a moment before he set out. He looked over at the bench where he and Tess had sat earlier in the day, recalling their conversation. He had as much as suggested to her that Rusty Bosworth might be the one responsible for Nelson's death and Erny's abduction. But Ben had spent the entire afternoon with Rusty Bosworth either sitting in the same room or coming and going with a phalanx of officers. Rusty literally hadn't had a moment in which he could have waylaid Tess. Wherever she was, it wasn't with the police chief, who had been preparing for a press conference as Jake and Ben were leaving the station.

No, he was forced to admit to himself, if someone was holding Tess, Rusty Bosworth was not the guilty party. Ben was going to the Abbotts' to ask Edith if she might know of another relative of Nelson's who would share his DNA markers. There had to be someone. And something he could do. He had to find Tess.

Ben drove up the driveway and out onto the road in the dim purple twilight, putting on his headlights as he headed toward the Abbott place. As he drove, he thought about Tess. She had aroused a feeling of possibility that seemed dead in him after Melanie's death. He had first noticed Tess during the tumult of the press conference about Lazarus. With that creamy skin and dark hair, she was too beautiful to overlook. But he told himself that he was immune to beautiful women. After all, Melanie had had the face of an angel.

But that same afternoon, at the campground, when he encountered Tess walking Leo, he had felt an unmistakable spark. There was an intelligence, and a sort of gallant loneliness about her that touched him. And he was intrigued by the fact that she had a son who seemed too old to be hers by birth. Since that day, each time he saw Tess or spoke to her, he was more and more drawn to her.

It had seemed that he would never get over Melanie. His hair had turned gray. He had left everything behind that had been familiar. Three years later he was still bitter and stunned by Melanie's betrayal. She had told him she was going on a weekend trip to Florida with a college girlfriend. He had learned the truth when he was contacted by the Miami police and found out that she was staying in a luxury hotel suite in Coral Gables with a junior a.s.sociate in his own law firm. It was there that Melanie had died of a burst aneurysm while her lover lay pa.s.sed out in bed beside her.

Even now, when he thought about it, his face flamed and his heart felt like a heap of ash, incinerated by shame and fury. He had quit his firm, abandoned the city, and tried to forget, but you could never forget. He'd thought he'd known his wife. And he had never known her at all. It seemed impossible that he would ever trust someone again. And then, something in Tess's beautiful sad eyes, when she looked at him, made him think he might want to try. He could see that she was cautious, that he would have to go slow with her. And he wanted to, more than he cared to admit. If only he had the chance.

”Where are you, Tess?” he whispered aloud as he drove. ”What's happened to you?” He reached the Abbotts' driveway and drove slowly up toward the house. There were several cars parked beside the house and it was alight in a way it had never been on previous visits. Ben always had the impression that Nelson was penurious and probably insisted they turn off each light as they left a room. But tonight, light spilled from every window. Ben parked behind an old Chevy station wagon, walked up the steps, and knocked on the door.

A small, round woman with gray hair and flushed cheeks pulled the door open and smiled at him. ”h.e.l.lo,” she said, glancing admiringly at his suit and tie. There was the sound of voices and tinkling gla.s.ses coming from the kitchen.

”I'm looking for Edith,” he said. ”I'm her attorney. Ben Ramsey.”

”Oh, of course,” said the woman. ”I'll call her. Come on in.”

”I hope this isn't a bad time,” he said. ”I know she's been through so much.”

The woman shook her head. ”Not a bad time. She's doing all right. We're just having a little bottle of wine and relaxing a bit. I'm her friend, Jo, by the way.”

”Nice to meet you, Jo,” he said.

Ben walked into the spartan living room and waited as the woman at the door yodeled for Edith. After a moment, Edith came into the living room. Her normally colorless skin was an unfamiliar shade of pink, everywhere but around her eyes, which were decidedly not red-rimmed behind her gla.s.ses. ”Oh Mr. Ramsey,” she said. ”Aren't you nice to come.” She walked unsteadily to Ben, raised herself up on her tiptoes, and kissed him on the cheek.

Ben tried not to betray his surprise at the gesture, which was completely out of character with the severe, taciturn woman he knew. ”How are you doing, Edith?”

Edith gave an abrupt nod of her head. ”I'm doing well. A few people are here with me. You met Jo.”

Ben nodded.

”Come on in. Have a gla.s.s of wine with us. My friend Sara brought a cake that's delicious.”

The expression on her face was placid, almost...relieved. The loss of her husband did not seem to be weighing on her heart this evening. Ben noted, from the sounds of laughter in the other room, that the atmosphere was closer to that of a party than a wake. ”I can't stay, Edith. I do have an important question for you, though. Could you spare a minute?”

”For you. Of course,” said Edith. She indicated one of the straight-back chairs in the living room and she sat down on the other and looked at him expectantly.

”This is about Nelson. His death.”