Page 54 of Snow Creek

“Detective, please.”

There’s a slight pause. He says something under his breath, but the refrigerator hum cancels his epithet.

“Ruth, get over here. Some detective in Washington is on my phone. Be quick about it. Someone might be calling for me.”

“Hello?”

“Mrs. Turner,” I say, “there is no easy way to give news like this to anyone.”

“Yes.”

“Is there someone there to be with you?” I purposely act like Mr. Turner isn’t even an option, because honestly, in my heart I doubt that he is.

“My husband and my oldest daughter are here.”

Her voice is cracking. She knows part of what’s coming. The other part, I doubt she could even conceive of it.

“Ruth…” I say.

She starts crying before I can say any more, and I hear a young woman hurrying to her, asking what’s wrong. I also hear Mr. Turner telling her to lower her volume. It’s interfering with whatever he’s watching on TV.

Her questions come in bursts between guttural sobs.

“What happened? Is Merritt in the hospital?”

I wish with all my heart that I was there with her.

“I’m sorry, Ruth. The evidence is that she was murdered. Merritt is still missing.”

Silence.

“Are you still there?”

“Yes,” she says, trying to pull herself together. “I am. I am. This is such a shock.”

The phone drops to the floor.

“I’m here, Mother.”

It’s the girl’s voice.

“Oh Eve,” Ruth answers as she gets back on the phone.

“Do you think Merritt has something to do with her… her… death?”

“We’re searching for him now. Yes, we do.”

I let that soak in a moment and she doesn’t react to it. The walls around the Wheatons and Turners are high and seemingly impenetrable.

“Joshua and Sarah?”

“A social worker is with them now. They are in a world of hurt, but they are being looked after until things get sorted out with the judge.”

She doesn’t ask about any of that.

Again silence.

I fill the pause with a change in topic.

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