Page 41 of I Know She Was There

“No, nothing.” His gaze locked with mine and in his eyes was a warning. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the same worn brown leather wallet he’d extracted at the diner. “Look, Caroline, I don’t want to be rude, but I’m late for an appointment.” He inserted his card into the slot on the machine in front of him.

Looking around, I wondered if someone was following him, but noticed nobody suspicious, just other shoppers ringing up their purchases all around us. No one even glanced our way.

Something was wrong, of course it was. Jeffrey had been cordial enough before. What had changed? Had he found Annie? Had she asked him not to tell anyone her whereabouts? Or, worse, had someone else gotten to him... and threatened him to stay away from her? Possibilities dashed through my mind even as Jeffrey scooped up his grocery bag and said goodbye.

I followed him, veering off to my own car, but keeping his retreating back in my line of vision. I started up my car as I watched him get into his. As he backed out of his parking spot, I was already rumbling along the pavement a few dozen yards behind.

Did he know I was following him? At the roundabout heading south, I let a red Kia in front of me so I could tail my quarry less conspicuously. No need to appear like the stalker I was.

He drove for miles, bypassing the turnoff for Deer Crossing, dodging onto unfamiliar streets in nearby neighborhoods. Eventually, he pulled into a convenience-store lot, quickly got out of his car, and rushed inside. I pulled up at the other end of the lot and parked, unsure what to do.

Maybe I’d buy a cup of coffee, casually approach Jeffrey and continue our conversation in the store. I grabbed my purse off the passenger seat and began rooting around, looking for loose change in the bottom of the bag, so engrossed in the task I didn’t notice the man standing outside the driver’s door. When he tapped my window I flinched and shot a look to my left, at Jeffrey’s red face. I rolled down the window.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Following you.”

“Why?” He sighed the way Tim always did.

“You left our discussion so open-ended. I’m afraid I couldn’t let it go.”

“I didn’t leave anything open-ended, Caroline. I don’t know what you saw in the window at Pine Hill Road, and I have no idea where Annie is, okay?”

“But you’re acting so?—”

“I’m not acting,” he cut in sharply. “I’m just busy. I have a life. And I can’t have you trailing me all over town.”

I looked into his wary eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He looked down and lowered his voice. “If I discover where Annie is, I’ll let you know.”

“Promise?” I lowered my chin, trying to get back into his line of vision.

“I promise,” he said, stepping back. Not making eye contact.

He’d lied to me. Why? I watched Jeffrey fold himself into his car. After he backed out and peeled away, I sat in my driver’s seat, thinking.

* * *

By the time I parked in the street opposite my house and turned off my headlights, all vestiges of twilight had vanished. I leaned forward and looked up through my windshield at the black canvas of sky above. The moonless night rendered the neighborhood a mass of blank space, a desolate landscape devoid of familiar shapes until my eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Slowly, the outline of my house materialized, like a cosmic magic trick. The front stoop’s harsh lines, and the stark cut of the asphalt driveway appeared more barren in the dusky hollows of the night.

The darkness wasn’t comforting. It merely cloaked the things I couldn’t face—like my uncertain presence in the flimsy, unsafe little ranch, unsure of what Tim’s next move would be. A choking pressure lodged in my throat as disjointed images banged into each other inside my brain, retreating as new ones edged them out: Tim’s angry face, mouth moving, eyes narrowed; the empty box dropping from my hand; Jeffrey’s retreating back; two teens gossiping behind the drugstore counter, their faces pressed up close, noses nearly touching; my mother’s mouth puckered in disapproval; the woman at the window, her hands grasping her throat. Her eyes pleading.

“Whatcha doing?” A voice shot through the shadows and into my left ear, making me jump. I whipped my chin left, seeing Mary bent close to the driver’s-side window, an inane smile across her lips.

“Jesus, Mary, you scared the shit out of me!” My breath spooled out as she laughed. “It’s not funny.”

“Sorry, Caroline. I saw your car’s headlamps just as the last of the lights in the neighborhood were blinking off. It’s extremely late, you know. I was getting worried about you.”

“Why would you be worried about me?” I snapped. “I’m a grown woman.”

Mary straightened, unperturbed, it seemed, by my tone. “You left for the food store nearly four hours ago.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said, but as I looked around me, I realized Mary was right. Why hadn’t I equated the complete lack of light in the neighborhood with the late hour? “What time is it?”

“Nearly midnight.”

“No, how can it be...” I let my voice trail. How could I have let the night slip by without even noticing? How long had I been parked in front of the convenience store?

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