Page 7 of Beautiful Dreamer

The redheaded woman met her gaze. “I talked with the two women whowent with Jill to karaoke night. They’re both teachers at the elementaryschool. I’m Marlene Dubois,” she said, her hand to her chest. “We spoke on thephone.”

Devyn nodded, waiting for her to continue.

“They said Jill took her own car and left the sports bar beforethey did, somewhere just after ten p.m. They recalled her being happy but alittle tired.”

“That’s because she doesn’t stay out late. She’s a homebody,”Devyn supplied, and looked to Bertaw to be sure he’d heard.

“I don’t mean to interrupt.” Elizabeth stood and came around thetable. She had big green eyes that, in this moment, carried warmth.

Devyn latched onto her, because she needed that warmth.

“I’ve made some calls around town, and folks are meeting in theCircle in half an hour. We’re going to fan out and see if we can’t help aid thesearch.”

“I appreciate that,” Devyn said. Those food-drive organizationalskills were working in Devyn’s favor today, and she was grateful for Elizabeth,someone who wasdoingsomething. “How can I help?” she asked the room. “I have a key to the house.Jill and I share ownership.”

“Great.” Bertaw said. “We did a wellness check, and nothing seemedoverturned or disheveled. No sign of any kind of struggle, but you might seesomething substantial that we wouldn’t know to look for.”

Devyn felt a surge of purpose. The idea of proactivity quelled thedread that crawled all over everything like the vines of an untended garden.“I’ll head over there.”

Elizabeth turned to her. “How about I pick you up at the house inan hour, after the volunteers have been organized? We can drive some of theback roads, see if we spot any sign of her car.”

Devyn’s hands shook as the reality of the situation came intofocus. They were assemblingvolunteers.This was really bad. If she wound up alone in this world, what was she going todo? Jill had always been there for her. She felt more than saw ten-year-oldJill’s hand brushing the hair from her eyes that time she skinned her kneewhile roller-skating in the driveway. How had Jill only been ten then? She’dseemed old and wise to Devyn at the time. “Yes. I’ll be ready.”

“See you soon.” As she passed, Elizabeth gave Devyn’s wrist asupportive squeeze. She wasn’t naturally a tactile person and her instinctwould normally have been to bristle against a stranger’s touch. She didn’t. Sheneeded reassurance in that bleak moment and drew strength from it, in fact,fleeting as it was. Devyn would take back every dismissive thought she’d everhad about Elizabeth in high school if she and her volunteer squad could makeall of this stop. She fought the urge to fall to her knees and beg for that.She was already bartering with a God she hadn’t spoken to since adolescence,desperate to trade what she had, promising to be a better person. Anything.

On the drive to Jill’s, her mind shifted to how in the hell they’dgotten here. Twenty-four hours ago, she was in a startlingly different reality,going about her fast-paced morning, landing a big deal, and heading home forthe night. How could someone be so content in one moment, celebrating a careervictory, and so terrified the next with just the push of a button on a cellphone? Everything felt raw and ruined, and it just might stay that way forever.All Devyn wanted was to fast-forward to a moment when it would all be okayagain.

Her breath caught when she pulled into the lazy S-shaped drivewaythat led to the well-cared-for one-story home she’d grown up in. Yep. Rightthere was the spot in the grass where she’d accidentally started a fire with amagnifying glass when she was eight. She’d been feeling bold and scientificthat day after watching Bill Nye do something similar on TV. Her mother,instead of chastising her, had agreed that learning about science could be fun,just maybe not the kind that involved actual flames. Jill had laughed buteventually consoled her with a piece broken off her candy bar. The once burnedpatch of grass now grew green and vibrant again, the incident just asepia-tinted blip in Devyn’s memory. She blinked through her windshield up atthe house. Pretty blue shutters now adorned the window. The color reminded herof Jill. In fact, all of the new little touches were straight out of Jill’sstylebook. A cheerful gnome with a gray beard on the front step. An arrangementof potted plants with spring flowers already blooming in a cascade of colors.The pair of wooden rocking chairs on the porch. All new. All Jill.

Her hands were a jumble as she attempted to put the key in the door,shaking and causing her to miss the keyhole. She closed her eyes and bit theinside of her lip as she pressed her forehead against the wooden door,gathering her sense of purpose once more. She had a job to do here, a goal, andthat meant shoving her own emotions to the side and drawing on the finely honedset of skills that she used in her everyday life. Calm, collected, and incharge. That seemed to work. She exhaled and let herself into the house. Joltedback fifteen years, she could still see the younger version of herself and Jillstreaking through the entryway into the living room after school, waiting atthe kitchen table with their afterschool snack—prepared by Jill—for theirmother to get home from the insurance firm at which she’d been the officemanager. Burying her face in her mother’s shoulder, Devyn would inhale herscent when she arrived home, Oil of Olay moisturizer and a little bit ofpeppermint from the sugarfree gum she often chewed. Devyn could smell thewonderful combination now just by closing her eyes.

She picked up one of the many knickknacks that now decorated mostevery surface, a mixture of new and old, and smiled at Jill’s homey approach.Devyn, on the other hand, had fallen far from the tree with her own decoratingstyle: open floor plans, hard lines and planes, and clean surfaces. A lump madeits way to her throat as she thought about her sister and how much like theirmother she’d turned out to be. A surge of love hit. She didn’t get sentimentalabout much, but her sister was different.

Shifting back to project mode, she shook free of the all-consumingsentimentality and moved about the space, which consisted of a living room,breakfast nook, dining room, and two bedrooms down one small hallway, separatedby a bathroom. The master suite was located directly off the living room.

First impression: Jill kept the place neat and well organized.There was a calendar on her refrigerator with the Tuesday she’d gone missingmarked with only aK,which she imagined stood forkaraoke.In her bathroom, her medicine organizer still held Wednesday’s thyroidmedication, which meant Jill hadn’t been there Wednesday morning to take it.Devyn’s stomach dropped and her palms went clammy. She flexed themuncomfortably. Jill’s bed was neatly made. Her car was gone. Her school bag wasdiscarded next to the door, along with a pair of heels she’d likely stepped outof the second she’d arrived home from work. She pictured it happening.

At a loss, Devyn curled up on Jill’s bed, running her hand acrossthe blue and white quilt she used as a bedspread. There was a photo of the twoof them, from the weekend Jill had stayed with her in Philadelphia, framed onJill’s nightstand. Jill smiled at the camera while Devyn smiled at Jill as theystood in front of the Rocky statue, arm in arm. “Where are you?” she mumbled,and touched Jill’s face in the photo.

Tears rolled sideways from her face to the quilt. She didn’t tryto stop them.

No, Jill hadn’t made it home Tuesday night. As she cried on hersister’s bed, letting the sobs overtake her, Devyn had never felt more alone.The edges of hope began to fade until she had nothing left.

Chapter Three

“Tony, take your group to the northern corner of the map and checkout the park.”

Elizabeth peered over his shoulder as he circled the area on hismap.

He chewed his lollipop stick and nodded. “Got it.”

“We have no idea what she might have done that night,” Elizabethpointed out. “Maybe she took a walk in the park.”

“What about me?” Charlie asked, clearly eager to get started. Herubbed his forehead as he spoke, as if comforting himself. He then gestured tothe men with him. “I got my guys from the store here and we’d like to help.What do you need?”

Charlie owned the liquor store in town, and that meant he knewlots of folks. Okay, make that everyone, and that was an asset to their cause.“Maybe talk to the local business owners in the Circle. See if anyone saw Jillin town Tuesday night after ten, even driving through.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Charlie said, and placed a backward cap on his headas if newly energized.

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