Page 6 of All In Good Time
As quickly as her hopes flew, they lost the momentary momentum and plummeted down deeper into the pit than before. Becca sighed, as she hid her helpless disappointment behind a halfhearted smile.
“That’s my map. I put it there for him to look at. I was looking at the college there, and we were thinking of visiting for a little bit. That’s why it was in his car.”
Mal deflated. Her hopeful eyes lost their spark. “Oh.”
“It’s a good thought, though, Mal, but—”
A thought. A small one, like the simple passing of a fly, buzzed through her head, and she stopped. Madison, Wisconsin. It was about two hours north of Highburg, and a direct route by freeway up across state borders. It was about as direct you could get to anywhere from this town.
The one person who had seen Derek the day of the fight. They’d told Becca they saw him driving north out of town toward the freeway. It sounded normal to Becca at first. Derek had driven that route day after day to get home.
But Derek never made it home. What were the chances of him continuing two hours north, all the way up to the same city they had been talking about?
“Becca?”
Her entire body nearly lost connection to her brain. She jumped and grasped the edge of the table as the world seemed to fall from under her. Mal was looking at her, lips turned down in confusion. “Madison.”
“What?”
“I think you’re right.”
Mal’s eyes widened and she inhaled sharply. “I am?”
The ache of her back disappeared, and her exhaustion evaporated under the rush of adrenaline. “He’s in Madison.”
Mal blinked rapidly, looking urgently at Becca for anything else she could give her. “What do we do?”
Becca picked up the phone that was still lying beside her. “I need to make some calls.”
3
October 1984 | Before
Halloween was either the worst or best part of the year in Becca’s book. This year could arguably be considered the worst of the worst.
That damned party had left her standing alone at damn Ruby’s house, as the rest of her friends disappeared. She managed to find her friend Marty as he stormed out, with his new ex-girlfriend, April, on his heels, begging for forgiveness. Not much time to ask questions and receive answers.
Not long after, the cops arrived while she was trying to find a ride, and she had been left hiding in the forest behind Ruby’s house until the lights of the cop cars disappeared. The only solace in the entire situation was that she had dressed as a cute rabbit rather than a sexy one, so she wasn’t entirely freezing in the dark.
But that was where the relief died, because it would take about an hour to walk back to her house from there, and her mom was out of town—again.
She cursed as she began the trek from the northern side of town to the southern. She passed through some of the nicer suburbs, similar to where Marty lived, and then through some of the more run-down areas. But her own house was on the other side of a forest, and while walking straight through it would have been quicker, she had seen enough of those slasher films to know that it was the perfect way to get slaughtered. So, instead, she stuck to the road that wound around the deepest part of the woods and connected her subdivision with another.
Cars sped past her, and she regretted her outfit choice. A damn bunny. No one wanted to pick up a damn bunny on the side of the road, and if she tried to stop anyone by standing in the middle, she would just end up roadkill.
So she stuck to the edges and cursed throughout the entire dark part of the area—and pulled off the ears once she realized they were still on her head.
Halfway home, she saw a car sitting on the side of the road. She paused and looked at it from a distance. She could tell it was something nice, and more than that, it was something familiar. She just couldn’t place her finger on it quite yet, but whoever it was, maybe they would give her a ride the rest of the way home.
She approached it cautiously, trying to see if there was anyone in there, and when she was next to the driver’s side window, she cupped her hands and peered inside. It was empty. But from the heat of the hood, it hadn’t been there very long.
She tried to open the door, but it stuck. Locked.
“Dammit.” She kicked at some pebbles, and turned back to the road, ready to walk the rest of the way. Who the hell left a perfectly good car on the side of the road like that?
Then she saw him. Leaning against a tree, his head tilted back against its trunk.
She didn’t recognize him at first, and from the distance she thought it might have been a dead man. But then he coughed and spat something onto the ground, and she realized he was very much alive.
