“Does your wife work outside the home?” Chang asked.
“She’s an optometric assistant at Crystallo View Optical.”
“And you?” Pepper asked.
“I’m a carpenter, a framer. I build houses with Solid and Strong Contracting.”
“Do you have children?” Pepper asked.
“One. Our son, Jake. He’s eight.”
After the helicopter circled again, the reporters thanked Greg and left.
* * *
Morning became afternoon.
Greg canvassed with Sue Kelston all the way to Liz Miller’s house on Oak Shade. Then they continued deeper into Auden Glen. As the day wore on, Greg’s stomach yowled. He’d refused sandwiches and fruit brought by volunteers. He got by on coffee and energy drinks.
Later in the afternoon, word circulated that the neighborhood watch teams had covered the entire route Jenn would’ve taken in Ripplewood and Trailside Grove. Parts of Noble Haven and Bluebird Park were covered, too. Another shift of volunteers would be coming on to recanvass, focusing on addresses where no one was home during the first canvass.
Greg was determined to keep working with the second shift when Kat and Vince met up with him.
“Greg,” Kat said. “You need to go home.”
“I’m not quitting.”
“You need to eat and get some rest,” Kat said.
“I’m fine.”
“I called Holly Wiley,” Kat said. “She’s on her way back from the Falls with Jake.”
Vince gripped Greg’s shoulder.
“Son,” he said. “You’re going to have to tell Jake about what’s happened to his mother.”
Greg’s face sobered at the realization. He stared at his father, then his sister.
In Kat’s Jeep, driving home to Trailside Grove, Greg unfolded the flyer and stared at it.
In a flash, he pictured Jenn at sixteen on that day in West Grove High School when he saw her, really saw her, for the first time.
She was sitting on that corner bench that was easy to miss in the main lobby by the interior garden at the entrance to the cafeteria. She was hugging her books, head lowered, crying.
He only knew a little about her—that her parents had died when she was young and she had to live with her grandmother.
Greg thought Jenn was shy and quiet. There were the times he’d pass her in the hall, those moments when she pulled back her hair and glanced at him. He liked her smile.
But on that day, when he saw her alone and crying, he was concerned, even though he didn’t know her. He didn’t think she was crying about her parents because they’d died quite a few years before.
He didn’t go to her; it would’ve been awkward. But later, after asking around, he’d learned that she’d been dumped by her boyfriend, leaving Greg with one thought: Who’d be stupid enough to break that girl’s heart?
That’s when he’d decided to ask Jenn out.
Now, as Kat wheeled the Jeep out of Ripplewood and onto Sentinel, Greg looked at the flower box that had replaced the developer’s billboard for Trailside Grove. While the billboard was no longer there, its promising message haunted him.
Where All Your Dreams Come True.
Nine
Buffalo, New York, Trailside Grove
A front bumper, small front wheels rolling, hands working the steering wheel, guiding the go-kart along the twisting, turning track, closing in on another go-kart, its rear bumper, roll bar, driver’s helmet, all coming into view.
“That’s Carter ahead of me!” Jake pointed to the video filling Greg’s flat-screen in the basement. “He’s winning but I’m going to pass him.”
Jake had returned from his day in Niagara Falls, bubbling with excitement, telling Greg how Carter’s mom got the video option for the boys at the go-kart track and put it on his laptop.
Greg had picked up tacos and nachos for supper, Jake’s favorite, and now they were playing Jake’s video and eating at the coffee table in the man cave with Kat and Vince.
“Wait, is Mom here? Mom!” Jake stared at the screen. “Look!” He munched and pointed. “It’s so awesome! The karts and helmets got dragons and rockets and sharks painted on them! I’ve got rockets! There! I’m passing Carter! LOSER!” Jake shot his fist into the air then reached for another nacho. “Mom’s gotta see this!”
Jake’s gaze was welded to the TV when Greg glanced across the room to Vince, and then to Kat, who mouthed the words Tell him.
“Isn’t it cool, Dad?” Jake said when the video ended. “Can we go back there? Let’s play it again.” Jake picked up the remote control, restarted the video then bit into a taco. “I want Mom to see it. Where is she? Mom!”
Greg didn’t answer. He couldn’t find a way to begin.
“Where’s Mom, Dad?”
Jake turned from the TV, his concentration shifting to the adults, stopping to read their faces, picking up a troubling vibe.
“Hey, why’re Aunt Kat and Grandpa here anyway?”
Greg looked at Jake, his heart wrenching at how he resembled Jenn so much. He had her eyes, her cheeks, and her goodness. As he searched his son’s face, he saw that Jake also had his mother’s quick mind, her intelligence, because it was clear that awareness was dawning on him.
“This is weird,” Jake said. “Something’s wrong.”
Greg took the remote, shut off the TV, and patted the sofa beside him.
“Come up here and sit with me,” Greg said.
Jake hesitated, looked at his dad then sat with him.
“Did I do something bad?”
“No, son.”
“What is it?”
“It’s Mom,” Greg said.
“Something bad about Mom?” Jake’s voice quavered.
Greg put his arm around Jake, pulling him close.
“She didn’t make it home last night from her book club.”
“What do you mean? Where is she?”
“We don’t know,” Greg said.
“Where’d she go? What happened to her?” Jake’s voice cracked.
“Her car may have had a breakdown, a flat tire, or someone took it, or a medical problem and got lost, or something. We don’t know.”
Jake’s eyes pinballed to his aunt, his grandfather, then back to his dad.