“No, sorry,” she said. “I guess they didn’t take your phone yet.”
“They will right after this.”
“I’ll pick up a temporary one for you and a laptop.”
“Get one for Jake, too. I think he should have one, given what’s happened.”
“Okay. Hang in there,” Kat said.
Greg scrolled through texts and emails. Most were from friends offering support, some were reporters requesting interviews; Al Clayton texted from the Pine Castle job.
Everything’s running smoothly on-site. Everyone here’s pulling for you. We’re standing by to help.
Greg texted his thanks, then saw one of the stone-faced investigators glance at the time on the kitchen clock. Greg prepared to shut his phone off and surrender it when it pinged with a new text. He tensed. He knew the number, knew who it was from.
Praying for you, Greg. I’ll do anything to help.
Greg didn’t respond.
He shut down his phone and handed it to the investigators, who then went through the house with him, collecting and documenting the seizure of his computer, Jenn’s computer, and their tablets.
“Where’s your home video gaming system?” asked Rex Neller, the investigator whose expression never wavered from a grimace, making Greg wonder if it was permanent.
“In the basement. My son’s playing.”
“We have to take it.”
“You’re going to take an eight-year-old’s video game system?”
“It’s got internet access. It’s covered by the warrant.”
Greg shook his head in defeat.
“Let me talk to him.”
As Greg went down the stairs, Jake turned from his game, pulled off his headset, eyeing Neller and the other investigator behind him.
“Did you find Mom?”
“No, son. These police officers have to take your video game and the officer upstairs needs to get your fingerprints.”
“Why?”
“To help find Mom.”
“But why take my game?”
“Because it’s connected to the internet.”
“And why my fingerprints?”
“It’s complicated, son, but it will help.”
Jake stared at the TV screen, eyes welling with tears.
“They have to take my fingerprints, my phone, and our computers, too,” Greg said. “Listen, do you want to go to Carter’s and play there?”
Jake shook his head.
“I want to stay here in case Mom comes home,” Jake said, sniffing. “Can Carter come here and watch Star Wars movies with me?”
“All right. I’ll call his mom.” Greg turned to Neller. “Can I use the landline or my phone to make the call?”
Neller nodded to the wireless landline in its base next to the sofa, and Greg called Holly Wiley. She was eager to help.
“We’re on our way over,” she said.
After the call, after Wilton took Jake’s prints, after watching the investigators leave with his phone and the computers, Greg swallowed the sting of suspicion. Minutes later, he welcomed Holly and Carter at the door and the fact that Jake seemed happy to have his friend with him made him smile.
“I can stay with the boys downstairs if you like,” Holly said. “Give you a chance to get some rest. Greg, you look like you haven’t slept.”
He nodded.
Accepting her offer, he sat alone in the living room, switched on the TV, surfing channels, stopping on The Big Sleep, an old Bogart and Bacall movie about a disappearance and murder. Greg muted the sound but he couldn’t silence the relentless roaring in his mind.
Numb and helpless, he went upstairs to their bedroom to lie down. He wanted to see Jenn’s face, but the most recent picture he had of her was on his phone.
Now that was gone.
Gone, like her.
Unable to sleep, he searched their closet, rummaging through a flimsy shoebox where he’d kept old pens, broken watches, keys, and keepsakes he couldn’t throw out, including a folded newspaper clipping of their wedding.
There was Jenn, the beautiful bride.
Holding the clipping tenderly in his hand, weakened by emotion, he sat on the bed. Looking at her radiant smile, the light sparkling in her eyes, full of hope, the memories pulled him back.
They’d continued going out together through high school. Then, being blue-collar kids, they both went to Erie Community College where Jenn studied vision care at the Williamsville campus. He studied building trades at City Campus in Buffalo. After college, they found good jobs, saved their money, started thinking about the future.
One night, after cheeseburgers and shakes, they drove up to Jack Pine Hill in Greg’s pickup. As they looked at the city lights, he reached into his pocket then held out a diamond ring. It glistened like Jenn’s eyes as she cried and said yes before he slipped it on her finger.
Their wedding was in a country church. Vince danced with Jenn’s grandmother, Bee. Kat came. Alone. And while she was happy for them, there was an unstated tension between her and Jenn that never really subsided over the years.
Greg remembered going to Florida with Jenn for their honeymoon and the glorious turquoise water as they drove through the Keys.
Life was sweet then.
Jenn loved her job, telling him how she loved helping people, especially children, see clearly, sometimes for the very first time. And he loved building houses for people. He’d get up at dawn, drive to a job site, always studying every aspect of the craft and the business, until he eventually started his own small contracting company.
Not long after they got married, Bee died.
Her name was Beatrice, but everyone called her Bee. She was a bighearted woman, and a brilliant cook, who Greg had grown to love in the time he’d been with Jenn. Her death left Jenn completely alone as far as her biological family was concerned.
She had no one else.
Bee had left her a small inheritance, which included some insurance money from her parents’ deaths that was held in a trust fund. Greg and Jenn continued working and saving and a few years later, Greg and his crew built their “forever home,” in Trailside, the new subdivision.
During the planning and construction, Jenn had insisted Greg install a state-of-the-art sprinkler and fire alarm system that exceeded any codes. Jenn also insisted there were to be fire extinguishers throughout the house.
Even while they were dating, TV news stories about fatal house fires upset Jenn, causing her to change the channel. Greg understood her distress arose from her being the sole survivor of her family’s tragedy.