“Do you regret it?”Diana asked.
I had to think for a moment.“I never had a choice, really.David didn’t want more children.If I had insisted, he probably would have left me sooner.Since I didn’t, he stayed with me until I was forty.”
Diana nodded.
“But now...I don’t know.My mother is gone.I never knew my father.My husband’s dead.His children never liked me.If I’d had children of my own, at least I wouldn’t be alone.”
There was a moment of silence.Perhaps Diana was contemplating the possibility that she would now find herself in the same situation.If Steven was gone and not coming back, she might very well do just that.
“You have a lot of pictures of a young man who looks like Steven,” I said.“I thought maybe it was your son.Or his son, once you said you’d only been married fifteen years.”
Diana shook her head.“That’s Trevor.Steven’s nephew.”
“Have you called him?Maybe he knows where Steven is.”
Diana reached for her phone.“I’ll do it right now.”
“Where’s the garage?Do you have one?”
Not everyone in these old neighborhoods do.There were cars parked up and down the streets all over Richland.
“Out back,” Diana said, waving toward the rear of the house.
“I’ll go see if his car is there while you make your call.”I headed off in that direction as she dialed.By the time she started speaking, I had located the double French doors from the family room—surely an addition to the original house—onto the deck, and gone out that way.
The garage was a separate structure at the back of the property.It might have been a carriage house at one point, when the neighborhood was new, or it could have been a later addition made to look like it had always been there.
It opened into the alley.The yard was enclosed with a privacy fence on all sides, so the only way out was through the garage.I tried the side door.It was locked.This time I did press my nose to the glass and peer inside.The garage was empty.
I trudged back through the yard and into the family room.“Nothing.”
Diana nodded.“Trevor hasn’t heard from Steven.Or so he says.”
“Do you have any reason to think he’d be lying?”
She shook her head.“He’s in Los Angeles.It isn’t likely Steven would go to him.”
Probably not.That was even farther than Virginia.“I guess we just have to wait,” I said.“At least nothing seems to be wrong.He left of his own accord this morning.Maybe he’s just somewhere out of cell phone range.Or he turned off his phone for some reason.Or forgot to charge it last night, so it ran out of juice.”
Diana nodded.Although I noticed she had gnawed the lipstick off her bottom lip.“I have another appointment in...”She checked her watch, “forty minutes.I have to go back to the office.”
“Let me know if you hear from him,” I told her, as we walked out the front door together, and I watched her close and lock it.“I’m sure nothing’s wrong.But let me know what you find out.”
She nodded.“You do the same.”
I promised I would.We got into our respective cars, and I sat and waited until Diana zoomed off, back toward Germantown and the office.Then I pulled out my phone and dialed Mendoza.“I just wanted to update you,” I told him when he came on, sounding harried.“Steven Morton wasn’t at home, alive or dead.His car’s gone.His clothes are all here.He had oatmeal for breakfast and left the bowl in the sink.He didn’t leave a note.There’s nothing to indicate he left under duress or in a hurry.His mother in Virginia hasn’t heard from him, nor has his nephew in California.Or so they both say.Diana is worried, but trying to hold it together.She went back to the office for an appointment.”
Mendoza thanked me.
“Anything new on your end?”
“Nothing pertaining to Steven Morton,” Mendoza said.“Go walk the dog, Mrs.Kelly.”
He hung up.I deduced he was busy.
By the timeI got back to the office, poor Edwina was practically crossing her legs on the sofa.“I’m sorry,” I told her, as I shook the leash out and snapped the end of it onto her collar.“I’m sure you have to go.Let’s take a walk.”
She jumped off the sofa, ears flapping.Her nails skidded on the floor as she headed for the hallway.I hurried after, through the lobby and outside.For having such short legs—albeit four of them—she could put on a lot of speed.Behind me, Rachel giggled.
