“He’s been kidnapped!”
Kidnapped?“What do you mean, kidnapped?”How could he be kidnapped?Who’d want to kidnap Steven?
“Just get over here!”Diana told me, her voice so high and shaky I could barely understand the words.“I’m calling the police.”
She hung up in my ear.I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and picked up the pair of jeans I had dropped on the floor when I went to bed last night.If I wasn’t going to have time for a shower this morning, I might as well wear them again.
I had to bring Edwina, of course.I loaded her in the car, and we took off out of the garage on two wheels—by then it was past six-thirty—and shot up the street.Two minutes later, I squealed to a stop at the sidewalk outside Reservoir Park and let Edwina out.She did her business, I deposited said business in the trash can by the gate, and we got back in the car.And headed for Richland at a more sedate, but still rapid clip.
By the time I got there, Mendoza’s sedan was already parked out front.And if he’d been woken from dead sleep earlier than usual, you couldn’t see it by looking at him.He looked as fresh as a daisy, well-rested, clear-eyed, and turned out in one of his nice suits, this one a navy blue paired with a pale blue shirt and a striped tie.The knot was perfect.So were his shoes.Just as if he’d been polishing them when Diana called.
“Ugh,” I said.
He arched his brows.“Good morning, Mrs.Kelly.”
“Nobody should look that good before seven in the morning.”
He didn’t respond—although his mouth twitched—and I added, “Diana called me.She said Steven’s been kidnapped.”
Mendoza sighed and stepped out of the doorway.“You might as well come in.”
I looked over my shoulder at Edwina, who was eying Mendoza adoringly from the front seat, her doggie tongue lolling out.
“Leave her there,” he told me.
“Will you go say hello to her?”
He rolled his eyes.“If I have to.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”
He looked less than thrilled, but he nodded.
“Make sure she doesn’t pee on the seat,” I told him as I ducked past him into the house.“She does that when she gets excited.”
“Of course she does.”
Of course she did.I hid a smile.“Where’s Diana?”
“Kitchen,” Mendoza said, on his way down the stairs to say hello to the dog.I watched him walk over to the car and greet Edwina, who looked close to heavenly rapture at his arrival, before I headed down the hallway toward the kitchen.
It was like déjà vu all over again to walk through the door.Here I was, wearing the same clothes I’d been wearing yesterday.And there was Diana, wearing the same yoga pants and T-shirt she’d changed into yesterday.The only thing missing were the containers of Chinese food.Diana must have put the leftovers away, or maybe Mendoza had taken them with him.
Either way, here we were again.
Diana looked up when I walked through the door, and her face twisted.“Gina.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, and walked over to give her a hug.“What happened?”
She took a breath.“I was sleeping.Finally.The first part of the night, I just twisted and turned.Hoping that I’d hear Steven come home.”
I nodded.I’d had a few days like that, too, after David moved out.Hoping—and halfway not hoping—that he’d come to his senses and realize that he didn’t want to throw away eighteen years of marriage on a girl who’d barely started elementary school when he married me.
Needless to say, he didn’t.And then he died.
But we were talking about Steven.
“I guess I fell asleep eventually.And then someone rang the doorbell.”She shifted on the barstool.“It took me a second or two to realize it, I guess.I knew I’d heard something, but you know how it is.It takes a moment to realize what it was.And then it happened again.”
