Tony couldn’t help but laugh. “Because I never saw her eyes. I wanted to see her eyes.”
“She has beautiful eyes.”
“Yes,” he said, “I know.”
After hanging up the phone, he simply sat there for a fewminutes watching the early-morning sky. Thinking that finally, finally he had something he could give Claire. Something concrete to show her the rest of the way. She’d made the first step; now he could show her the rest.
It was finally beginning to look better. Pretty soon shewould have other people to rely on, other women who knewmore what she’d faced than Tony ever could. She could turnto them for her support, and Tony would be free to leave.
He would be free to go home alone and spend his mornings watching that pond in silence.
Without thinking about it, he flipped on the ignition andshifted into first. One thing at a time. One problem at atime. For now all he needed to think about was the fact that for the first time since he’d stumbled onto Claire’s secret asshe’d crouched in the corner in her kitchen, things werelooking better.
It only took twenty minutes for him to understand howwrong he was. He hadn’t even pulled to a stop at the backof the house when Peaches came running out with Claire’sfriend Nadine in tow. Both of them looked frantic.
“What’s wrong?” Tony demanded, climbing out of thecar.
“She’s not with you?” Peaches demanded.
“Who, Claire? No. Why?”
“She’s supposed to be at work,” Nadine said. “Twohours ago. She never showed up. Nobody’s seen her.”
“What do you mean nobody’s seen her?”
“She means nobody’s seen her,” Peaches snapped. “Claire’s missing.”
