It’d taken me a day to locate her sister. Then when Mary told me Jess had just left, I didn’t believe her. So, I did surveillance for two more days to confirm she was telling me the truth.
I did another license plate reader check and realized we’d probably passed each other somewhere along the interstate—only Jess had been going north and I’d been heading south.
But when I returned to Haven Springs, I still couldn’t find her. It took following Ed and Carol around for a day to figure out she was living above the hardware store.
“Hey…” I said softly.
“Hi,” she replied coolly and moved the door so I couldn’t see past her into the apartment.
Her expression seemed duller than the last time I’d seen her, and she had dark circles under her eyes. And it was hard to tell, but her clothes seemed looser.
“May I come in?”
“No. Ruthie’s sleeping, I don’t want to wake her up.”
“I’ll talk softly,” I assured her with my normally-sure-thing smile.
Jess obviously wasn’t impressed.
“What do you want, Alan?”
“I want to know why you’re living here when you have a three-bedroom house that has your name on the lease.”
“Because I can’t afford that rent. I can afford it here.”
“You absolutely can afford it. It’s already paid for.”
“By you.”
“Who cares?”
“I do. Your name is also on the lease, which means you can go there anytime the whim to visit hits you. Like now, apparently.”
“It’s not a whim; I came straight here. I haven’t even been to Massachusetts.”
“You haven’t?” Her tone dripped with sarcasm. “Isn’t Massachusetts between here andVermont?”
“Look, please let me come in so I can explain.”
“There’s really no need. Your brother filled me in. And Lainey. And Jade. Brian probably would have, too, if he’d been at the hospital. And everyone else who knew where my husband really was but me.” She shook her head. “You must have thought I was such a joke.”
“What? No! Never! You’ve got it all wrong, babe.”
The minute I uttered, “babe,” I knew I’d made a mistake.
Her eyes flashed, and she hissed, “You don’t get to call me that anymore.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.”
We stood staring at each other, and I asked, “How’s Ruthie?”
“She’s fine.”
“May I see her?”
“No.”
The hurt must have shown on my face because she softly added, “I told you, she’s sleeping.”
