Cathy Linton was washing dishes at the kitchen sink. She offered Faith a slight nod of her head.
“Sara told me all about you. My goodness, you’re a tall drink of water. But this—” She reached up and stroked his cheek. “Sara’s not gonna like this.”
Will’s face reddened under the beard. He offered his previous line. “We don’t have any news.”
Faith explained, “We wanted to update you on what we’re doing.”
Tessa said, “We had to turn off the TV because it was all just blabbering nonsense. We should wait for Daddy. Right, Mama?”
Cathy gave a begrudging, “Yes.”
“He’s walking the dogs,” Tessa explained. “The little one is so adorable. Mama, don’t you like Betty?”
Cathy did not answer. She was like a skunk who could not stop spraying in Will’s direction.
He cleared his throat. “I need to pack some clothes.”
Tessa watched him disappear down the hall. She gave him a few seconds to reach the bedroom, then turned on her mother. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Cathy asked Faith, “Would you like some coffee?”
“I—” Faith was caught between them. “No thank—”
Cathy was already filling the cup. She took down another one from the cabinet. She said, “I suppose he takes cream?”
“He drinks—” Faith and Tessa said the words at exactly the same time.
Tessa said, “Will drinks hot chocolate in the morning.”
Cathy scowled. “He’s not six. He can’t have chocolate for breakfast.”
Tessa said, “He usually gets a biscuit on the way to work, and then he buys a breakfast burrito from the machine at the office.”
“That makes it better?”
Faith prayed for invisibility.
“Tell me.” Cathy stabbed her finger in Tessa’s direction. “How is it that you know so much about that man’s dietary regimen?”
“Do you really want to do this?”
Faith feigned interest in Sara’s spacious living room.
Cathy said, “We need to come together as a family right now, and that man is not our family.”
“Good Lord God, Mama, listen to your blind self. You can’t even say Will’s name.”
“I don’t recall your five-year liberal arts degree coming with a psychiatric license.”
Faith slumped into the couch. She opened the pediatric journal on the coffee table.
Tessa said, “The way you’re acting right now is exactly why Sara doesn’t talk to you about him.”
“That’s not—”
“I’m not finished,” Tessa said. “For the last year and a half, you’ve done your level damn best to push Will away from Sara because—”
“Because he was still married,” Cathy insisted. “If a man cheats on his wife, he’ll—”
“Will is a good man,” Tessa said. “He’s a mighty good man.”
“If that was true, if he really loved her, he would ask her to marry him. Living together is not a commitment. It’s a sleep-over with sex.”
“Oh for fucksake.”
“Exactly.”
Faith studied an article on mycoplasma pneumoniae-induced redness of the fingers.
“Mama, you can’t protect Sara from life happening again,” Tessa said. “You’re pushing Will out because you’re so worried that he’ll leave her, or break her heart, or cheat on her, or walk down to the mailbox one day and—”
“Stop.”
Tessa paused for a moment. “Sara has decided on Will. That makes him our family. You taught us that rule. You need to start following it.”
Faith prayed that the ensuing silence meant this nightmare had come to an end.
“All right.” Cathy’s tone did not indicate surrender. “You’re the expert, smartass. What do you want me to do? What would make Sara happy? Throw him a party? Adopt him?”
Tessa’s sigh indicated that she’d given up. “Just make him some damn hot chocolate.”
Faith heard a saucepan hit the stovetop. The gas whooshed. Cabinets opened and closed. The fridge was slammed so hard that the bottles inside rattled.
Faith chanced a look at the two women. Cathy was pouring milk into the pan. Tessa had her arms crossed as she stared at the front door. The only thing that could make this more awkward was if they had the entire argument all over again.
What was taking Will so long?
Faith reached into her bag for her phone. She sent him a text message—
TF R U??
The delivered receipt came back, but Will did not respond. Faith was certain he’d heard the argument. The women had not kept their voices down. He was probably crawling out the window. The only thing Will hated more than talking about his feelings was hearing other people talk about theirs.
A cabinet door slammed. The milk was returned to the fridge.
Faith rested her elbows on her knees. She opened her emails. There were the usual things; requests for paperwork, a question from the state attorney’s office. Amanda had not sent her a list of things to do, which was some kind of miracle. She would be supervising the planning for Will’s rendezvous at the Citgo. Studying maps. Pulling up tax records and property lines. What happened at the park yesterday was not going to happen again. Amanda would be driving one of the chase cars. Faith planned to be right there with her.
The front door opened. Betty barked twice. She spun in a circle in the middle of the room. Sara’s two greyhounds trotted into the kitchen and drank from the water bowls.
Faith had never met Sara’s father before, but Eddie Linton looked nothing like she had expected. The first thing she noticed was his eyebrows, which shot off in every direction. He’d cut his jeans into a pair of shorts. The white pockets hung past the frayed ends. His legs were hairy. His T-shirt was more yellow than white. Holes were in the collar. His tennis shoes were falling apart.
Tessa said, “Daddy, this is Faith, Sara’s friend.”
Faith stood up to shake his hand. “I’m sorry to meet you under these circumstances.”
He nodded. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Your girl, her name is Emma?”
“Sara’s her favorite babysitter.” Before he could ask, Faith told him, “There’s no news, but we wanted to update you on what we’re doing.”
He asked, “We?”
Betty barked again. Will was standing in the hallway, his pained expression confirming that he had heard every single word of the argument. He was dressed in a black shirt and black jeans. His tactical boots were laced tight. His gym bag was over his shoulder. He looked like an actual burglar. The kind who would murder you for your grandmother’s jewelry.
“Okay.” Faith was so ready to get this over with. “Maybe we should all sit down over here?”
There were two couches. The Lintons took the one opposite Faith. Tessa curled into the corner. Cathy placed a steaming mug of hot chocolate on the coffee table before perching on the other end. Eddie stood in the middle, waiting, because he would not sit down until Faith did.
She took a deep breath, ready to start.
“Hold on.” Eddie waved Will over. “Come sit down, son.”
The soles of Will’s boots squeaked across the hardwood floors. He sat beside Faith. She saw him wince as he leaned back. Betty scurried into his lap. She stretched herself along the length of his leg so that her head rested on his knee.
Cathy pushed the mug in Will’s direction. He looked confused.
“It’s hot chocolate,” Tessa said. “I bet you’ve never had the real thing. Sara minored in organic chemistry, but she doesn’t know how to boil milk.”
Eddie put a hand on her foot to silence her. He told Faith, “Please, go ahead.”
She took another deep breath and dove in. “Thank you, Mr. Linton. I want to start by saying that you’ve all been very good about not talking to the media. Your continued silence is vital to our investigation.”
Their stoic expressions told her that they didn’t need this part.
Faith took a third deep breath. She couldn’t get into the details of the code Sara had left in the list of medications, but she was able to say, “We got confirmation that as of yesterday morning, Sara was still alive.”
Eddie pressed his palm to his heart. His wife and daughter moved closer to his side. They each took one of his hands.
Tessa asked, “What kind of confirmation?”
“All I can share is that we believe Sara is doing everything she can to get back to you.”
Eddie nodded, as if this was to be expected. “She’s a smart girl. She knows how to take care of herself.”
Cathy pressed together her lips. She looked down at the coffee table.
Tessa was a step ahead of her parents, “You said that you got the confirmation yesterday morning. There’s been nothing since then?”
“No, but we didn’t expect to hear anything else.” Faith said, “We believe we know the name of the group that took her.”
“Group?” Tessa asked. She had the same look in her eyes that Sara got when she was putting together a case. “Did they reach out with a ransom demand? Did they show a proof of life? If they want money, we’ll find it. Why aren’t you—”
“Tessie,” Eddie said. “Let her answer your questions.”