Page 186 of The Woman Left Behind

“See you later, sweetheart,” he said from the door.

“Later, honey,” I replied.

Harry left for work.

I got up and started my day.

FORTY-FIVE

Go to The Mat

Harry

“Every woman he dated. Every friend he had, though there aren’t many, or ex-friend who got sick of him. Every blood relative. Every relative by marriage. Every bartender he bought a drink from. Every homeless person he roused. Every tweaker he hassled. Every informant we’ve got. We’ve hit them all up, and no one has seen him, they’re too scared of him to say they have, or they’re covering for him,” Rus reported on the latest in trying to find Karl Abernathy. “Wade even went out with Paddy Tremayne to hit up caves and abandoned cabins to see if he’s holed up somewhere. Nothing.”

They’d also searched unlet rentals and second homes that might be unoccupied.

And they got zilch.

It was Friday, nearly a whole week after Willie pulled his stupid stunt.

During that week, the only shakeup was another woman coming in to report that Abernathy had attempted to coerce fellatio, and mercifully, she was one of the ones who told him to go fuck himself.

Dern had found a way to make bail, and he was back home, waiting for the wheels of justice to grind him through.

They’d hauled in the ex-deputies that helped Dern pull his shit and were treated to attitude, bluster, denials, some fear, and a whole lot of “I was just following orders.”

A conversation with their DA, and Harry knew it was unlikely he was going to be able to do much with those fucks, but he was still going to try to get one or several of them to flip so they’d testify against Dern.

Nothing from Cheryl Ballard. Nothing from the Dietrichs.

That said, Cheryl’s sister was freaked, and the Dietrichs’ son was attempting to hide it, but he was too. The Roy Farrell news shook them (and his death was ruled a homicide, as suspected, there were sedatives in his gut, but he also had two missing teeth and a fractured jaw—Harry didn’t like the guy, but it was good to know at least he didn’t go down without a fight).

The sister had promised to share if she heard anything from Cheryl.

Rus felt the son was going to cave soon.

But for Harry, already it wasn’t soon enough.

“If he was smart he’d be in Canada or Mexico,” Rus went on. “I didn’t know him. So far, he doesn’t seem smart to me. But if he’s close and hiding, he’s really damned good at it.”

“He’s hunting,” Harry said.

Rus’s expression was grim when he nodded in agreement.

“Got no more, as much as it fucks me to say,” Rus remarked.

As frustration bubbled inside him, Lillian’s words came to him. Trust the process.

“Lill told me to trust the process,” Harry shared.

Rus cocked his head to the side in surprise.

“She’s more chill about this than I am, and she’s got more riding on it,” Harry explained.

“She seems pretty chill on the whole.”

Harry’s lips tipped up. “My first middle-of-the-night callout, she asked if I wanted her to make me coffee, and when I said no, she went right back to sleep. Got in later than she expected, she offered to make me breakfast.”

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