Page 28 of So Far Gone

“Right.”

“—but like the world was telling me to go—”

“Right!”

“—I had no job and no purpose anymore—”

“Yes!”

“—and it seemed like I was being sent away, like an animal sent off into the woods to die or something. In fact, it was more than that. It was like my whole species had gone extinct.”

“Fuck! Yes!” Chuck slapped the steering wheel. “That’s how I felt after I retired! Extinct!”

“At first it was a relief,” Kinnick said, “being alone in the woods. I worked. Took walks. Wrote. Read. Concentrated on fixing things around my little house. I’d feel this sense of accomplishment from the smallest things. Putting in a new pump for the well. Rebuilding the front porch. Learning to use generators and batteries. For a few years, it was great. But the last couple of years, I’ve felt something was missing.”

Kinnick took and released a deep breath. “Then, yesterday, my grandkids showed up on my front porch. And for just a minute, I didn’t know who they were. I find out my ex-wife is dead, my daughter has disappeared, my shithead son-in-law has gone off the deep end... and it was like I could see myself, not frominsidemy own head, where I’ve been the last seven years, but from the outside, where these cute children were standing on my porch, waiting for their broken-down old grandpa to step up anddosomething.”

“Jesus.” Chuck shook his head. “Damn.” He looked over. “Listen to me, Rhys. We are going to get your grandkids back. Don’t you worry. We’ll find your daughter and her kids, and wewillset things right again.”

Chuck’s cell phone had been buzzing during all of this. “No. Don’t you worry.” The ex-cop thumbed through information while he drove, eyes darting up to the road, down to the screen, up, then back down. “Good, Shel, yes, good, good, good,” he muttered.

Kinnick watched the big cop’s cell phone with envy. He really needed to get himself one of those things.

“Here we go,” Chuck said, “looks like we got an address for your daughter and Shane. We’re in business.”

They drove to a stucco apartment complex near the Northtown Mall, where Shane and Bethany had most recently lived. Their first-floor unit had a small patio, with a barbecue and two bicycles chained to the metal railing. The smaller bike still had training wheels. Ah, poor, clumsy Asher. Kinnick felt his chest tighten with guilt. So much time he’d missed.

“Nobody’s home,” Chuck said, arching his hands to look through the patio window. “Place looks well-kept, though. That’s a good sign.”

“Of what?” Kinnick asked.

But Chuck had moved on, climbing the stairs two at a time to a second-floor apartment, a place with planters and deck chairs on the balcony. “Let’s see what the neighbor has to say.”

They rang Anna Gaines’s bell. She answered in workout clothes, started to smile, then gasped when she saw Kinnick’s face. “Oh, my God. What happened?”

“I took Asher to his chess tournament and a couple of Shane’s friends showed up and took the kids away. I got this for my trouble.” He pointed to his black eye and swollen cheek.

“Was it the men who came here? Two big guys in a black pickup?”

“That’s them.”

“I’m so sorry! I’m the one who told them where you were going. They said Shane was looking for his kids or else I never would’ve said anything.”

“It’s not your fault,” Kinnick said. “I’m just glad they didn’t give you too much trouble.” He turned and introduced Chuck Littlefield. “Chuck’s a former police detective. He’s helping me find Bethany and the kids.”

Chuck opened his little notebook, suddenly all-business. “When was the last time you saw Shane and Bethany, Mrs. Gaines?”

“Let’s see. I saw Bethany five days ago. We chatted out by the mailboxes. And I saw Shane a couple of days ago, walking to his truck. Then Leah came over yesterday morning with that note and said that her mom was gone, and that Shane had gone off to find her.”

“Did Bethany give you any indication where she might be going?”

“No. I mean... not really. I’ve known she was unhappy. Obviously, she thinks this new church is a little intense. She talked about moving back to Grants Pass, where they had friends. And I do know she had reconnected with someone in Portland recently? An ex-boyfriend?”

“Not Sluggish Doug,” Kinnick said.

“Yeah, Doug! I think that was the name.”

For the hundredth time, Kinnick thought:Christ, Bethany’s taste in men.

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