Page 61 of In the Bones
In the kitchen, he started on dinner. Simple black bean quesadillas, since they’d gotten home late. Tim grated cheese and flavored the beans with soy sauce and balsamic, a recipe Shana had balked at right up until she tried it, while Darcy upended a basket of toys in the adjoining dining room. And as Tim prepped, he thought once more about Molly Kranz.
She’d been at the party too. It was where Woody had met both of the women, and most likely the last place Molly had seen her friend alive. What had happened after Angelica and Woody parted ways? If anyone stood to know, it was Molly.
“Smells good in here.” Shana appeared in the doorway and peeked over his shoulder as he lay a quesadilla in the greased pan. She’d changed into sweatpants and one of his threadbare t-shirts, and she’d never looked better.
“I’m thinking we take these up to bed. Darcy can fend for herself, right?”
“Oh sure,” Shana said. “Let’s have her do the dishes while she’s at it. She hasn’t been pulling her weight around here.”
Grinning like a fiend, Tim drew her close and exhaled into her neck, making sure to aim for the spot that tickled.
“Hi!”
In unison, their heads snapped in Darcy’s direction. The kitchen provided a fisheye view of the dining room, the living room—visible through a wide doorway—and the foyer, all lined up in the long, narrow house. Darcy had been toddling near the table just a second ago, arranging wooden farm animals in a row. Now, she stood in the foyer all the way across the main floor, her pert nose pressed against the sidelight’s rainswept glass.
“Hi!” she said again, and a shiver slithered down Tim’s arms. The driveway wasn’t visible from the kitchen. If someone was out front, only Darcy could see them. That morning, Shana had coaxed her fine hair into “pigles” at Darcy’s request, and as she bounced on the balls of her feet with excitement, they bobbed on her head.
“Are we expecting anyone?” Tim asked, working to keep his tone light.
“Tim,” Shana said quietly, and all at once he could see the scene that was playing out in his wife’s mind.
The front door opening.
A disembodied hand reaching in.
Their child vanishing into the stormy night.
He ran the length of the house in a matter of seconds, sliding up to the foyer in his socked feet like it was home plate. Tim snatched Darcy from the floor and turned to find Shana right behind him. Handing off the child, he peered through the window, foggy with humidity and cool to the touch.
There was someone standing on the threshold, dripping hair framing haunted eyes.
“Holy shit,” Tim whispered, turning back to Shana. “It’s Eva Ki.”
FIFTY-TWO
Tim
“Is something burning?”
Eva asked it timidly, and only then did Tim notice the acrid smell of smoking oil filled the air.
“Shoot,” Shana hissed, hiking Darcy higher onto her hip and running for the stove. Tim didn’t take his eyes off Eva, but behind her he could see Shana dumping a charred quesadilla from the frying pan into the sink.
“How did you know where we live?” Tim asked, anger tightening his voice.
“I’m sorry,” the young woman said quickly. “I really needed to see you. I went to the station, but you’d just gotten into your car, so … I followed you.”
To my house. My family.The blood in Tim’s veins sang with fury. The rain had been heavy, the lights from the car behind him blurred. He’d been focused on getting home safely. Other cars doing the same thing had been irrelevant.
Shana was back. Studying her, Eva said, “You’re the detective who interviewed me at Mikko’s. You guys are a couple?”
“We are,” said Shana, holding Darcy a little closer. “What’s going on, Eva?”
Tim wasn’t ready to let the intrusion, which felt more like a security breach, go, but Shana was already guiding the woman to the couch. What was so urgent that she’d followed two state police investigators home through an intense spring storm rather than going to the barracks in the morning? As Shana invited Eva to sit down, she caught Tim’s gaze.
Much as he hated Eva’s presence in the house, they had to find out.
Eva’s arrival had altered the mood, with Darcy especially. It was the lack of attention from the surprise guest, and the latehour, and the fact that she still hadn’t been fed. On Shana’s lap, Darcy bucked and squirmed. Tim went to the kitchen for a squeeze pouch of applesauce and some Goldfish crackers. It wouldn’t satisfy the kid for long, but it might buy them a few minutes.
