book, found the number of the church, and called it. He got an answering machine, Wheeler telling him in the slow placating tones usually reserved for obstinate children that he was not in right now, but he cared about what you had to say; you could leave a message at the beep. Rich left a message, then found Wheeler's home phone number, her and dialed it. No answer.
Corrie had no real friends in Rio Verde. Acquaintances maybe, but no friends, no one she saw socially after dark. Still, he called the women she did knowmMarge and where Peggy and she was.Winnie--but' as he'd known, they had no idea
Maybe she was paying him back for the pizza night. Maybe she'd just taken Anna out for dinner.
But she didn't believe in wasting money on eating out. He called Robert at home, let the phone ring fifteen times, in case he was in the shower or going to the bath room, then dialed the station. His brother wasn't there, but Rich talked to Ted, told him the problem, and the officer promised to let Robert know the second he came in.
'You want me to have Steve swing by the church on his patrol?' Ted asked. 'See if anyone there can tell him anything? Those construction volunteers are still working all night.' 'Yeah,' Rich said. 'If you would. I'll make some more calls. I'll buzz you back in a few minutes.'
'Make it ten.'
Rich hung up. Underneath the end table on which the phone sat, he saw the peachy pink legs of a haft- dressed doll. He was filled with a sudden, aching sense of loss. He'd been about to try dialing the number of one of Anna's friend's parents, but he found that he had to put down the phone. He was shaking, and it was difficult for him to breathe. He hadn't realized until this moment how much he had taken for granted the notion that none of this would touch his family. He had made them take pre cautions, sure. He had done everything he could or was supposed to do. But deep down, on that bedrock emotional level that set the tone for the thoughts that came after it, he had not thought that he or Robert or Corrie or Anna would be touched by this.
Not even last night, when he'd seen the Laughing Man. He'd been terrified, but he had not, in his heart of hearts, thought that he or his family could be killed or even hurt. They were the good guys. The injuries would happen to other people, people he didn't know that well, peripheral people.
He knew now how wrong he was.
He reached out and picked up the doll. Maybe this morning, maybe yesterday, Anna had been playing with this toy, pretending it was another person, making believe that she was its mommy.
What would he do if something happened to Anna? Since the day she was born, he had not conceived of a future without her. His mind had concocted a million see narios. She'd been everything from the first woman president to a runaway hooker, and he had mentally prepared himself for all eventualities, deciding ahead of time how he would react to each situation.
But he had never imagined her death.
That was something he had never planned for.
He took a deep breath. They weren't dead. They couldn't be dead. At the very worst, they were being held hostage, and he and Robert and Sue and their team would rescue them at the last minute. Probably it was not even that bad. Probably the car had gotten a flat, or they were at Basha's or Dairy Queen.
Maybe.
Hopefully. His hands were still shaking, he was still having a tough time catching his breath, but he forced himself to pick up the phone and start dialing.
They were in the living room of Sue's house: Rich and Robert, Rossiter and Woods. Rich and the coroner sat on the couch across from Sue and her parents. Rich's eyes were bloodshot. He had obviously not slept at all last night, and his head kept falling forward and snapping back as he began dozing and then suddenly jerked awake. Robert and the FBI agent stood, Robert pacing agitatedly back and forth in front of the silent television.
'This is bullshit!' Robert said. 'How long are we going to wait here and do nothing? I'm starting to think you guys don't know as much as you pretend.' He addressed Sue but pointed at her grandmother. 'How many people die before that old off her wrinkled have to woman gets ass and starts helping us here? ..... Robert,' Woods warned..
'It's okay.' Sue faced the police chief. 'You can't hurry Iaht sic.
''
'Lot sick?
'Fate.'
Sue's father nodded. 'World not follow your timetable,' he said. 'You follow world timetable.'
'Exactly. Just because you want something to happen at a certain time doesn't mean it will. Even my grandmother cannot hurry laht sic.
Things will be revealed in their own time.'
'It just seems to me that you're all being way too calm and inscrutable about this.'
'The old woman knows what she's talking about,' Rossiter said.
Sue fixed him with her gaze. 'Her name is May Ling, not Old Woman.'
'I'm sorry. I apologize.'
'Okay.' Sue looked toward Rich. He had been in bad shape when he'd first come over, and though he looked a little better now, she was still worried about him. He had been hoarse and despondently slump-shouldered when she'd opened the front door, and the first thing he'd said was, 'Corrie and Anna are gone.'
Her grandmother had spoken up immediately, before she'd even had time to tell her what he'd said. 'Tell him he is now one of the seven.'
'But I thought you said--'
Her grandmother frowned. 'Things have changed.' 'He says his wife and daughter are missing.' 'I know. Tell him this...'
'Your wife and daughter are fine,' Sue translated, and though she sensed the falsity in her grandmother's words, she tried not to convey that in her speech to him. 'She said she does not know where they are, but they are safe. They sensed danger and protected themselves from it, going into hiding, and they are afraid to show themselves. They will be okay.'
The look of relief on Rich's face told her that he had believed her, and as she looked at him, she understood how people came to believe in fortune-tellers and palm readers. They believed because they wanted to believe. It was easier to accept the reassuring words of others than face the truth yourself. She'd wanted to ask her grandmother what she knew about Corrie and Anna, and how she knew, but she did not. It was one thing to translate. It was quite another to knowingly lie.
There was pain in her own chest now as she thought of Rich's daughter.
Had something happened to the girl? She hoped with all of her heart that nothing had. She'd only known Anna for a short time, but she liked her and cared for her, felt almost as though she was a baby sister. She stared at Rich. She knew what he was going through. She recalled how she'd felt the other day when they'd been searching for John, when she'd thought the cup hug/rngs/might have taken him.
She hoped both Anna and Corrie were all right Rich looked up from the couch, met her eyes, and she looked quickly away.
She thought John should be at this meeting too, but for once her grandmother had sided with her parents and said no. He was too weak, too young. As far as she was concerned, his trial by fire had earned him a place here, but her grandmother had not agreed.
Influenced.
The word scared her. '
'We went out to Pee Wee's today,' Robert said slowly. i 'Went through his stuff.'
Pee Wee. Another empty spot within her. There had been so many deaths lately. She wondered if at some point she would not be able to deal with any more of them, if an emotional wall would go up to protect her and keep her from feeling each loss so profoundly. Or if her emotions would just keep on taking hits as her battered psyche spiraled downward.
'Did he finish the baht gwa?' her grandmother asked.
Sue translated.
'One of them,' Robert said. 'The other's halfway done. They're both out in my car.' '
Sue translated again, and the look that fell over her grandmother's face caused them all to fall silent. The old
