“The Zukovs. Come on into the kitchen.”
“Is that my boy?” Tilly called loudly, and for the first time all day, Eli smiled.
He was already tossing the blankets aside when Trace said, “I think she brought you something.”
“I heard that, and I sure did!” Tilly raised her voice and added, “Eli, you come on in here and sit up to the table. We’ll have ourselves some cookies and milk and a quick game of checkers. That is, if you don’t mind being beat.”
“I’m pretty good!” Eli was already through the swinging door and finding the box of checkers on the shelf in the dining cove.
“We’ll see how good you are…. Oooh weee, take a look at that cast, would ya, Ed?” Tilly had placed a plate of cookies on the table and had poured Eli a glass of milk as she spied the boy’s arm. “Blue as a summer sky!”
“That it is,” her husband agreed.
Beaming, Eli scrambled onto his chair and began pulling the checkerboard out of its battered, taped-together box.
Ed, who had snatched a cookie, was at the back door. “Let’s go deal with the cattle.”
Trace snagged his jean jacket from a hook near the back door, then stepped into his boots and followed Ed along a cement path that petered into a trampled dirt trail on the other side of the gate that separated the yard from the barnyard.
Snow was still falling steadily, covering the ground in a fine layer that allowed patches of grass to poke through. Most of the cattle were already inside the barn, and when Trace pushed open the wide doors, rolling them aside, the smells of hay, dust, and dung reached his nostrils.
He climbed to the hayloft, his boots ringing on the metal rungs as the cattle mooed and shuffled. Once in the loft, he pushed bales through the opening in the old floorboards. They landed with soft thuds, and Ed took over, slicing through the string and breaking the bales before strewing them in the manger where part of the herd of Hereford and Angus mingled.
Once the bales were scattered inside the barn, they carried several outside the doors to a covered area, where the roof was supported by poles, and mangers and a water trough filled the inner area.
Cattle shifted and lowed, their black and red hides wet where snow had melted upon them, their breaths fogging in the cold air.
After the herd was cared for, Trace and Ed walked to the stable, and the whole process started over again, though Trace owned only four horses, so the job was quicker. They added grain to the mangers, and Trace rubbed the palomino’s muzzle and scratched the ears of the dun, who tossed his head, his dark eyes gleaming with fire.
By the time they returned to the kitchen, the scents of garlic and rosemary filled the room. Tilly’s stew was simmering on the stove, and it looked like Eli was beating his mentor at their game of checkers.
“You’re sure you didn’t cheat?” Tilly teased him.
“No way!” Eli insisted. Half his milk had disappeared, and the crumbs on the table in front of him indicated he’d had at least one of Tilly’s cookies.
Trace had just taken off his boots when his cell phone jangled.
“Second time that’s happened since you went out to feed the cattle,” Tilly observed as her final checker was captured by a beaming Eli.
“Better see who it is.” Trace gave his son a high five, then scooped up the phone as it jangled for the fourth time. “Hello?”
“Trace? This is Mia Calloway. I’m the school secretary at Evergreen and. . well, how’s your boy? Eli?”
“Doing better. I already talked to the principal.” He was walking out of the kitchen and into the living area, where he could have a little more privacy.
“Yes, yes, I know. . This isn’t really about Eli,” she admitted and seemed a little nervous. “It’s about Jocelyn Wallis.”
His stomach tightened, but he didn’t say a word, just let her ramble on.
“She didn’t come to school today and didn’t phone in, didn’t leave a lesson plan for a sub or. . anything. No one here heard from her, but I know. . Well, she said you two had been going out, and I thought you might know. .” Her worried voice faded away.
“I have no idea why she didn’t show up,” he said.
“Oh. . well… I’m just concerned, that’s all. We’re friends, and I drove to her house, but all the windows were closed. I couldn’t see in. There were lights on, but that doesn’t really mean anything. I know she wasn’t feeling well, but I tried to call and voice mail answered after one ring. I mean… I don’t know what to think. Did she leave town? Is she just too sick to answer the phone?” She let the suggestion hang in the air and, when Trace didn’t answer, added, “As I said, I’m just trying to find out what happened to her.”
“If I hear from her, I’ll let you know.”
“Oh. . okay. Uh, you don’t have a key to her place, do you? I mean, before anyone calls the police, or whatever it is you do, maybe it would be a good idea to go inside?”
“I don’t have a key,” he said. “I haven’t seen Jocelyn for months.”
“Oh! I thought she said she called you yesterday. . ”
“She didn’t.”
“Then. . well, I’m sorry to have bothered you. If you hear from her, would you have her call Mia?”
“I won’t. But, yeah, sure. At the school?”
“That, too, but if she could call my cell?” Mia sounded seriously worried. “This is just not her usual style. Jocelyn is the most focused, dedicated teacher I know. She just wouldn’t not show up and leave her students high and dry. . It just doesn’t make any sense. Well, thanks.”
He hung up and turned to find Tilly standing in the doorway, not even trying to hide the fact that she’d been eavesdropping. “That was the school again, right? About Jocelyn Wallis?”
“A friend of hers,” he admitted.
Tilly’s expression was dark. “I heard from my niece that she didn’t show up today. It was odd.”
“The niece again,” Ed clarified.
“Her friend said she called me yesterday, but I didn’t get a message.” Trace saw Eli slide farther down in his chair. “Or did I?”
The boy shook his head, but Trace walked to the ancient wall phone that was an answering machine as well. No light was blinking, no message waiting, but when he pressed the button to see who’d called, WALLIS, J. showed on the screen.
“Did you hear a message from Miss Wallis?” he asked his son, but Eli was already shaking his head.
“Uh-uh. . there wasn’t any message.” The boy looked stricken, but Trace believed him. He poked a few buttons, heard nothing, and a cold feeling crawled slowly up his spine. He hung up and found Tilly staring at him.
“Maybe you’d better go check it out,” she suggested. “We’ll stay here with Eli.”
“But I want to go, too,” his son protested.
“What?” Tilly said with mock horror. “And get out of a rematch? No way,
“I’ll be back soon,” he said and headed out the door, leaving the Zukovs in charge as he strode to his pickup with Sarge at his feet. “Fine. You can come this time.” He opened the driver’s door of the cab, and the dog hopped inside, settling into his favorite spot in the passenger seat.
Trace climbed behind the wheel, started the old Chevy, and wondered what the hell he’d find at Jocelyn Wallis’s apartment.
“Probably nothing,” he told himself, ramming the truck into gear and flipping on the wipers. But the sensation that he was about to step into something bad hung with him as he stared through the windshield to a dusk that promised a darkness he couldn’t comprehend.
CHAPTER 6
