underneath lay respect and affection. If it turned out we couldn’t be lovers, could we once again be colleagues and friends?
Did I want to be a couple? Could I really yield my long-fought-for independence? Would I have to?
Did Ryan want a committed relationship? Was he capable of monogamy? Was he capable of monogamy with me? Could I again believe in it?
It was a relief when day finally dawned. In the gathering light I watched familiar objects take shape in my room. The conch shell I’d collected on the beach at Kitty Hawk two summers back. The champagne glass into which I tossed my earrings. The framed pictures of Katy. The
And the unfamiliar.
Ryan’s face was darker than usual, tanned from his days at Kings Mountain and the farm. The early light lay golden on his skin.
“What?” Ryan caught me gazing at him.
I stared into his eyes. No matter how often I experienced it, the intensity of the blue always surprised me.
I shook my head.
Ryan raised up on an elbow.
“You look tense.”
I wanted to say what was on my mind, to form forbidden words, ask prohibited questions. I held back.
“It’s scary stuff.”
“Yes,” I agreed.
What’s scary, Andrew Ryan? You? Me? A baby in a woodstove? A HydroShok to the head?
“I’m really sorry about the beach.” Safer ground.
Ryan broke into a grin. “I’ve got two weeks. We’ll get there.”
I nodded.
Ryan threw back the covers.
“I think today it’s the Queen City.”
Ryan and I swung by Starbucks, then he dropped me at the MCME office. Immediately upon arriving, I phoned Geneva Banks. Again, I got no answer.
A prick of apprehension. Neither Geneva nor her father worked outside the home. Where were they? Why wasn’t someone picking up?
I was dialing Rinaldi when he and his partner walked into my office.
“How’s it going?” I asked, replacing the receiver.
“Good.”
“Good.”
We gave each other prefab smiles.
“Have you spoken to Geneva or Gideon Banks recently?”
Slidell and Rinaldi exchanged glances.
“Geneva phoned Monday,” I said. “I returned her call, but got no answer. I just tried again. Still no answer.”
Rinaldi glanced down at his loafers. Slidell looked at me flatly.
Cold fingers wrapped around my heart.
“This is the part where you tell me they’re dead, right?”
Slidell answered with one word.
“Gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“Splitsville. Vamoosed. In the wind. We’re here to see if you might know something, you and Geneva being girlfriends and all.”
I looked from Slidell to his partner.
“The shades are drawn, and the place is secured tighter than a nuclear reactor. A neighbor saw the Bankses’ car pull out early Monday. No sign of them since.”
“Were they alone?”
“The neighbor wasn’t sure, but thought she saw someone in the backseat.”
“What are you doing about it?”
Rinaldi adjusted his tie, carefully centering the top flap over the bottom.
