throw rug before switching off the device and turning back to him. I didn’t say anything; I just stood there waiting expectantly. He was still wearing the same expression that had been screwed onto his face when he went outside. In fact, it might even have been a bit worse than before.
I suppose I appeared somewhat surprised by the fact that he was still here, and to be honest, I was. Since it had been several minutes since the life support vehicle had left the scene, I simply assumed that he had gone ahead to the hospital.
“You gonna puke or somethin’?” my friend finally asked after a long period of uncomfortable silence.
“No. I just didn’t expect you to still be here is all,” I said.
“I told ya’ I’d be right back.”
“Well, I just figured you’d be going to the hospital with Constance.”
“No” was his one word reply.
“Why not?”
“‘Cause someone’s gotta stay here ‘n keep you outta trouble. And, since she’s hurt, I lost the coin toss.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“So, what makes you…”
“Save it, Rowan,” he cut me off. “We both know ya’ too well. You ain’t gonna sit around waitin’ for someone else ta’ find Felicity.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Ain’t no prob’ly to it… Been down that road with ya’ twice already. So listen, we need to talk.”
“About what?” I said as I reached down and took hold of the power cord for the vacuum then jerked it out of the wall and retracted it in relative silence.
“This situation.”
I didn’t answer right away. I picked up the cleaning appliance and carried it down the hall then stowed it in the linen closet. When I returned to the living room, I bypassed his intentions for the conversation and asked, “So, what was that all about outside?”
“What was what all about?”
“The cops. They said something to you and kind of gave a nod this way.”
“Oh that,” he replied. “Well, she thinks you’re in denial about Felicity and wanted ta’ know if you were gonna be gettin’ any help.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” I said with a nod. “I got that impression from her earlier.”
“Yeah, well, she’s the nice one. The other copper just thinks you’re a flake.”
“Figures.”
He paused and sighed then said, “Well, I’m not so sure I don’t agree with both of ‘em.”
I wasn’t a huge fan of Shakespeare, but a single, very common quote fit the current situation so well that I simply couldn’t stop myself from uttering it. “ Et tu, Brute?”
“Yeah, me too,” he returned without missing a beat. “Maybe… I dunno… Ya’ see that’s kinda what we need ta’ talk about.”
“Why?”
“Look, Rowan,” he said as he stood there at the door massaging his neck. For the most part, he hadn’t really moved since he’d come back into the house. After another anxious pause, he clucked his tongue and said, “Look, this whole possessed thing just goes way beyond the pale, man.”
“Yeah, well you said something like that several years ago when I started having those precognitive visions.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“And then again when Eldon Porter started…”
“I got the picture, Row. You don’t hafta take me down memory lane.”
“Apparently I do if you think I’m crazy.”
“Maybe not so much crazy as the denial part.”
“Denial about what, Ben?”
“Let me ask you this,” he said, hesitating before obviously having to force himself to proceed. “Where was Felicity when Hobbes was murdered?”
“Why?” I asked then realized where the conversation was headed and spat, “Wait… You mean… Dammit, Ben, I can’t believe you just asked me that!”
“Me neither,” he returned but asked me again. “So, where was she?”
“Fuck you, Ben.”
“Yeah, fine. Be pissed if you wanna, but just humor me, okay?”
“She sure as hell wasn’t with him.”
“That’s not an answer, Rowan.”
“Okay, fine. I guess it depends. Did the medical examiner fix a time of death?”
“Sometime early this morning. After midnight but before ten a.m. is best guess.”
“Well, we were with you at around two if you remember.”
“Uh-huh. But, what about after that?”
“We were here. We came home and went to bed.”
“Okay. What were you doing?”
“Like I said, we went to bed. We were both exhausted, so we went straight to sleep.”
“So you were asleep?”
“Didn’t I just say that?”
“Did you wake up at any time?”
“A little after eleven this morning when Constance and Agent Drew showed up.”
“Did you wake up before that?”
“Not that I remember.”
“So you can’t say for certain that Felicity was actually in the bed with you the whole time.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I waved my hands at him in an angry gesture of dismissal.
“How about when Wentworth was popped.”
“What?!”
“You heard me.”
“Don’t you think you’re the one getting a little far fetched now?”
“Maybe, maybe not, I dunno,” he huffed then stared off into the dining room for a moment before looking back at me and pointing toward the chair behind me. “Sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
“Sit your ass down, or I’m gonna do it for ya’,” he ordered, and I knew he wasn’t joking.
I looked over my shoulder, took a step back and perched myself on the arm of the chair then snipped, “Okay, I’m sitting. Happy?”
He didn’t respond to my sarcasm. Instead, he smoothed back his hair and began massaging his neck again. I watched him, my anger with what he had just implied still percolating deep inside me. But, as I stared at my friend, I noticed that the look on his face was one of the most intensely disturbed expressions I had ever seen him wear in all the time I had known him. It wasn’t one of malice but more of deep uneasiness.
At that moment, the hollowness in my chest started to grow. Ben finally took in a deep breath and let it out in a loud huff then locked his gaze with mine. “Listen to me, Rowan. I didn’t come back in right away because I got a phone call from Ackman.”
I knew the name. He was one of the detectives with whom Ben worked on the Major Case Squad, and upon hearing the words, my first thought was that we were too late. Fear started to run rampant in my chest as I imagined the things my wife may have done without even knowing it.
“Gods!” I sputtered. “What happened? Did they find her?”
“No, not yet. Now, hold on, it’s not what you’re thinkin’, but it sure as hell ain’t good.”
“What?” I asked, calming only slightly.
“Listen, I gotta tell ya’ some stuff you ain’t gonna wanna hear. They got the preliminaries back on the post from Officer Hobbes. Seems the M.E. found some foreign hairs on the body, and CSU found some that matched in
