Blood Relative by Carolyn Hougan

Author:Carolyn Hougan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781631942792
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press
Published: 2022-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

ARTHUR

Remembered Posture

FROM OUTSIDE I hear Dolores pounding away at one of those mournful Chopin preludes. The piano is just about sobbing. The music stops instantly when my hand touches the latch, and by the time I pull open the door, my wife’s anxious face is there to greet me. Her pathetically hopeful expression slumps instantly to one of despair when she sees that I’m alone. She turns from me without a word.

“I guess she hasn’t come back here either,” I say, pointlessly.

Her hand goes up to her hair and forages there, as if for a thought. “No.” She crumples onto the couch. “I was so sure you would find her,” she says. “You’ve got to find her for me, Artie. You’ve just got to.”

Dolores has a touching faith in me. Actually, she has a touching faith in all men. She was raised to depend on them. I jingle the keys in my pocket, a sound I always find reassuring. “Don’t worry, she’ll show up. Remember when she broke off with Bobby? She went off for hours and I had to ground her. She’ll be back soon.”

Outside, the trees thrash in the wind, and far away I hear the persistent low rumble of thunder. I put in a call to Darlene, hoping she’s heard from Mariah. A female voice fairly bristling with self-confidence and self-involvement displays a perfunctory interest in my plight and then rapidly lets it be known that there’s no possibility that her obedient, safe, sleeping child—who in case I’ve forgotten, has an exam in the morning—will be awakened in order to answer questions about my missing one. This is the mother about whom Darlene complains regularly and apparently with cause.

Just as I set the receiver down, preparatory to calling Ryan’s number, the phone jangles and I feel that nasty jolted sensation—not unlike an electric shock—that occurs when one’s expectation is confounded by an out-of-sequence event. It’s as if the future is snapping at my heels. It’s the boy’s father, Ferguson.

“Is my son there?” he demands.

“He was here,” I reply. “About an hour and a half ago.”

“I suppose he’s out somewhere with your daughter,” he mutters. “Goddammit. Or …” He hesitates and his voice backs off from its belligerent tone. “… is she there?”

“No, I’m afraid she’s not.” I’m actually immensely cheered that the boy hasn’t returned home. It probably means he’s with Mariah, and despite my efforts to keep her from seeing too much of him, I like Ryan Ferguson and I’m hopeful he’ll have a calming effect on my daughter.

“Jesus Christ,” Ferguson moans. “Right before his geometry exam. He’s got to pull a B in the thing. What happened? Did they have a fight or something? God, their timing.”

I definitely don’t want to go into this. “I really don’t know, Mr. Ferguson.”

“Larry,” he corrects in a distracted voice. There’s a low menacing roar of thunder outside. A crackle of static jitters on the line. Ferguson wheezes out a sigh. “Look, if he shows up there, tell him to get his buns back here, would you?” Another distant but rugged drumroll of thunder.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.