INTO THE DARK by J.A. Schneider

Author:J.A. Schneider [Schneider, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

27

Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t…

She showered fast; dressed even faster in a gray skirt and white blouse, grabbed her jacket at ten to nine. Knowing what a monster Ben was drove her harder. She left via the kitchen door, stared at the lock, then went down the steps, looked around the small garden, then looked back. The door was left open. That meant anyone could have entered.

Clever.

If that’s what happened.

The air was depressing, chill and threatening rain under a leaden sky. Hard to move when you feel so wretched. Annie was still seeing Emma cry. That broke her heart…but it made her raging furious too, and that was good. She stood straighter, clenched her fists. Anger gives you fuel.

The ground was mushy so she kept to the flagstones, passing clipped boxwood, the stone bench, the tilting birdbath, a bed of tulips coming up. She stopped, looked back again. Anyone fleeing this way at this time of year would have left footprints…but Susannah’s death was ruled a suicide. The police weren’t looking for footprints.

In the service alley, Annie passed trash cans with warped lids and empty stacked flower pots. She looked up at a window, formerly the housekeeper’s bedroom which was now part of the family room. Anyone rushing out the back would have had to leave this way, maybe crashing into things, which Terry Novak might have heard. Or not. Maybe she was a heavy sleeper. Maybe said person…if he existed…was careful in the dark. Still, it would have changed everything if the police heard about someone running through.

Annie blew out a long, pent-up breath; went through it again.

Ben was in Boston.

Colin was at home; wouldn’t even have had to run out.

Shaken, Annie left the alley and East Tenth and hurried down Second Avenue. She still seethed about Ben taking her phone…listening to her calls! It was in her bag now, but he’d defiled it, made it dead to her - but she needed it, dammit; it was the number everyone had. She stormed across East Seventh, and when she reached Waverly Place, she went in to a store.

Came out with a burner phone. Stood on the sidewalk fiddling with buttons, then called Mrs. Zhang to check if Emma was okay. She was: playing happily, helping pick up the basket of crayons that little Miranda had knocked over. Such a helpful child!

At least that…Emma okay, restored to being a strong little person…

Annie disconnected, rubbing her temple on the busy sidewalk. The headache that had started forty minutes ago worsened; she gritted her teeth.

Ben would be checking her old phone again – seeing if she was making extra calls to Pia, or calling Connor Payne back or…God, he’d be watching her phone like a hawk. He was insane; why had it taken so long to get that? Such a fine façade he’d maintained till she triggered him. When mommies get mad, they leave their children. It still rang in her ears: the horror was, that he’d said it to Emma. That’s

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