Jane Doe Black by Nia Forrester

Author:Nia Forrester [Forrester, Nia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

For a couple days, nothing at all happens. No further developments on Mia Barnes’ case, and nothing new on Steph either. Following Russ’ advice, I’ve emailed her high school friend, Erica Wolfe, but so far, no response. Nothing has moved with Russ’ contact whose wife is a Penn doctor, and when I ask him to follow up with her, he tells me no, point blank.

That kind of thing, you only ask once, he said. Now we just have to wait.

I take his point. He has asked the woman to break the law, after all.

Otherwise, I don’t hear much from him and I don’t let it get to me. Russ has a caseload of his own to attend to, and a woman who is, even without the official title, his girlfriend. I have to trust him to deal with that in his own time and way. But in the near silence between us, I realize that he’s made me no promises. Neither have I asked for any.

I wouldn’t know what promises to extract. Even if I did, I have no doubt he would make and keep them. It’s me I’m worried about. My fidelity. My trustworthiness. My basic fitness to be in anything resembling a functional couple. Especially now.

On the mornings when I wake up alone, and the apartment is quiet except for the distant sounds from the street below, of people going on about their lives, I think about drinking. But lately, not in the way one has a powerful urge that they have to fight back. More like the way you think of a former lover with whom things ended badly. Even though the relationship itself was at times quite good, you turn it over in your mind wistfully, regretfully, but with a clear resolve that you can never be in that relationship again.

To keep myself busy as I run down the clock of my final vacation days, I buy plants for my apartment and move the living room furniture around. I get rid of some old law school textbooks that looked impressive on my bookshelves but served no other purpose. And then I go to a small independent neighborhood bookstore and buy other books to fill the empty spaces. When empty spaces still remain, I get rid of the extra bookshelves by setting them out on the curb. By nightfall they are gone, adopted into a new home.

I watch YouTube videos for ideas on how to look cute with short, natural hair. And I follow a recipe in a magazine for garlic butter pork chops. They come out really good, and I want to call someone to crow about my culinary success when I realize there’s no one to call. At least, no one to whom a call out of the blue from me about pork chops wouldn’t sound strange.

Before Steph went missing, I had a solid group of friends. Tanya, a friend from law school who went the corporate route and works in a big firm downtown.

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.