Where the Road Ends by Tara Taylor Quinn

Author:Tara Taylor Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2003-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

Amy considered what she should say. Kristen hated rich people, and she couldn’t lose Kristen: It would mean losing the chance to be a friend to a woman who could use one. It would also mean losing the chance to be a normal person in a little town far away from everything.

“A little over a year after Johnny was killed, our son was abducted.” Amy’s mind backed away from the images, the memories. She couldn’t do this. She had to move forward, stay focused on finding Charles, not on his loss.

Except that, in the past weeks, the clarity of that vision had disappeared. After the situation in Lowell and then in Evart, when she’d scared herself with a desperation that had gotten her arrested and then run out of town, she’d tried to concentrate on ordinary life, on the mundane tasks that kept her sane.

“How old was he?” Kristen’s voice was low, filled with caring.

“Five. Just.”

Kristen’s fingers slid beneath Amy’s, holding on. Amy was watching for fish. Because there might be fish if she watched.

“Where was he?”

“An amusement park. On a kiddy ride. I was there with him.”

A mental flash to that sun-filled afternoon, the glint off the metal of the ride, Charles’s face as he rode past.

“The ride stopped…” She could see it slowing, slowing. Where was Charles?

“He was on the far side, where I couldn’t see him.”

There were happy faces everywhere. Running kids. Excitement.

“I didn’t even wait for him to come around the ride. I went after him….”

All the kids were gone. Others were starting to get on.

“…but he wasn’t there.”

He wasn’t there. She’d thought it was a mistake. That she just had to wait for a few more minutes and everything would right itself.

“I’ve been on the road ever since, looking for him,” she said, wiping at her tears.

“I’m so sorry.”

Somehow Amy wasn’t surprised to see tears in Kristen’s eyes, as well. In a very short time, Kristen had become a dear friend.

“I’m going to find him,” Amy reassured her.

Kristen looked at her a long time. And then out at the stream again.

“Do you have any idea who might have him? Does the detective?”

Amy told Kristen about Brad. And about Kathy Stead. Charles’s baby-sitter. She told her that in spite of Kathy’s alibi, she was convinced the ex-sitter had her son. She told her about the months in Wisconsin. Her sighting of Kathy in Lawrence two and a half months before. About the woman’s abandoned car the very next day. And about meeting Ann Green in Lowell. They were still on the bridge, she and Kristen, although they’d turned, feet out in front of them, to face each other.

“How could you afford all this? The detective, the time you’ve spent searching…”

Amy glanced downstream. Thinking about the lies. Thinking about Amelia Wainscoat.

“There was insurance money from Johnny’s death.” It was the truth.

Birds twittered back and forth in the trees flanking the stream. Amy wished she could lie down on the bridge, beneath the comforting heat of the sun, with the breeze on her skin, and go to sleep.

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.