Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

Author:Carola Lovering
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

* * *

A cop car arrives minutes later, an ambulance in tow. A middle-aged officer with a red beard introduces himself, but I’m too shaken to register the name he gives. Cassie and I listen as he asks Sandra questions, her voice wobbly as she reiterates what she told the dispatcher on the phone.

Eventually, the cop turns to Cassie and me. His eyes are kind, with soft lines around the edges. He asks about Wade, if either of us spoke to him when we got home from school. If we heard or witnessed anything out of the ordinary.

This is my cue, and thankfully, the words come easily, as if this moment has been mine all along. As if it’s my destiny to protect her, the same intrepid way she’s protected me.

“No,” I tell the officer, my tone solemn. “Neither of us saw Wade today. He would go up to the roof sometimes; he’d drink up there. It wasn’t unusual.” I pause. “Cassie and I were in my bedroom studying. We didn’t hear him fall.”

Just then, an EMT comes through the back door. She’s young—early thirties, maybe—and her expression stays neutral as she folds her arms across her uniformed chest. She must do this all the time.

“I’m so sorry,” she says, her voice lowering to just the right degree of sympathy. “There’s no pulse. He’s gone.”

At the table, Sandra emits a small whimper. I force my face to fall, drop my head to the floor, but in the charged space between Cassie and me, I can feel what’s really there, the mutual sensations that wash through both of us.

Gratitude. Relief.

Wade is gone. He isn’t coming back.

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