Barclay, Linwood Novel 08 - Never saw it coming by Linwood Barclay Page B

doing, phoning him at home? Did the woman have no sense?
    “Hello?”
    “Oh, Wen, I just had to get in touch.”
    “Laci, this isn’t a good time.”
    “But I can’t stop thinking about you, about what you must be going through,” she said. She wasn’t whispering, which told Garfield that she was alone in her house.
    “Where’s Trevor and the boys?” he asked her.
    “He took the boys to Schenectady for a long weekend to see his parents,” Laci said. “They’ll be back later today. I’m just heading out the door to work. Wendell, you have to talk to me.”
    “What do you want me to say?”
    “Have they found out anything? Do the police know what happened? I watched it on TV. I watched it at six, and I watched it again at eleven. It was very moving. You were very good, if you know what I mean. You held it together really well. I think, if anyone knew anything, if they knew anything at all, they’d call if they saw that.”
    “I just got off the phone with the police,” Garfield said. “They haven’t received any good tips.”
    “I feel . . . I feel so . . . It’s hard to explain,” Laci said. “I feel sort of guilty, you know? Because of what we’ve been doing, behind her back.”
    “Those things don’t have anything to do with each other.”
    “I’m sure that’s true, but I keep thinking, what if someone finds out? What if someone finds out what’s going on between us, and they think it has something to do with what’s happened to Ellie? And if, God forbid, something actually
did
happen to Ellie, then how is it going to look if—”
    “Laci, please, don’t go there,” he said. “Maybe she just decided to go away for a while, clear her head.”
    “Is that what you think?”
    “I don’t know what to think. But I suppose it’s a possibility. I mean, they haven’t found her car or anything. If something had happened to her around here, you’d think they’d have at least found her car.”
    “So you think she just decided to drive away? Like, to Florida or something?”
    “Laci, I don’t know,
okay
? I don’t have any goddamn idea.”
    His tone stopped Laci for a second. “You don’t have to get angry with me.”
    “I’m going through a lot right now. I’m just trying to keep it together.”
    “How’s Melissa coping?”
    “Not well.”
    “What about that man who got her pregnant? Is he still in the picture? Can he be there for Melissa at a time like this?”
    “She says she doesn’t want anything to do with him. Honestly, I don’t think it would make things any easier for me if he was around right now.”
    “I was just—oh my God, I just thought of something,” she said.
    “What?”
    “They’re not tapping your phone, are they? They’re not listening in?”
    He felt a chill run down his spine. Could they be? He could kick himself. It hadn’t even occurred to him until she mentioned it. He’d been doing such a good job, being the distraught husband, he hadn’t thought there was any reason for the police to be bugging his phone. Sure, he knew the cops would probably be looking at him sooner or later, but he didn’t believe he’d given any indication that he was in any way responsible for his wife’s disappearance.
    “I mean, if they hear us, and know we’ve been seeing each other, then—”
    “Hang up, Laci,” he said.
    “—then they might think that you had something to do with it, you know, so that you could spend your life with me and—”
    He slammed down the phone. If the police had been listening, the damage was done. They’d know he’d been having an affair. They’d know he and Laci had been seeing each other for weeks now.
    Not good, not good at all.
    Laci’s call left Garfield rattled. He tried to tell himself he was going to get through this. He had to keep his wits about him. Even if the police found out he’d been sleeping with Laci, it didn’t have to mean he’d had anything to do with this business about his wife.
    They hadn’t