Eleven Hours

‘Listen, maybe her nose bled, and she decided to come. back in,’ said Officer Patterson, a little more sympathetically. ‘Then she met someone she knew, and decided to spend the afternoon with them. That’s likely, right?’

‘Then why hasn’t she called me?’ Rich screamed.

They looked frightened of him. Frightened and concerned. As if they didn’t understand what was driving him, what he was so upset about.

Am I crazy? Am I mad? Have I lost my sanity? Rich looked around him. There was the Disney Store, there was Dillard’s, there was FAO Schwarz. He could see, he could comprehend. He wasn’t insane yet. Rich concluded that police officers were trained to deal with robberies and homicides and rapes, but not trained to deal with fear.

‘Tell you what,’ Officer Patterson said. ‘If she’s in this mall, let’s alert mall security. They’ll call for her on the PA.’

Rich threw up his hands. He paced furiously near the fountain in the middle of the mall, peering into strange faces walking past him while the officers went to talk to security upstairs. Rich was still hoping that somehow Didi would miraculously appear before him with a new hairdo. Within five minutes there was an announcement over the public address system: ‘Will Didi Wood please come to the security office on the second floor as soon as possible?’ It was repeated twice.

Rich sat down, leaned his elbows on his knees, and held his head in his hands. Seconds later he was up and pacing again. Five minutes later – which seemed an eternity – there was another announcement: ‘Will anyone with any information about the whereabouts of a nine-month-pregnant woman with long brown hair and wearing a yellow dress notify the management or the security personnel as soon as possible.’ That message was also repeated twice.

The officers came back to Rich and flanked him as he walked back and forth. ‘Let’s wait and see. Okay? Let’s wait and see what happens,’ said Officer Charles.

They didn’t have to wait long.

Rich saw two women walking alongside a security officer, and he immediately moved toward them. Charles and Patterson followed.

The young security officer said, ‘These ladies here said they might have seen a pregnant woman in the parking lot earlier today.’

‘What time was that?’ Rich snapped.

Officer Charles put up his hand as if to stop Rich. ‘Wait a second,’ he said gently to Rich. He turned to the women. ‘What time was that?’

The ladies shrugged. They were short and chubby. The taller of the short women – bleached, heavy, and middleaged – said, ‘I don’t know. Maybe around one. We were just coming into the mall.’

‘And what happened?’

‘We parked our car and started walking to the entrance. Then all of a sudden a lady started screaming.’

An uncontrolled groan left Rich’s throat. For a few seconds no one spoke. Rich couldn’t even look up from the floor. He could barely stand.

‘Go on,’ Officer Charles said quietly.

There were tears in the woman’s eyes. ‘I feel so bad now, you know, because then we looked over at her, and she had a guy with her, and he smiled at us, wrapped an arm around her, and started kissing her –’

‘Started what?’ Rich said, horrified.

‘Started kissing her.’

He briefly felt relief. ‘Well, then, that couldn’t have been my wife.’

‘Maybe not,’ she said. ‘But this woman was very pregnant and she had long brown hair. She was screaming, “Help me, help me,” and then the guy kissed her and we just thought they were fooling around, you know? Didn’t we, Debbie?’

Trembling, Rich clenched and unclenched his fists.

‘This guy, what did he look like?’

Officer Charles extended his hand again. ‘Mr Wood, wait.’ He turned to the woman. ‘What did this guy look like?’

‘We didn’t see him so good,’ she said. ‘We just saw them from the side, you know. She was wearing a white dress –’

‘White?’ Rich exclaimed, his heart pounding.

‘Not white, Nancy,’ said Debbie. ‘It was yellow. Remember I said it was a cheerful color?’

‘Oh yeah,’ Nancy said. ‘Yellow. And the guy, he was, I don’t know – a little taller than her. Kind of thin, I think. Right, Deb?’

‘Yeah, he was taller than her. He was wearing jeans and a jacket, that’s all I remember. He was kind of nondescript, and we couldn’t see them well.’

Rich nodded in anxious agreement. ‘Nondescript – that’s exactly how Alex described the guy who was hanging around Didi when she bought the pretzels.’

Officer Patterson looked at Rich. He couldn’t place the peculiar expression and thought maybe it was guilt for her earlier reluctance to believe that Didi was in trouble, but then Patterson asked, ‘Does the man sound like anyone you know?’

Rich wished Patterson was a man and not a police officer, because he wanted to hit her. ‘What the hell are you saying to me?’ he said and didn’t care how he sounded. ‘What the hell do you think you’re saying? Does the guy sound like someone I might know? The guy who kisses my wife as she’s screaming for help? You know, no one like that springs to mind at the moment.’ Rich glared at her. ‘You’re saying, do I know if my pregnant wife has been fooling around behind my back?’

The officers looked ashamed, and the two women were downright embarrassed. ‘You just can’t help yourself, can you?’ Rich said to Patterson. ‘You just can’t help saying the wrong thing.’

‘I apologize,’ Patterson started to say, but Rich cut her off. ‘Obviously you have a problem dealing with people, and I see that as a real detriment in your line of work, considering you pretty much have to deal with people all day long.’

Disgusted with her, he turned away and spoke to Officer Charles. ‘Why are you looking for every possible explanation except the obvious? Her nose bled, she met a friend, the cell phone’s dead, she forgot about our lunch date, blah, blah, blah. Everything. God, can’t you see what must have happened?’ He was choking on his words. ‘My wife is missing. My pregnant wife – she’s probably been taken by force –’ The words were larger than his throat. ‘What can we do now?’ He looked around and walked back a few steps to sink into the wooden bench. ‘What do we do now?’ he said and buried his face in his hands.

4.00 PM

The man kept a steady pace on the road. They had just passed Midlothian, twenty miles south of Dallas.

‘What are the rules of our game?’ Didi asked.

‘Rules?’ Pleasure showed on his face. ‘Okay, how about this? We do it in three guesses and I give you three clues.’

‘Sounds good,’ said Didi, licking her lips. She liked it better when he wasn’t sullen.

‘My name,’ said the man, ‘is the name of a great country singer.’ She said, ‘Kenny?’

‘Kenny?’ he exclaimed. ‘Gosh, no! I said great, didn’t I? Not a hack. No, a great, incredible country singer. Two more guesses left.’

‘Well, then,’ said Didi, ‘I need two more clues, don’t I?’

He thought about it, saying nothing for a while. He drove. The sun beat hot on the car. Didi was panting. She needed cool air.

‘Okay, how about this – he’s tall.’

Shaking her head, Didi said, ‘They’re all tall, tall is not a good clue. Sort of like, they’re all men.’ She thought she’d gone too far. Like she was insulting his clues or something.

It was clear he thought the same thing, because he said to her, ‘Are you trying to get smart with me?’

‘No, no,’ she quickly said. ‘I mean, maybe something a tiny bit more specific.’

‘I was married recently,’ he said, and Didi couldn’t be sure if he was in character or talking about his own life. ‘And now I’m not anymore.’

‘Why not?’ said Didi.

‘Because my wife was a hopeless slut and wouldn’t settle down,’ he said harshly.

She guessed he was in character. ‘Lyle Lovett,’ Didi said. ‘Lyle.’

He looked at her sideways with amazement and maybe even admiration. ‘Wow. Two guesses. My name is Lyle. That’s incredible. Very fast. Lovett is not my last name, though.’

‘No, of course not,’ Didi said. And then, ‘Lyle is a nice name.’ Sucker-upper, she thought. You’ll say anything to save your life, won’t you?

She must have looked stricken, because he said solicitously, ‘What’s the matter?’ and placed his right hand on her knee.

It was difficult not to cringe and pull away from him. Wiping her face quickly, she said, ‘Can I have that drink now? I’m really very thirsty.’

‘Well, hold on, hold on,’ said the man named Lyle. ‘I have to guess your name now, too, don’t I?’

‘I can just tell you my name,’ Didi offered.

‘No!’ He stuck out his hand. ‘I want to guess. Please. I was having so much fun with this at Dillard’s. Let me see…what do I get if I guess in three?’ And he leered at her, smiling suggestively and pursing his lips. She wanted to open the door and fall out of the car onto the embankment. She would have done so if she hadn’t had a baby inside her.

‘I don’t know,’ she said helplessly. She did not add, what do you want?

‘How about a little kiss?’ he said, reaching out and placing his hand on her leg, just below her dress line. His hand on her bare leg made her emit a retching sound.

Lyle took his hand away. ‘Yes,’ he said, not smiling. ‘Maybe we’ll start with a little kiss. Now give me the first clue.’

She tried to swallow. Her throat was dry. She needed to swallow to ease her anxiety, but there was nothing to swallow with. The need, though, was great. She wiped her sweaty forehead and, panting, put her hand in her mouth. Unsatisfying, but better than the tightness that overwhelmed and paralyzed her. ‘Okay, first clue,’ she said huskily. ‘I was a major female character in an old, very famous play.’

Lyle’s brow furrowed. Suddenly he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. He obviously realized it was going to be harder than he had thought. ‘Play?’ he said grumpily. ‘I don’t know any plays. What do you mean?’

‘Well, that’s my first clue. If you want another clue, I’ll give it to you, but then it will be two clues.’

‘No, wait. Let me guess.’ He looked pensive. ‘An old play?’

She was quiet, rubbing her sore right ear. ‘Yes, an old play.’

There was an echo in her ear, and the ringing would pass through the canyon of her eardrum, bounce off, and ring in both ears. She was getting a terrific headache. Lowering her hands to the Belly, Didi felt the baby kick. In the first second it gave her comfort, in the second, anguish. The baby.

‘I’ve never seen a play in my life,’ said Lyle.

‘What about in high school?’

‘Yeah,’ he drew out. ‘Maybe in high school. Guys and Dolls, maybe. Sound of Music. Yes! Your name is Maria.’

‘No,’ she said, and thought, idiot. Didn’t I say an old play?

‘No?’ He seemed disappointed. He had looked so proud of himself when he said Maria. The baby kicked again. She closed her eyes.

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