Authors: Amy Gutman
wasn’t right; they were waiting too long. All they did was complain. When
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she reached the new diner’s table, she was out of breath. When she apolo-9
gized for the delay, he told her not to worry. “I saw how they were acting,”
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he said, with a flick of the head toward the table. Later that night, back at
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home, she’d found herself thinking of him. When he didn’t come in for the
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rest of the week, she was disappointed. Then, suddenly, he was back, sit-13
ting at the same table. His face lit up when he saw her. “It’s good to see
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you,” he said. When she brought his check at the end of the meal, he asked
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her to have a drink.
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Over beers at the Wursthaus a few blocks away, he introduced himself.
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His name was Steven Gage. He’d grown up in Nashville and gone to
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school at the University of Tennessee. Now he planned to attend law
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school. Harvard was his first choice.
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A scraping sound. He put down the book, turned off the small 22
flashlight. Peering through the slats of the tree house, he looked 23
across the street. Except for the yellow front porch light, her 24
house was totally dark. Had the sound come from somewhere 25
else? Or had he imagined it? He’d come here every night this 26
week, hoping he might see her. Perhaps the frustration of these 27
endless hours was acting on his perceptions.
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He looked at the illuminated dial on his watch: 11:53 p.m.
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Then he thought of another watch, pulled from a slender wrist.
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The image calmed him slightly. He felt his spirits lift.
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Time is fair,
he told himself.
In the end, time is fair.
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In that instant, he heard it again. This time, he wasn’t mis-33
taken. But it wasn’t coming from her window. It was farther to 34
the right. A head popped out of this second window and looked S 35
from side to side. Anna. It was Anna. What was she going to do?
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Fascinated, he watched her, waiting for what came next. But 2
after a moment, she ducked inside and all was still again. Was it 3
over? Was that it? His eyes stayed glued to the house.
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Then the front door was opening. A small figure emerged.
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Anna stepped down off the porch and ran across the street. His 6
heart leapt into his throat. She was heading straight for him! But 7
she stopped directly under the tree house, stood there silently. As 8
if she were waiting for something to happen. As if she were wait-9
ing for
someone.
She was standing right beneath him. He could 10
hardly breathe.
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Another door was opening, but this time the sound came from 12
the house below. A second child walked into the night. If it 13
wasn’t little Henry Creighton. The boy walked straight to Anna.
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From his perch in the tree house, he heard their whispers, though 15
he couldn’t make out the words. Then, just moments later, they 16
were walking down the street. He hadn’t noticed it before, but 17
Anna had a backpack.
Running away!
It came to him. That’s 18
what they were doing. At that same time, another idea burst full-19
blown into his mind. He’d planned to kill Laura Seton, but why 20
not kill her child?
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35 S
36 R
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Sunday–Monday, May 14–15
Th e desk lamp pooled yellow light on the black-and-white 1
pages of her book. Callie was taking notes. She’d put on her Sony 2
Walkman, and strains of Vivaldi added to her sense of calm. For 3
a time, she was free of pressing concerns, lost in the world of 4
thought.
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Her pen moved across the paper, slowly, and then faster. She 6
was putting together an outline for her paper on unconscious 7
transference, having finally decided to focus on the issue of eye-8
witness testimony. The idea had come from the two case studies 9
that surfaced again and again: the psychologist mistakenly ac-10
cused of rape and the unfortunate ticket buyer. Both victims of 11
mistaken eyewitness identification. She’d decided to search for 12
more recent examples, to try to catalogue them. Her paper would 13
start off with the classic cases, then move to her own research.
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The cassette clicked off. Callie was surprised when she glanced 15
at her watch to see that it was almost 1 a.m. She pulled off her 16
headphones. Silence. By now Anna was asleep. As she gathered 17
up the scattered papers on her desk, she scanned what she’d writ-18
ten. She’d put in a solid effort tonight, and she felt good about 19
that. Despite everything that was happening, she’d reclaimed a 20
small part of her life.
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In her bathroom, she washed her face and patted it dry, 22
squeezed out toothpaste, and began to brush. The faint taste of 23
old coffee was washed away by a gust of mint. Once she’d finished 24
brushing, she flossed, then put cream on her face. As her fingers 25
massaged the skin of her cheeks, her eyes studied the mirror. It S 26
had been a while since she’d really looked at herself, and what R 27
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she saw was disturbing. There was a tension in the muscles of her 2
face that hadn’t been there before, a deep furrow between her 3
eyes, a tightness around the mouth. These weren’t the ordinary 4
marks of age, but a sign of something wrong. The well-being 5
she’d felt just moments ago flickered and was gone. She’d 6
thought her anxiety was under control, but her face told her she 7
was wrong. And it wasn’t just her physical self, it was also her be-8
havior. Her mind flashed back to earlier, to how she’d snapped at 9
Anna.
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She turned off her bathroom light and went through her room 11
toward Anna’s. She didn’t want to wake her up, just to look at 12
her. In the hallway she left the light off, so Anna’s room would 13
stay dark. Then, gently, she turned the handle and cracked open 14
the door. The hinges gave a faint squeak, but the lump in the bed 15
was still.
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Callie stood on the threshold for a couple of seconds, waiting 17
to see if Anna would move. But Anna appeared to be sleeping 18
soundly. Callie crept toward the bed. There were dim piles of 19
blankets and sheets, a few stuffed animals. Callie leaned forward, 20
searching for Anna’s head. She reached out and touched a knot 21
of blankets. The fabric gave way beneath her hand. She touched 22
another part of the bed. Again there was no resistance. In a sin-23
gle gesture, she swept back the blankets. Nothing, no one was 24
there.
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She jumped up and ran from the room, looked into the hallway 26
bath. The door was open. The room was dark.
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Anna wasn’t there.
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“Anna?” Callie called softly. And then more loudly. “Anna?”
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Maybe she’d gone downstairs. Maybe she’d woken up hungry, 30
wanted something to eat.
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Callie bounded down the stairs, taking two steps at a time.
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“Anna?” she called again, as she flipped on the light in the 33
kitchen. The familiar room jumped out at her, but Anna wasn’t 34
down here either.
35 S
Callie raced through the house, calling Anna’s name. A hole 36 R
was growing in her chest, deep and black and wide.
This can’t be
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happening,
she told herself.
There has to be some mistake.
She ran 1
back upstairs to Anna’s room and rubbed her arms across the 2
empty bed, threw open the closet door and pushed aside rows of 3
clothes. On hands and knees, she looked under the bed: some 4
books, a jigsaw puzzle. Standing up, she pressed her hands to her 5
mouth.
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Think, Callie, think.
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She ran downstairs to the basement and scanned the concrete 8
room. But, thank God, there was nothing unusual, no sign of 9
anything wrong. Shelves lined with paint cans and storage boxes.
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A laundry basket filled with sheets. Crossing the floor to the fur-11
nace room, Callie flung open the door. No sign of Anna there ei-12
ther. She headed back upstairs.
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She didn’t know the number for the police department and 14
had to look it up. Her fingers felt large and clumsy, barely a part 15
of her. Twice she punched in the wrong number and had to start 16
again.
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When she finally managed to dial correctly, the phone rang 18
twice.
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A male voice answered. “Merritt Police Department.”
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Something clicked inside her.
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Anna was really gone.
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She began to shake uncontrollably. “My daughter, she . . .
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she’s missing.”
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h
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There was a bus to Boston at four in the morning. They were go-27
ing to be on it. By the time their parents started looking for them, 28
they’d already be gone. “But what if they call the bus station?”
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Anna had asked Henry. Henry had said it wasn’t a problem. No 30
one would be awake.
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But first they had to get to the bus. That was the first step. So 32
far, they’d been walking about half an hour. Anna’s feet were get-33
ting sore.
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“How much farther is it?” she asked Henry.
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Henry shrugged. “A couple of miles.”
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Anna didn’t say anything. It sounded pretty far.
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It was strange to be out so late at night, when everything in 3
town was quiet. Walking through the center of Merritt, they 4
hadn’t passed a single car. The stores were dark and shut tight.
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The sky was full of stars. The yellow cat that lived in the book-6
store slept in the plate-glass window. His name was Sebastian, 7
and looking at him, Anna felt a little sad. “Good-bye, Sebastian,”
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she whispered. Softly, so Henry wouldn’t hear.
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Now they were walking down Old Kipps Road, the street with 10
the shopping malls. They walked past Staples and Wal-Mart, to-11
ward the Stop & Shop. In her backpack, Anna had two peanut 12
butter sandwiches, two apples, three oranges, and some Oreos.
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She also had two changes of clothes and fifty-seven dollars. Henry 14
had ninety-four dollars. With all that money, they could get to 15
the city, buy some food, go to the movies. Henry said there were 16
places to sleep for kids who ran away. Anna thought they’d have 17
to call your parents, but Henry said they wouldn’t.
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She might have asked more questions if she’d really cared that 19
much. But the thing was, she didn’t want to run away forever, just 20
long enough to make a point. Long enough for her mom to see 21
that she was really, really mad. For Henry, it was different. He 22
wanted to leave for good. That was because his parents never, 23
ever listened to him. All they cared about were his grades, about 24
how smart he was. For her, it was more complicated because her 25
mom used to care. Back when it was just the two of them, before 26
she met Rick.
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Just thinking about Rick Evans gave Anna a queasy feeling.
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But even a couple of months ago, things hadn’t been so bad.
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She’d hated it that Rick was there, but at least her mom had been 30
happy. Since Easter, though, things had changed, and she’d 31
started acting crazy. Like tonight, when she’d just barged in and 32
said that Anna had to go to Indianapolis. If it hadn’t been for 33
that, well, maybe she’d have stayed. Even though Henry had 34
been bugging her, she hadn’t made up her mind. But the idea that 35 S
she could be sent away — that had been the last straw. Her 36 R
mother wanted her gone? Fine. She’d take care of that herself.
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A stone caught in Anna’s tennis shoe, and she reached down 1
to get it out. As she did, a car wheeled around the corner, and 2