Gone

by Lisa Gardner

  “Nah. We run from Puget Sound up to Alaska and back. Not too many Somali pirates patrolling that corridor. Plus, I’m an engineer. My job’s to keep the ship running. I like wires and gears and rotors. Guns, on the other hand, scare the crap out of me.”

  “I don’t care for them much myself.”

  “Funny comment, coming from a police officer.”

  “Not really.”

  My gaze had returned automatically to Sophie, checking in. Brian followed my line of sight. “Shane said you had a three-year-old. Holey moley, she looks just like you. No taking the wrong kid home from this party.”

  “Shane said I had a kid, and you still took the bait?”

  He shrugged. “Kids are cool. I don’t have any, but that doesn’t mean I’m morally opposed. Father in the picture?” he added casually.

  “No.”

  He didn’t look smug at that news, more like contemplative. “That’s gotta be tough. Being a full time police officer and raising a child.”

  “We get by.”

  “Not doubting you. My father died when I was young. Left my mother to raise five kids on her own. We got by, too, and I respect the hell out of her for it.”

  “What happened to your father?”

  “Heart attack. What happened to her father?” He nodded toward Sophie, who now appeared to be playing tag.

  “Better offer.”

  “Men are stupid,” he muttered, sounding so sincere that I finally laughed. He flushed. “Did I mention I have four sisters? These are the things that happen when you have four sisters. Plus, I have to respect my mom twice as much because not only did she survive being a single mother, but she survived being a single mother with four girls. And I never saw her drink anything stronger than herbal tea. How about them apples?”

  “She sounds like a rock,” I agreed.

  “Since you don’t drink, maybe you’re also an herbal tea kind of gal?”

  “Coffee.”

  “Ah, my personal drug of choice.” He looked me in the eye. “So, Tessa, maybe some afternoon, I could buy you a cup. Your neighborhood or my neighborhood, just let me know.”

  I studied Brian Darby again. Warm brown eyes, easygoing smile, solidly built shoulders.

  “Okay,” I heard myself say. “I would like that.”

  Do you believe in love at first sight? I don’t. I’m too studied, too cautious for such nonsense. Or maybe, I simply know better.

  I met Brian for coffee. I learned that when he was home, his time was his own. It made it easy to hike together in the afternoons, after I’d recovered from graveyard shift and before I picked up Sophie from daycare at five. Then we caught a Red Sox game on my night off, and before I knew it, he was joining Sophie and me for a picnic.

  Sophie did fall in love at first sight. In a matter of seconds, she’d climbed onto his back and demanded giddyup. Brian obediently galloped his way across the park with a squealing three-year-old clutching his hair and yelling “Faster!” at the top of her lungs. When they were done, Brian collapsed on the picnic blanket while Sophie toddled off to pick dandelions. I assumed the flowers were for me, but she turned to Brian instead.

  Brian accepted the dandelions tentatively at first, then positively beaming when he realized the entire wilted bouquet was just for him.

  It became easy, after that, to spend the weekends at his house with a real yard, versus my cramped one-bedroom apartment. We would cook dinner together, while Sophie ran around with his dog, an aging German shepherd name Duke. Brian bought a plastic kiddy pool for the deck, hung a toddler’s swing from the old oak tree.

  One weekend when I got jammed up, he came over and stocked my fridge to get Sophie and me through the week. And one afternoon, after I’d worked a motor vehicle accident that left three kids dead, he read to Sophie while I stared at the bedroom wall and fought to get my head on straight.

  Later I sat curled up against him on the couch and he told me stories of his four sisters, including the time they’d found him napping on the sofa and covered him in makeup. He’d spent two hours biking around the neighborhood in glittering blue eye shadow and hot pink lipstick before he happened to catch his reflection in a window. I laughed. Then I cried. Then he held me tighter and we both said nothing at all.

  Summer slid away. Fall arrived, and just like that, it was time for him to ship out. He’d be gone eight weeks, back in time for Thanksgiving, he assured me. He had a good friend who always looked after Duke. But, if we wanted …

  He handed me the key to his house. We could stay. Even girl the place up if we wanted to. Maybe some pink paint in the second bedroom, for Sophie. Couple of prints on the wall. Princess rubber duckies in the bathroom. Whatever it took to make us comfortable.

  I kissed his cheek, returned the key to the palm of his hand.

  Sophie and I were fine. Always had been, always would be. See you in eight weeks.

  Sophie, on the other hand, cried and cried and cried.

  Couple of months, I tried to tell her. Hardly any time at all. Just a matter of weeks.

  Life was duller with Brian gone. An endless grind of getting up at one p.m., retrieving Sophie from daycare by five, entertaining her until her bedtime at nine, with Mrs. Ennis arriving at ten so I could patrol from eleven to seven. The life of a single working mom. Struggling to stretch a dime into a dollar, cramming endless errands into an already overscheduled day, fighting to keep my bosses happy while still meeting my young daughter’s needs.

  I could handle it, I reminded myself. I was tough. I’d gotten through my pregnancy alone, I’d given birth alone. I’d endured twenty-five long, lonely weeks at the live-in Police Academy, missing Sophie with every breath I took but determined not to quit because becoming a state police officer was the best shot I had to provide a future for my daughter. I’d been allowed to return home to Sophie every Friday night, but I also had to leave her crying with Mrs. Ennis every Monday morning. Week after week after week, until I thought I’d scream from the pressure. But I did it. Anything for Sophie. Always for Sophie.

  Still, I started checking e-mail more often because if Brian was in port he’d send us a quick note, or attach a silly picture of a moose in the middle of some Alaskan main street. By the sixth week, I realized I was happier the days he e-mailed, tenser the days he didn’t. And Sophie was, too. We huddled together over the computer each night, two pretty girls waiting to hear from their man.

  Then finally, the call. Brian’s ship had docked in Ferndale, Washington. He’d be discharged the day after tomorrow, and would be catching the red-eye back to Boston. Could he take us to dinner?

  Sophie selected her favorite dark blue dress. I wore the orange sundress from the Fourth of the July cookout, topped with a sweater in deference to the November chill.

  Sophie, keeping lookout from the front window, spotted him first. She squealed in delight and raced down the apartment steps so fast I thought she’d fall. Brian barely caught her at the end of the walk. He scooped her up, whirled her around. She laughed and laughed and laughed.

  I approached more quietly, taking the time for a last minute tuck of my hair, buttoning my light sweater. I stepped through the front door of the apartment complex. Shut it firmly behind me.

  Then I turned and studied him. Took him in from eight feet away. Drank him up.

  Brian stopped twirling Sophie. Now he stood at the end of the walk, my child still in his arms, and he studied me, too.

  We didn’t touch. We didn’t say a word. We didn’t have to.

  Later, after dinner, after he brought us back to his place, after I tucked Sophie into the bed across the hall, I walked into his bedroom. I stood before him, and let him peel the sweater from my arms, the sundress from my body. I placed my hands against his bare chest. I tasted the salt on the column of his throat.

  “Eight weeks was too long,” he muttered thickly. “I want you here, Tessa. Dammit, I want to know I’m coming home to you always.”

  I placed his hands upon my b
reasts, arching into the feel of his fingers.

  “Marry me,” he whispered. “I mean it, Tessa. I want you to be my wife. I want Sophie to be my daughter. You and her should be living here with me and Duke. We should be a family.”

  I tasted his skin again. Slid my hands down his body, pressed the full length of my bare skin against his bare skin. Shivered at the contact. Except it wasn’t enough. The feel of him, the taste of him. I needed him against me, I needed him above me, I needed him inside me. I needed him everywhere, right now, this instant.

  I dragged him down to the bed, wrapping my legs around his waist. Then he was sliding inside my body and I groaned, or maybe he groaned, but it didn’t really matter. He was where I needed him to be.

  At the last moment, I caught his face between my hands so I could look into his eyes as the first wave crashed over us.

  “Marry me,” he repeated. “I’ll be a good husband, Tessa. I’ll take care of you and Sophie.”

  He moved inside of me and I sighed, and I said: “Yes.”

  And as an extra-special bonus for eBook readers:

  Turn the page for an exclusive sneak peek of the script from

  AMC’s addictive new series, The Killing.

  Premiering Sunday, April 3 at 9/8c . Only on AMC.

  The Killing

  “Pilot”

  Teleplay by

  Veena Sud

  Based on the Danish Series “Forbrydelsen”

  Developed by Veena Sud

  Copyright © 2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

  All Rights Reserved.

  “THE KILLING”

  FADE IN:

  EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

  Near dawn, sky threatening rain. CAMERA TRACKS behind a lone WOMAN running along a wooded trail and over a bridge over railroad tracks. Breathing hard, pushing herself to the limit, sweatshirt soaked through. At first you wonder if she’s a young girl with her ponytail, small frame, and then you see her eyes – wounded, haunted – and realize she isn’t. Meet Homicide Detective SARAH LINDEN – 37, lone wolf type, solo distance runner, pretty without trying, her smiles rare, her intense eyes strange, unblinking.

  SFX: Train HORN. SMASH CUT TO –

  EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - FIELD - NIGHT

  A screaming young GIRL runs through the tall grass – away from someone – their flashlight cutting the darkness.

  EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

  Sarah continues to jog down the trail.

  EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

  Tree limbs, like long fingers, reach down towards the young girl – 17, sweet-faced, child-woman’s body – running hard, clothing torn, hair soaked with sweat. With blood. This is ROSIE LARSEN and she is running for her life.

  Crashing through the brush behind her, an UNSEEN ASSAILANT closes in, FLASHLIGHT cutting through the woods.

  EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

  Sarah continues jogging – intense, driven.

  EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

  Rosie crouches down, pressing herself into the side of a tree, making herself as small as possible. Rosie’s terrified, bloodshot eyes, the bruises and cuts on her arms, legs, face.

  EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - DAY

  Sarah continues jogging the wooded trial.

  EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - NIGHT

  Rosie’s face is suddenly flooded with light. The Assailant has doubled back and is now only a dozen yards away. Moving in with terrifying speed. With a scream, Rosie runs–

  EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

  Dawn. Sarah bursts into a clearing, down a small embankment, is an abandoned beach strewn with driftwood, fog.

  EXT. DISCOVERY PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

  Rosie tripping, scrambling on hands and knees down a small embankment. The flashlight behind her jaggedly cuts through the woods, nearing.

  EXT. GOLDEN GARDENS PARK - WOODS - INTERCUT

  Sarah looks up, goes still. A FIGURE lies on the beach. A blanket of loopy seaweed covering it. Gnats and flies buzzing over it.

  Sarah, transfixed, nears the still figure on the sand.

  She reaches down, pulls off the blanket of seaweed.

  It is a dead SEA LION – one blank eye staring up. Sarah takes it in. RAIN begins to fall.

  Even here, on this beach, she is unable to escape these broken, sad bodies. The exhausting knowledge that life doesn’t care. It is indifferent.

  Sarah’s CELL PHONE RINGS, startling her–

  SARAH

  (into phone)

  Yeah, Linden here.

  Off this–

  CREDITS ROLL

  END TEASER

  ACT ONE

  EXT. DOCKS - DAY (CHYRON: “DAY ONE”)

  A CAR drives down the industrial docks of downtown Seattle. In the distance, through the now heavy rain, the Space Needle, the gray downtown skyline, the waters of Lake Union, all under a breathtaking, brooding sky. A city of contrasts, light and dark, sun and fog, where rain falls eight months of the year. A city surrounded on all sides by waterways, ocean, lakes. Stark beauty and dark underbelly.

  The car pulls up to a crime scene. In her sweats and a raincoat, Sarah exits her car in the now intense DOWNPOUR, chomping NICACHEW. A UNIFORM guards the entrance of an abandoned factory, keeping a bunch of LOOKIE LOOS – sullen emo teens and a bug-eyed crackhead – at bay.

  SARGEANT (O.S.)

  Back behind the tape. Yeah, you heard me.

  A Lookie Loo – male, pierced - catches Sarah’s eye. She holds his baleful stare.

  Sarah ducks under the crime scene TAPE, met by a SARGEANT –40s, grizzled, ex-boxer’s battered face—

  SARGEANT (CONT’D)

  Sarah, sorry ‘bout this. Lieutenant said you were on call so–

  SARAH

  Where’s the body?

  SARGEANT

  Conveyor shed. Homeless guy found her coupla hours ago. Jane Doe… No ID, wallet. Coroner’s en route. You’re the first one here.

  (beat)

  You gotta go up the stairs, follow the ramp, you’ll find her. You want me to walk ya through?

  SARAH

  No. I’m good. Thanks.

  They stop in front a steel door. Sargeant opens it revealing a dark hallway, stairs– He gives her BAGGIES and a FLASHLIGHT over–

  SARGEANT

  You’re outta here, what? Friday?

  SARAH

  Nope. Today.

  With a smile, she enters…

  INT. FACTORY - CONTINUOUS

  … Heads up the stairs. Suddenly, the steel door slams shut, plunging her into darkness. It’d be easy to turn back but that’s not Sarah’s style. Instead, she turns on her flashlight – flickery, iffy.

  Ahead of her, a ramp tilting up into blackness. Trash, graffiti everywhere. Rain pelts the tin roof, pigeons coo. She’s used to silent, secret places like this. Forges on.

  Her light catches a dark SMEAR on one wall. Blood. Below it, a pile of trash. Baggie in hand, Sarah sifts through. Pulls out a sharp deboning KNIFE. Bags it.

  Trains her flashlight on a faint trail of BLOOD. Leading to the top of the conveyor shaft, a room. Something in there…

  INT. FACTORY - BACK ROOM - CONTINUOUS

  A large OBJECT, like a side of beef encased in plastic, hangs from a hook. Sarah slowly reaches up, rips it off–

  LIGHTS snap on, revealing a group of middle-aged male DETECTIVES in PARTY HATS, clutching a CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE,

  Laughing at what’s hanging on the hook: a BLOW UP DOLL. Red mouth around a fake SPLIFF, San Francisco baseball CAP on its head, written across its torso: “BON VOYAGE SARAH”.

  OAKES

  (singing)

  Hey, hey… For she’s a jolly good fellow! For she’s a jolly good…

  SINGING DETECTIVE

  For she’s a jolly good fellow…!

  They warble off key, the others clapping, hooting, blowing noise makers. They tease Sarah.

  OAKES
/>
  Get her a glass…

  Sarah laughing now, much loved, overwhelmed by it all…

  EXT. ESTABLISHING AERIAL SHOT - CHINNTENDEN LOCKS - DAY

  The waterway connecting Lake Union with the vast Puget Sound. Through the RAIN–

  INT. SARAH’S CONDO - DAY

  Sarah enters, BLOW UP DOLL under arm, rain coat sopping. Takes in the sterile, empty condo. Packing boxes everywhere.

  SARAH

  Rick? Are you still here…? Rick…?

  As she moves through the barren rooms CAMERA FOLLOWS. Someone watching, closing in…

  SARAH (CONT’D)

  Rick…?

  Suddenly, Sarah spins around–

  SARAH (CONT’D)

  Boo.

  Getting the drop on RICK FELDER – salt-and-pepper sexy, established man’s confidence mixed with a former bad boy’s heat–

  RICK

  I so had you…

  SARAH

  Charlie Brown with the football–

  RICK

  I think Lucy needs a spanking.

  He grabs at her. Laughing, screaming, she fends him off with the blow up doll. As they tussle–

  RICK (CONT’D)

  (re: doll)

  I’m not even gonna ask.

  He flings it to the side, grabs her, they kiss. Visceral, electric, heating up. Over–

  SARAH

  Where’s Jack?

  RICK

  Dropped him off at school…

  SARAH

  Was he mad?

  RICK

  He’s 13. It’s his job to hate us.

  Sarah sighs, worried, rests her head on his shoulder.

  RICK (CONT’D)

  He’ll come around. Or I’ll make him.

  (beat, then re: blow up doll)

  What does Candy Cane feel about Sonoma?

  SARAH

  (smiles)

  Pop that damn thing before Jack sees it.