The baby kicked a few times in agreement and she rubbed her abdomen, love for her unborn child filling her heart.
It was a miracle she was pregnant at all. After getting pregnant so easily with her first two children, it had come as a shock when after two years of trying she still hadn’t been able to conceive. That was when the fertility treatments began. When the money ran out, she and Eric figured that was it for them—two beautiful girls. She’d tried to accept that, but longed for more children. Then, when she least expected it, she became pregnant without any medical help at all.
“Abby.”
She nearly jumped at the sound, then whirled around to see who had called her name.
“You were daydreaming.” No smile graced Nadine’s narrow face.
Redness flooded her cheeks at the rebuke and she had unpleasant memories of being scolded by her mother. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t. The books are beginning to pile up already.” Nadine spun on her low heels and walked away.
She noticed Nadine had brought in two more carts of books to check in and shelve. She worked through her embarrassment for two hours until it was time for her lunch break. Before leaving, she checked the area where new books were held to see if the book she’d requested had arrived. She loved to read, and one of the perks of her job was being privy to the arrival of new books.
“Yes!” she said to herself as she pulled the book from the shelf. After checking it out she walked to her car, ready to go home for lunch. Eric was supposed to meet her there so they could watch the DVD of the ultrasound together. Amazingly, Nadine hadn’t said anything when Abby had requested a long lunch.
Maybe she felt guilty for scolding me earlier, she thought as she pulled into her garage, leaving enough room for Eric to park his Jeep.
The first thing she did was put the DVD of the morning’s ultrasound into the player. Her heart lifted in delight at the sight of her unborn child. At the conclusion of the DVD she remembered the delicate bird the technician had made for her and retrieved it from her purse.
Pleased it had not been damaged after sitting in her purse all morning, she could hardly wait until Eric came home for lunch so they could open it together. She set it high on the bookshelf where it wouldn’t be misplaced, then stood daydreaming for a moment.
* * *
Abby was getting worried. She looked at her watch again. Her usually prompt husband was thirty minutes late. She paced the room, feeling the restless motions of her baby, as if it too were worried.
He knows I only have a limited amount of time, she thought. He would have called if he couldn’t make it.
She remembered their disagreement the night before. Although she had wanted him to come to her doctor’s appointment, this lunch date had been their compromise.
Abby stopped pacing and walked into the kitchen, convinced Eric would have called by now if something had come up. She picked up the phone and dialed his cell number. His voice mail came on. She waited for the beep before leaving a message.
“Hi, it’s me. Just wondering where you are.” She tried to hide her irritation. “I’m at home. Did you forget our lunch date? I have the ultrasound for you to see, and if you want to know if it’s a boy or a girl you’d better get home soon. I don’t know what we’re having, but I have a surprise for you if you want to know. Please call me back.”
Eric, of all the days to not answer your phone, today is the worst. Abby looked at the little green origami bird. I want you here so we can find out together if we’re having a boy or a girl.
Wondering if someone at Eric’s work might know where he was, she picked up the phone again and dialed.
“Central Valley Construction,” a cheery voice answered.
“Accounting department, please,” she said, trying to keep her voice pleasant.
When she reached the right department she identified herself and asked for her husband.
“One moment,” the voice told her.
Abby tapped her fingers on the counter and glanced at the clock.
The woman came back on the line. “I’m sorry. He’s at lunch. Do you want to leave a message?”
“Can you tell me how long ago he left?” She was glad to know he was on his way.
“One moment, please. I’ll see if I can find out.”
Abby let out a sigh, wondering if Eric would walk in the front door before the secretary came back on the phone.
“Mrs. Breuner?”
“Yes, I’m still here.”
“I came in late this morning and I haven’t actually seen him yet. I’m afraid I don’t know when he left, but I would expect him back anytime. Would you like to leave a message on his voice mail?”
Glancing toward the door to watch for his arrival, Abby shook her head. “No. He’s probably on his way now.”
She hung up the phone and walked to the front window, looking in the direction Eric normally came from. No one was on the street. Abby checked her watch and saw that her lunch break was rapidly ending.
Chapter 2
Abby waited another ten minutes before eating lunch without Eric. Angry with him for not showing up or calling, she could hardly taste her chicken salad sandwich.
Who does he think he is? He’s not the only one with a schedule to keep, she thought. Does he place so little value on my time and my job that he can’t bother to let me know he had something more important to do than meet me for lunch?
Shaking her head in anger, she decided she would have a talk with him that night. If he couldn’t remember she had a job to get back to, maybe he was ready for her to quit. That was fine with her, but in the meantime, she did have a job and she got back in time to run into Nadine.
“Did you have a nice lunch?” her supervisor asked, a surprisingly pleasant smile on her face.
Abby wasn’t about to admit her lunch had been a total failure. “It was fine, thanks.”
“Of course, you’re staying an extra half hour to make up for the long lunch. That, plus the ten minutes you already promised, right?”
She opened her mouth to protest, but Nadine turned and walked away before she could say a word. A short while later, as she sat on a chair and arranged the books on the shelving cart in the proper order, she thought about the rest of her afternoon. That’s when panic momentarily hit. She usually got home at least half an hour before her daughters walked home from school—now they would arrive home before she did.
Catherine Spencer, Abby thought in relief. I’ll call my neighbor. She has a third-grader in Tiffany’s class. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind letting the girls come to her house until I get there.
No one answered at Catherine’s house. Leaving a message, Abby groaned and hung up the phone. She wondered if her job was worth it, and she vowed to talk to Eric that evening. At the thought of her husband, she bristled. If he had called to let me know he wouldn’t be able to make our lunch date, I could have come right back to work and I wouldn’t be late getting home this afternoon, she thought. Trying to put aside her anger and annoyance, Abby shelved the nonfiction books from her shelving cart.
Later that afternoon, Abby checked her watch and realized it was decision time. Catherine had not called back, and school would be getting out in a few minutes. Abby was supposed to stay at work for another twenty-five minutes, but if she did her daughters would come home to a locked and empty house.
I should have arranged for this type of situation a long time ago, she chastised herself. Putting away the half-finished shelving cart, she set off to find Nadine. She found Mary first. “Have you seen Nadine?” she asked her coworker.
“She left early today,” Mary said, an eyebrow arched in comment.
Letting out a breath of disdain, Abby shook her head. “It figures. Well, that makes my decision easier. I’m cutting out of here early too.”
“Ooh, are you sure?” Mary asked.
“I need to get home before my girls do. I don’t have a choice. Besides,”
she said, her mouth turned down in a frown, “what’s she going to do, fire me?”
“Uh, I wouldn’t put it past her,” Mary said. “I think that’s her favorite part of the job.”
Abby laughed out loud, drawing a sharp look from one of the librarians. She covered her mouth with her hand, then waved silently to Mary and went to get her things before heading home.
Susannah and Tiffany were sitting on the porch when she arrived. They jumped up and ran to their mother after she pulled into the garage. Abby immediately noticed that seven-year-old Susannah’s eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. Nine-year-old Tiffany seemed calm, however.
“Mommy, where were you?” Susannah cried, fresh tears coursing down her cheeks.
They couldn’t have been waiting for more than five minutes, but Abby knew five minutes could feel like an eternity to a young child. As she gazed at Susannah’s tear-streaked face, Abby’s anger at Eric for throwing off her whole day was rekindled.
She pulled her daughters into her arms and hugged them. “I’m sorry I’m late, sweethearts. I got here as soon as I could.” Abby was glad she hadn’t stayed any longer; there was no telling what kind of state she would have found Susannah in.
“I tried to tell her you’d be here in a minute, Mom,” Tiffany said, pulling back from her mother and shooting a look in her sister’s direction. “But she wouldn’t listen.”
“Thank you, Tiff.” Abby let Susannah go as well and stood up. “Let’s go inside and have a treat. How does that sound?”
Susannah perked up and ran into the house.
After Abby fixed them a plate of cookies, she went into the office to check for messages. She hoped Eric had called to explain his behavior.
The button was blinking. Abby hit PLAY and listened as Eric’s voice filled the room. “I . . . I guess I just missed you. I wanted to tell you that I love you and . . . I’m sorry.” Abby immediately realized it was the message from that morning. In her haste to be on time to her appointment, she’d forgotten to erase it.
Before her anger could revive, another message began playing. It was Eric’s coworker, Timothy Meher.
“Eric, this is Tim. Call me at home when you get this message.”
She called Eric’s office, a whole list of questions flooding her mind. Carly, the secretary, informed her she hadn’t heard from Eric yet, and had no idea where he was.
“Are you sure he didn’t have an appointment today or something?” Abby asked, a slight feeling of alarm beginning to replace her earlier irritation. She could hear the woman typing on her keyboard.
“No, it doesn’t look like he had anything scheduled. I’m sorry, Mrs. Breuner.”
“Do you know if he came in this morning?” she asked as different scenarios raced through her fertile imagination.
“I’m not sure. I could ask around and call you back. Would that help?”
Grateful for her suggestion, Abby felt calmer. “That would be great.”
Abby tried to busy herself in the office while she waited for the phone to ring. After a few minutes she went to see what Tiffany and Susannah were up to. Seeing they were nearly done with their snack, Abby asked them to get started on homework.
“I need help, Mom,” Tiffany said, pulling out her daily folder.
Trying to put aside her worries about Eric, Abby walked over to her older daughter and looked over the assignment. It was a multiplication worksheet. “What do you want me to help you with, sweetie? Do you want me to get the flashcards so you can practice?”
Tiffany groaned. “No, I want you to help me figure these out.”
“I’ll tell you what. Do all the ones you know, then we’ll see where you are, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed, obviously not happy with her mother’s answer. Nonetheless, she bent over her paper, concentrating intently.
The shrill ring of the phone broke the quiet. Tiffany jumped from her chair and raced to the phone before Abby had a chance to get it.
“Hello?” Tiffany said, apparently hopeful it would be one of her friends so she could get a break from her dreaded homework. “She’s right here.” Tiffany frowned and held out the phone to her mother. “It’s for you. She says her name’s Carly or something.”
“I’ll take it in the office. Please hang it up in a second.” She hurried to pick up the office extension. “This is Abby.”
“Mrs. Breuner, this is Carly at Central Valley Construction.”
“Yes,” she said, as she heard the click of the other phone being hung up.
“I’m afraid no one has seen Eric today. In fact, he had a meeting this morning and didn’t show up.”
Abby shook her head, trying to clear her mind, wondering if she’d heard Carly correctly. “Are you sure he never came in?” Her stomach suddenly felt like it was full of wasps trying to force their way up her throat.
“It appears that way, yes,” Carly said.
“That can’t be right,” she whispered.
“I beg your pardon?” Carly asked.
“Nothing. Thank you for your help. Good-bye.” Abby slowly hung up the phone, puzzled at what was happening. Eric was an accountant and rarely left the office. She wondered if Tim, one of the other accountants, had any answers.
She called the office again. Carly told her Tim wasn’t there and she didn’t know if he would be in the next day. She regretfully refused to give Abby his home number, saying it was against company policy.
“Look, my husband is missing,” Abby said, guilt for her previous anger at her husband compressing her chest. “Tim left a message earlier asking Eric to call him at home. I don’t have his home number and I need to talk to him. Please give me his number.”
“Mrs. Breuner, I’m sorry, but I could lose my job. They’re really strict about this.” Carly paused. “Have you tried the phone book?”
“No,” Abby said, trying to control her now-shaking voice.
“I’m sorry.”
Abby hung up the phone and grabbed the phone book, thankful to have something concrete to do. Setting the phone book on the desk, she sat down and began thumbing through the M’s until she came to the place where “Timothy Meher” should be. He wasn’t listed.
Though she would have liked to hide out in her bedroom and think through what was happening, she remembered she had two children in the next room who were depending on her to make their world okay. She smoothed back her hair and calmly walked into the kitchen, trying to hide her very real feelings of apprehension.
Apparently she looked like her usual self because Tiffany smiled and asked, “Are we going to have a baby brother?”
A sharp pain flared in her heart as she thought of Eric and his desire to have a baby boy. She kept her composure as she answered her daughter’s question. “I don’t know yet, honey.” She didn’t mention the little origami bird, not wanting to explain they were waiting for Eric before opening it. At the thought, her mind jumped to horrible conclusions and she couldn’t seem to stop herself from assuming the worst.
Abby spoke to the girls in a quiet voice. “If you want to take a break from homework, you may watch TV if you’d like.”
The girls cheered and raced into the adjoining family room, thrilled at the unusual privilege. Then they began arguing over which program to watch. The sound of them fighting stretched Abby’s already taut nerves to the breaking point and she took several deep breaths to keep from screaming at them to quiet down. Just as she was about to yell at them, they settled on a program and were soon peacefully watching TV.
The phone rang and Abby snatched it from its cradle. “Hello?”
“Abby, this is Tim Meher.”
“Oh! I’m so glad you called. I’m really starting to worry.” Abby was relieved to finally speak to someone who might have answers.
“Carly called and said you needed to talk to me. What’s going on? Is Eric there?”
“No. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Have you seen him today?”
“No, I haven’
t. But it’s urgent that I speak to him as soon as possible.”
It’s urgent that I speak to him as soon as possible too, she thought as she closed her eyes. Opening them again, she focused on the new plant she had recently bought, from a time when her worries were few.
Bringing her mind back to the distressing conversation, Abby forced her voice to remain calm. “I haven’t heard from him since this morning. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.” She shifted her gaze to the clock. It was a quarter past four. “He was supposed to come home for lunch today and he never showed up or called. Is it possible he went on an errand for someone there?” Abby unconsciously held her breath as she waited for Tim’s reply.
“Anything’s possible I suppose. But I seriously doubt he’s on an errand. Besides, I asked around earlier and no one had seen him.”
She exhaled abruptly. “Well, as far as I know, he went to work this morning.”
“I wish I could help you, Abby. Like I said, it’s very important that I speak to him right away.” He paused. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but have you tried calling the police to see if there have been any accidents?”
“No,” she whispered in a shaky voice.
“Well, you might want to give that a try.” He paused, then asked, “Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t know.” She fought her racing thoughts. “I don’t think so. Thanks for asking.”
“Will you keep me posted?”
“Yes.” Abby tried to control the panic that welled up inside her. “Can I get your number?”
He gave it to her and they hung up.
Tim’s suggestion of an accident was more than she could bear. “Girls,” she called out over the blare of the television.
They turned to look at her.
Abby stared back for a moment, the weight of her concern paralyzing her.
“What, Mom?” Tiffany asked as Susannah turned back to the program they were watching.
“I’ll be up in my room if you need me.”
“Okay.”
Going to the entry hall, Abby couldn’t avoid noticing the family photograph hanging on the wall. The photo had been taken the previous summer when they had gone on a picnic. They were all sitting on a log, looking off into the distance. Next to Eric were his three girls, as he liked to call Abby and their daughters. His blond hair was cut short and his blue eyes sparkled as if he had a surprise he was about to share.
Suspicions: a novel of suspense Page 24
