Leave the Light On

Chapter 9, Leave the Light On

She was making coffee, pouring water into the well and tossing grounds into the basket, after sitting and listening to her dad and Neil and Vic talk around her. A cop friend of Vic's had arrived at the door only to say that Steven's car was in fact sitting in the lot of Ricky's Food Mart, not Fairfields as she'd thought, and the engine had been ice cold. Before she could fall apart, which she was doing her damnedest not to, she'd been sent into the kitchen by her dad to make coffee for all the male testosterone that had invaded her little house.

Of course it was a distraction, but it was one she welcomed as she listened to the voices in the other room.

She stared at the coffeemaker and then out the window and to the sink, which held her single plate with a bit of cheese and crumbs. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, squeezing. Her dad was beside her and now leaning against the counter, looking down at her. Everything about him that she loved became her anchor in that moment, from his same western dress of jeans and a blue plaid shirt to the thick gray taking over his dark hair.

"How are you hanging in there, kiddo?" He was watching her, and she just wanted to hug him again, as she had when he'd first arrived nearly two hours earlier with Neil, who was in the living room with Vic and the cop, named Darrell Holmes, who was Vic's height and build but was balding and had a mustache. He wore one of those bargain suits, cheap and wrinkled and tan. She hated that color. He was still waiting for the coffee her dad had asked her to make.

She shrugged. She'd been doing a lot of that lately. Sometimes it seemed easier than trying to figure out what to say. "Dad, where is Steven?"

"I don't know, honey, but you need to not worry. I'm here, and me and your uncle Neil, Vic, and Officer Holmes are going to find Steven. We'll turn this town upside down if we have to. You know that."

"Well, why can't we go out and look for him? We could go to the grocery store and see whether anyone saw him. Maybe he had car trouble. Maybe his car wouldn't start, and he started walking, and it was dark, and oh my God, what if he was robbed?"

Her dad reached out and pulled her against him, and he put both arms around her, maybe to stop her from the freak-out she was quickly tumbling into. "Hey, we're going to find him, but you're not going out there right now, so get that out of your head. You're panicking, and that isn't going to help us find Steven."

Her face was damp, and she swiped at the tear that slipped down her cheek.

"Brad, Darrell wants to ask Katy some questions," Neil said as he stepped into the kitchen. He too looked so good, his dark hair short with threads of gray. He was still wearing that diamond stud, and he had on a black turtleneck sweater and dark jeans. There was sympathy and family support in the way he was watching her, and she wanted to weep, feeling so many things. Just having her family there meant more than she could have put into words.

Katy heard the coffeepot beep, and she threaded her fingers through her hair as she turned around to get it.

"Forget the coffee, Katy. Come on," Neil said, and her dad was leading her out of the kitchen and had her seated on the corner of the sectional. He sat beside her, and she was grateful for the support. Vic was standing off to the side, his arms crossed, and Neil moved beside him, saying something she couldn't make out.

"Hey, Katy, sorry to meet under these circumstances," Darrell said. "I just wanted to ask you some questions." He took his phone out, ready to use it for notes.

"You said you found Steven's car at Ricky's Food Mart. We've never gone there, or I haven't. Did anyone seen him?" She wanted to know what they'd found out.

The cop, or maybe he was a detective, didn't take his eyes off her, and she noticed that the icy blue of his eyes wasn't welcoming. It seemed so harsh and uncomfortable. Her dad leaned forward, his arms on his knees, and tilted his head her way. What did they know that they weren't sharing?

"Steven's car was cold, so we're thinking he was there late last night," her dad said. Katy took in something in Darrell's expression as he glanced over to her dad and then back to her. What were they hiding?

"That's right," he said. "I'll be going there next to show Steven's photo around, see if anyone has seen him."

"We'll do that and see if we can watch the video surveillance," Neil added, and Katy was sure he meant him and Vic. They seemed to be on the same page about something.

"This isn't really official yet, Katy, as your husband could just walk back in the door at any time. In all the years I've been a cop, I've seen just about everything, and nine times out of ten it's just that someone needs some space and a little time to himself."

She was staring at him as if he'd lost his mind, and she was trying to get her mouth to move. How could he not understand that Steven wasn't made that way? He would never ever do something like that.

Her dad touched her arm, holding her as he looked over to the detective. "Steven wouldn't do that," he said.

"No, he wouldn't," Katy added, jumping in. "You don't know him or you'd never say that."

The cop didn't seem convinced, as he shook his head, and of course that made Katy even more angry. "You don't know my husband. For God's sake, he went for ice cream! He didn't take off on me." She fisted her hands and pounded the cushions of the sofa to drive the point home.

The detective didn't take his gaze from her. "You have no idea how many times a spouse says that and believes it. The problem is that we all do things we'd never do in our right minds when we're feeling stressed. I'm just looking at all sides here and trying to piece this together. Did you have a fight or disagreement, or maybe he was feeling a little overwhelmed?" He gestured to her baby bump, and his expression softened. "It's happened many times, and all those times we find hubby holed up in some five and dime motel at the edge of town." The detective looked as if he'd already decided what had happened. "You're both how old? Seriously, I can't imagine being your age with the kind of responsibility he has, with a wife and a baby on the way, living in a new city, with a new job." He gestured as if he'd found the answer, and Katy found herself standing up, her fists balled, ready to pop this guy in the mouth. It was something she'd never done or considered before.

Her dad reached for her arm. "Katy," he said.

She didn't look at him. This prick was sitting here in her house, crapping all over Steven's character, and she wouldn't stand for that. "You're an asshole," she snapped. She heard something behind her, and her dad stood up, still holding her arm.

"Hey, hey," he said. "Officer, I already told you Steven is not like that. They're young, but he's responsible. He's got a great job here, and they're happy." Her dad took a step in front of her, moving his arm to move her behind him. Maybe he knew what she'd almost done. The exchange between him and the cop had Katy wondering whether he had asked about the possibility of Steven running off before. Maybe this was some of what she'd missed.

Neil had his arms crossed and was shaking his head. Yeah, he was pissed, too. She was looking at him and Vic, who said nothing as he took in everyone and everything.

It took all she had to take a breath and try to bring some reason back into this situation. "I'm sorry, but Steven wouldn't do that," she said. "I told him last night that I was interested in finding work, and he wasn't angry. I told him I wanted something more for me, something that made me feel important. I didn't mean now, and I don't know what I want, and I told him that. It wasn't really a fight. It was just a disagreement. He wasn't interested in hearing about it, and he pretty much told me to drop it. He seemed more interested in going out to get me ice cream..." She needed to stop talking, because to her own ears it sounded as if he'd left to get away from her and how she was carrying on. She rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. She was seeing it now in a different way, which wasn't right. Steven wouldn't walk out. He wouldn't do that. "Oh my God, he wouldn't, would he?"

She looked over to all four men, who were now staring at her as if she'd lost her mind.