Linwood Barclay - The Twenty-Three

“I haven’t heard anything back from her dad yet. And even if I do, he’s in San Francisco and it’s probably going to be a day or two before he gets here.”

“What are you asking?”

“I can’t have her stay with me at the hotel. It just doesn’t look right. Strange man who’s not her father.”

“She can stay here,” Celeste said without hesitation.

“Dwayne won’t mind?”

Celeste sighed. “He minds just about everything these days.”

“Where is he?”

“Out in the garage doing God knows what.” Celeste’s eyes moistened.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s just… more of the same. The more worried he gets about losing work, the more withdrawn he gets. He goes out without telling me, is gone for hours. When he comes back, I ask him where he’s been and all he says is ‘out.’ I don’t know what to do. I try to boost his spirits, tell him things are going to turn around, but nothing much seems to work. And now, God, given what’s happened today, I don’t know what the future holds for this town.”

“Me, neither,” Cal said.

“They said on the radio that there might be more than a hundred dead. Just for starters. And there may be lots of people sick or dead they don’t even know about yet.”

Like Lucy, Cal thought.

“How does a town get over something like this?” she asked.

“I can’t worry about the whole town,” Cal said. “Right now all I’m worried about is Crystal.”

“She seems kind of… forgive me, but she seems kind of weird. And I don’t mean just because of her mom being dead. There’s something-”

“I know. Just be patient with her.”

“Of course. But is there anything I should know-”

The door that led from the kitchen to the backyard opened and Dwayne came in. “Hey,” he said. “Cal.”

“Dwayne.”

“Thanks for the heads-up about the bad water, but we already knew,” he said.

Celeste added, “Dwayne knew before anybody.”

Dwayne stepped in quickly. “I was out for a walk before Celeste even woke up. Ran into someone on the street who told me. Came home, made sure Celeste knew before she was even out of bed.”

“Lucky thing,” Cal said.

Dwayne nodded. “Yeah.” He heard the television going and peered around the corner into the living room. “Who’s the kid?”

Celeste brought him up to speed.

“She’s gonna stay with us?” Dwayne asked.

Cal said, “Not for long, I hope. I’m trying to get in touch with her father. Once he gets here…”

Dwayne shook his head. It was clear he didn’t like the idea, but he said, “I guess. As long as it’s just her.”

Cal went back into the living room. Crystal had tuned the TV in to, of all things, the Weather Channel.

“Why are you watching this?” Cal asked.

“I like weather,” she said.

Cal told her she would be staying with Celeste and Dwayne until her father could get to Promise Falls.

Crystal asked, “Both of us?”

“No,” Cal explained. “I’ll stay in my hotel.”

Cal noticed the child’s face starting to look brittle. “No,” she said. “I can’t stay here without you.”

“Celeste and Dwayne are very nice. You’ ll-”

“No!”

Cal had never heard the child raise her voice before. He’d never really seen her emotional on any level.

She stayed sitting perfectly rigid on the couch, hands clasped together on her lap atop the clipboard, and screamed: “No! No! No! No! No! No!”

Celeste and Dwayne rushed into the room, Dwayne saying, “What the hell?”

Cal slowly sat down beside Crystal, put his arm around her, and pulled her close. “Okay,” he said softly. “Okay.”

As Crystal stopped screaming, Cal glanced over at his sister.

“Sure,” she said, nodding encouragingly, a broad smile on her face. “We’ve got lots of room! Cal can stay here, too.”

“On the couch,” he said. “I’ll be fine right here.”

Dwayne turned and went back into the kitchen, where, seconds later, they could hear the pop of a beer can opening, then the back door opening and closing.

HILLARYand Josh Lydecker were among the throngs of people crowding the Promise Falls General Hospital ER and adjoining hallways. Doctors were now looking at their daughter, Cassandra, whose symptoms were pretty much the same as everyone else’s.

The Lydeckers had made a trip to the hospital chapel and prayed quietly for their daughter to pull through.

But they prayed for their missing son, George, too.

They were heading back to the ER from the chapel when Hillary spotted the detective who had been to their house after they’d reported George missing.

“Detective!” Hillary called out. “Detective Carlson!” She started running down the hall, her husband right behind her.

Angus Carlson had been talking to one of the doctors when he heard his name called out. He turned, saw the Lydeckers, and said to the doctor, “Thanks, we can talk later.”

He waited for the Lydeckers to close the distance between them, then said, “Hello. Why are you here? Who’s sick? Is it George? Has George turned up?”

Hillary, nearly out of breath, said, “Cassie.”

“Your daughter,” Carlson said, remembering.

“Yes. She’s very sick.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s hit so many people.”

“Is there any news about George?” Josh Lydecker asked.

Carlson’s lips pressed tightly together before parting. “I’m afraid I don’t have any.”

“Cassie told us,” the father said. “About what George has been doing.”

Carlson waited. “You mean-”

“Breaking into garages,” Hillary said. “She said he does it all the time. That he breaks in, that he steals things. I can’t believe he would do that. Is it true?”

“According to your daughter, yes. I’ve asked to be notified of any garage break-ins, see if they might be connected at all to your son’s disappearance, but there haven’t actually been any such occurrences in the last week, at least none that have been reported to the Promise Falls police.”

“So what else are you doing to find him?” the woman asked.

Carlson said, “Well, right now, as you can see-”

“But before all this happened,” the father said. “What have you been doing?”

“We’ve put out a description to all officers, I’ve spoken to George’s friends, I’ve looked for any activity on his cell phone, and-”

“Have you searched?” Hillary Lydecker asked. “Have you gone door-to-door? Have you-I don’t know-searched people’s basements and… and abandoned buildings, someplace where he might have fallen and gotten hurt, or-”

Carlson reached out a comforting hand to the woman’s arm. “We can’t just search random houses, ma’am, without cause. We’re doing what we can, believe me.”

“How can this be happening to us?” she asked. “One child missing, now the other sick? What did we do? Why would God do this to us?”

Carlson said, “That’s out of my area, I’m afraid. But if I hear anything about your son, believe me, I will be in touch. I hope your daughter’s going to be okay.”

He made his way outside the hospital so he could use his cell phone. He’d learned a few things since Duckworth had left, and felt it was time to update him. He made the call.

“Duckworth.”

“Carlson, sir.”

“Where’ve you been? Finderman was trying to reach you earlier.”

“Why?”

“She was going to send you out to Thackeray, but I got pulled off and had to take the call.”

“You know there’s no cell coverage in the ER. What happened at Thackeray?”