Page 109 of Soft Flannel Hank

Hank met her gaze. “I just want to know she’s safe.”

Jory’s hard expression softened. If Hank didn’t know better, he might think she looked sympathetic. She nodded and handed Hank her phone to put in his number.

Nat was sniffing the air around him when Hank turned for the door.

“What’s up?” Hank asked.

Nat shook his head. “I thought I smelled her. Just a trace. But it’s buried under a whole lot of other scents. She was definitely here, though.”

Jory raised that eyebrow again, daring Nat to question her. “Just because she was here doesn’t mean sheishere, Mr. Jasper.”

Nat glared at her, but Hank nodded and turned to thank Jory before following Nat back to Niamh’s car.

Nat started it, but they just sat there with the engine running for a few minutes, neither speaking.

“Well, good buddy, what do you want to do next?”

“Do you think you could track her?”

Nat hesitated. “I could. But without knowing which way she went, and without having any kind of plans for sunrise, I couldn’t find her tonight.”

Hank nodded, feeling numb.

“Do you want me to try?”

Hank shook his head. “Could you just take me home?”

He wanted to track her. To find her. To shake her for leaving him and not trusting him enough to help her. But Esther clearly didn’t want to be found. Even by him. Maybe especially by him. And so he would let her go.

Nat grunted and put the SUV in reverse, pulling away from the building and turning for Hank’s house. Minutes later, as they approached, Hank saw Magda’s truck parked next to his.

Hank experienced brief, blinding hope at that sight. Maybe Esther had changed her mind. Maybe she’d gotten to World’s End and decided that she didn’t want to leave, that she’d planned to come back for him in the morning. Maybe he’d walk into his house and find her asleep in his recliner, curled up under the crocheted afghan withGolden Girlson the TV in the background.

He thanked Nat and climbed out of the car, his bag in hand. He slowly climbed the steps to his house and found the doorknob locked. Hank took his keys and unlocked it. That glimmer of hope shone brightly in his heart as he walked into the mudroom and saw the pantry door open.

Hank walked into the kitchen. There was a protein bar wrapper in the trash and a chair was pulled back from the table. She had been there.

But she wasn’t anymore. The house felt more empty and still than it ever had before.

With his feet feeling like they were made of lead, Hank walked to the table and pressed his hands into the top as he sat down slowly, heavily, into the chair where she’d been. He wished he could still feel her or smell her, but any trace of Esther was long gone.

And so, with his body feeling as cold and empty as his house, Hank laid his head down on the kitchen table and let that numb feeling spread from his hair to his toes.

22

“Ijust want to know she’s safe.”

Hank’s voice had sounded hollowed out when he’d said it, the deep sigh that preceded it echoing in all that emptiness. Esther clenched her fists at her sides to keep from throwing open the door and hurling herself into the living room and into his arms.

He wasn’t supposed to be here. Magda had promised not to send Jamie until the morning.

He was supposed to be safe in that damn cabin in the middle of nowhere while she did what needed to be done. But Esther had made a grave miscalculation with Hank. She had believed that the gaping wounds he had nursed and let fester for the past several years would have reopened and swallowed him whole. She had believed that he would read her note and cut her off, cut her out, to stop his own bleeding, to protect himself. She hadn’t expected him to barrel headfirst back to her.

“You can come out now,” Jory said a few moments later. “He’s gone.”

Esther opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the living room. Her damp curls made her sweatshirt cling to her back and shoulders and caused a shiver down her spine. Jory sat on the couch and gestured to the empty seat next to her. Esther sat heavily on the plush cushion, breath rushing out of her as she did. Her hands shook as she rubbed her sweaty palms against her leggings.

“That was close,” Esther said. “Thanks for covering for me. I know that it’s a lot to ask someone to lie like that.”