Page 97 of Requiem

Matthew 37

It’s there, in an instant: the image of our kitchen, the view of the back yard and harbor. David, yelling “Boat!”She did this. She planned this. She must have. I turn to Brett, phone still in my hand.

“I know where she is,” I exclaim excitedly.

“What? How could you possibly?”

He heard the entire conversation on the speakerphone and didn’t catch what was so glaringly, or, in this case, blaringly obvious to me.

“The fog horn. Right before he hung up? That was the Pt. Jefferson Ferry. We’ve been complaining about it for weeks now. You can hear it every night at the same time. The sound comes right up into our kitchen.”

Brett is shaking his head, as if trying to shake out the cobwebs.

“Wait, wait, wait … are you saying that you think Jeremy took Julia … home? To your home? On Long Island?”

“Exactly! She was stalling for time so I’d be on long enough to hear the horn!” I practically burst. “That’s my brilliant girl! Always thinking. She’s going to come out on the other side of this. Jeremy, on the other hand, won’t be so lucky. Not when I’m through with him.

“But why …?”

“Think about it, Brett, it’s actually fucking brilliant! The house is isolated, it’s quiet … and it’s the last place we’d ever think to look for her!”

Suddenly the color seems to drain from his face.

“What? What is it?” I ask, almost afraid to hear what he’s thinking.

“Yeah, and it’s the first place we sent my mother and David,” he replies in a horrified whisper.

Oh, Christ, he’s right. I look at my watch.

“You’ve got to call her,” I insist. “Tell her to get off at the next stop and catch a train back to the city …”

But Brett is shaking his head at me.

“No, man, I can’t. She doesn’t have a cell phone,” he groans miserably.

“What? Who the hell on this planet doesn’t have a cell phone?” I bark.

He shrugs. “Trudy.”

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Think. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Where?”

“We’ve got to try and beat them out there.”

“Matthew …are you sure you don’t want to involve the police?”

I shake my head adamantly and he holds up his palms in surrender.

“Your call. I’m just thinking they can get there before any of us can …”

I’m about to tell him to drop it, but he’s just given me an idea.

“They’re not the only ones who can get there before we can.”

****

“Holy fucking shit!” Tony yells from his end of the line. I’m gesturing for Brett to head toward the Long Island Expressway. “Fucking cocksucker! I’ll kill him! I’ll fucking kill him if he hurts a hair on Julia’s head!”