Page 12 of Two Couples

“Of course I care. But what am I supposed to do about it now? Who was it?”

“I just wonder what’s going on over here,” Jordan said.

“Or maybe you’re seeing shadows?” It seemed like the nicest way to say she was imagining things, or making it up entirely.

“There were two people, actually.”

“Okay,” I said. “When was this?”

She waved her notebook around. “A few days ago.”

“Which day?”

“That’s not important. They were shouting at each other.”

“Shouting about what?”

“I couldn’t understand them. I saw them from my house. The doors and windows on your house were closed. All I heard was raised voices.”

“A man? Two men? Women?”

“I wasn’t close enough to know.”

“I’m not sure what to do with this information,” I said.

“Did you call the police?” Samantha asked.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you⁠—”

“I didn’t know if they were supposed to be there or not. Someone must have had a key. Right?”

Maybe she was projecting. She was the one with a key. “That’s good to know. We’ll look to see if anything’s missing.” I started to move away from her.

“They weren’t robbing it.”

“How do you know that?”

“It wasn’t my impression. They were shouting. Fighting. That’s all I know.”

Listening to her was causing my fear to rise. It took a lot to rattle me. Working for the past seven years as an RN in the Emergency Department had infused me with a deep, nearly unshakeable calm. It came from my growing competency in taking care of patients’ crises—both physical and emotional. And one thing I’d learned was most patients had the same level of emotional challenges as they did physical difficulties.

Calm had been knitted into my nervous system night after night, through heart attacks and strokes, seizures and broken bones, cancer diagnoses and unwelcome news about degenerative disease. I’d learned not to panic if a baby was already on their way when the expectant parents walked into the hospital.

Even though fear niggled at me right now, whispering that something terrible was going to happen, I knew I appeared calm. “This is upsetting, obviously,” I said. “But there’s nothing we can do now.”

“I know that,” Jordan said. “But I thought you should know.”

“Also…”

I glanced at Samantha. She gave me a nervous smile. I looked back at Jordan. She was studying her notebook. She wrote something down, then tucked her hair behind her ear, leaving her fingertips touching the side of her head, considering what she wanted to write.

“Also?” I prompted.

She lowered her hand and wrote something else in her book. Her gaze didn’t meet mine.

“Were you going to say something else?” I asked.