Page 43 of At Midnight Comes the Cry

“Rest in peace and rise in glory,” Hadley said.

“I hope he does rest in peace.” Paul’s voice was flinty. “But whoever put him here is going to rot in hell.”

9.

Clare drove home from the Glens Falls Airport with multiple parental admonitions ringing in her ears. From Mother, an encyclopedia’s worth of baby-rearing advice, and several complaints about the fact Ethan was at the drop-in day care they were trying out, instead of saying good-bye at the airport. From Daddy, the eternal offer to take her on as partner in the company, and she didn’t even have to stop being a priest because he was sure their church in Petersburg would love to have her as an associate. What Russ was supposed to do in southern Virginia was left unsaid.

Someday her child would be driving away from her, thinking how crazy she made him, and wasn’t that a cheerful thought. “Lord, help me do better. Or at least not worse. Amen.” That made her realize she hadn’t written her sermon yet, and Sunday was coming right up. She could feel the spot between her eyes where a headache was starting to pound.

Her phone rang over the car speaker. “Answer.”

“Hey, Clare, it’s Meghan Smith. Bad time? Good time?”

“It’s fine. I’m in my car. What’s up?” And how had she gotten to a place where the woman she’d spoken to most frequently in the past week was a white nationalist? She really needed to work on her friendships.

“I got a call from Tiny March. She was asking for your number, and I wanted to check with you before I gave it to her.”

“I already have her in my phone. If she’s reached out, I’ll call her.You don’t happen to know what her real name is, do you? I feel weird calling a grown woman ‘Tiny.’”

“I’ve never heard her use anything else.” Meghan sighed. “I suppose I oughta invite her to one of our homeschooling things. Her husband’s away a lot and she just sits up there all alone with a baby. I suppose it’s no wonder she makes herself so small.”

Clare said good-bye, then scrolled to find Tiny’s contact info. She jabbed her finger at it while trying to keep her eyes on the road. “Hello?” a tentative voice answered.

“Tiny. It’s Clare Fergusson. I heard you wanted to speak to me. Can you talk?”

“Oh, yes. Oh, hi, Clare. It’s nice of you to call. I…”

Uh-oh. This sounded like a full-attention conversation. Clare signaled and turned into the Fort Henry Super Kmart, parking near the high-school swim team’s Christmas tree sale.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t want to be, you know, disloyal to my husband.”

“That could mean a lot of things,” Clare said carefully. “Sleeping with somebody else, for instance.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Tiny’s shock was loud enough for the tree shoppers to hear. “I mean… I think he may be getting himself in trouble. I don’t want him to… I don’t know, do anything? But I don’t want to break his trust.”

“What makes you think he’s headed for trouble?”

“So, you know how Dillon Forrester came by when you were here? He told Cal there was someone at the house. I mean, I told him, too, as soon as he got home, but Cal got mad. He said it was okay for me to go to the library, but no one was supposed to be in the house. And then he said I wasn’t ever, ever supposed to go in the downstairs unless he told me so specific. That’s when I started worrying.”

Clare wanted to say,Worried because you’re married to an abusive, controlling fascist?Instead, she made a go-on noise.

“I mean, why would Dillon get to go down there but not me? We got the chest freezer down there, what if I need something? And how come they take stuff out of there and I never see what it is?”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“I don’t know. Maybe stolen stuff? Dillon works for a trucking company, maybe he’s stealing things and hiding them in our downstairs.”

Clare looked out the window. Two tall swimmers were tying a tree atop an older couple’s car. “How can I help you? I’m guessing you don’t want me to call the police.”

“God, no. What if Cal goes to jail and it’s all Dillon’s fault?”

Clare didn’t point out hiding stolen goods didn’t exactly make Cal an innocent party.

“I was wondering if you could come over again.”

“You’re okay with me visiting? After Cal said no?”