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“Was I premature?” Je
The jolting question came from clear out in left field. A slice of peach slid down sideways and caught momentarily in Joa
“Premature?” Joa
Joa
“What makes you ask that?” she asked, stalling for time.
“Well,” Je
“Monica and I,” Joa
Je
“Not exactly,” Joa
“What does that mean?”
“You were right on schedule. The wedding was late.”
“How come?”
“Because.”
There was no way Joa
Now, faced with her daughter’s uncomfortable question, a convenient television commercial rescued her. Eleanor Lathrop limped into the kitchen and helped herself to a dish of peaches. “Isn’t that man here yet?”
“Not so far,” Joa
The older woman leveled a meaningful stare at her granddaughter. “Shouldn’t you finish up and go to bed pretty soon?” she asked. “Don’t you have school in the morning?”
The child returned the look with a level stare of her own. “It’s too early,” Je
Eleanor Lathrop shook her head disparagingly. “That’s silly,” she sniffed. “It could be all hours before he gets here. Besides, he’s probably off politicking somewhere and has forgotten completely what night this is.”
“He didn’t forget,” Joa
“Men never do. He’s already almost two hours late, you’d think he’d have the common decency…”
Not waiting for her mother to finish the sentence, Joa
“Hi, Dick. It’s Joa
“I don’t know about anybody else,” Dick Voland replied, “but I’m catching up on a mountain of paper. Ruth and the kids are bowling tonight, so I’m in no hurry to get home.”
“Have you seen Andy?”
“Andy? Not for a couple of hours. He lit out of here right around five o’clock. I thought from what he said that he was pretty much going straight home. Isn’t he there?”
Joa
Dick Voland didn’t answer immediately, and Joa
Half a minute later, someone else came on the line. “Joa
She was relieved to recognize the voice of Ken Galloway, one of Andy’s best friends in the department.
“Andy’s late getting home, and we were supposed to go out tonight. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”
“Christ!” Ken exclaimed. “It’s almost eight o’clock and he’s not there yet? I thought he was on his way home hours ago. He mentioned a couple of errands, but nothing that should have taken this long. Maybe he had car trouble.”
The knot in Joa
“Seems like it. Where are you?”
“At home.”
“I’ll do some checking from this end and give you a call back.”
Joa
“Where are you going?” Eleanor demanded.
“To look for him,” Joa
“But why should you go looking? The department will handle that. That’s what we pay them for,” Eleanor Lathrop pointed out. “That’s what your father always said.”
Invoking the name and memory of Sheriff D. H. Lathrop, Joa
“Mother,” Joa
Je
“No. You stay here with Grandma.”
With that, Joa
“I’ll be right back,” Joa
Sadie raced ahead toward the detached garage, knowing from the noisy jangle of the key ring in Joa
In the still but chilly desert night, moonlit leaves cast delicate lacy shadows on the ground. Sadie gamboled along ahead of the car for only a few yards before she raced off into the underbrush, nose to ground. Within moments the dog set up a noisy racket-the characteristic booming-that meant she had scared up some desert quarry. It was probably the same old wiry, neighboring jack rabbit the dog always chased. In stylized ritual, the dog pursued the rabbit hour after hour, day after day, without either one of them ever fully putting their hearts into the contest.