The Ruth Valley Missing (11 page)

Emma sniffled as I hugged her.
“We’ll figure out where he is. It’ll be okay.”

“I hope so.”

I silently hoped the same before
heading to the kitchen.

Jack was already finishing up a call
when I walked in and started filling the tea kettle.  

When he hung up I turned towards
him, speaking in a hushed voice. “I have a bad feeling about all of this. The whole
hunting accident story never sat right with me. Did you know he’d never gone
hunting before? Why would he go for the first time in the middle of the night?
Something else happened to him. I tried to ask him about it last time I saw
him. You should have seen the look on his face. He was obviously scared to
death.”

“I can’t imagine what he would have
gotten involved in, but you’re right, that does sound off.” Jack sighed as he
looked out the window, the last bit of daylight already long gone. “I’m gonna
go check out Andy’s place and see where it leads.”

“Alone?”

His serious face broke into a grin.
“Worried about me?”

“Well, we don’t know what happened,
or who made it happen. It may not be safe.”

He squeezed my shoulder, letting his
hand slide down the length of my arm. “I’ll be fine. Stay here and keep Emma
calm.”

The shriek of the teapot broke the
silence and his stare, making me jump away from him. He headed out the door,
calling behind him. “I’ll be back. Lock up.”

I prepared a tray with tea and some
snacks to take in the living room as I regained my composure, shooting the tea
kettle a dirty look before heading to the living room.

It was close to midnight when the
back door opened.

“So? Any news?”

Jack shook his head. “Not much.
How’s Emma doing?”

“She’s asleep upstairs. After we had
a little dinner I convinced her to lie down for a bit. Hope you don’t mind, I
found the guest room for her. It’s a little chilly down here on the couch.”

“No, of course that’s fine.” He
walked over to the stove and lifted the cover off a pot. “Dinner?”

“Yeah, nothing fancy, just threw
some soup together. It probably needs to be warmed up.”

He turned up the gas burner and
opened a cabinet, removing two small glasses and a bottle of whiskey. Sitting
down at the table, he placed the glasses in front of us and poured. “I think we
could both use a little.”

I nodded, taking a long sip. “What
did you find at Andy’s?”

“A knocked over TV tray, and a bit
of a mess. But to be honest, Andy didn’t exactly keep house. It didn’t really
look like the mess left behind after a struggle. Looked like some of his
clothes were gone, too.”

“You don’t think something happened
to him?”

Jack shrugged. “I think something
spooked him and he left town in a hurry.”

“Poor Emma. I mean, at least it
looks like nothing happened to him, but it will still break her heart to know
he left without so much as a note.” I sighed and took another sip. As I felt
the familiar burn in my throat, warming my insides, I smiled. Jack raised an
eyebrow, tilting his head to the side, so I raised the glass slightly,
explaining. “The same stuff my dad drinks.”

“You two close?”

“Not as much since he remarried. I
was Daddy’s girl when I was little, though. He’d always brag about how I took
after him, his red hair and green eyes. Then after mom died, he always told me
how much I reminded him of her.”

“Who do you think you take after?”

“I got the best of both, of course.”

“Won’t argue with that.” Jack
laughed as he refilled our glasses and got up to check on the soup. “What’s Dad
think of you living out in the middle of nowhere?”

“He doesn’t know. Haven’t gotten
around to breaking the news to him.”

“You think he’d be disappointed?”

“Not in the move necessarily. He had
high hopes for my relationship with Dylan, my ex, mostly because his new wife
Angie introduced us. Telling him I moved means telling him that Dylan and I
didn’t work out.”

Jack sat down with his bowl of soup.
“Dylan. Is this the infamous church phone call?”

I remembered Jack’s correct
assumption, ‘man troubles’, when he found me sitting on the church steps.
“Yeah, that was him.”

“What happened there?”

“Why did we break up?” Jack nodded,
eating his soup. “Lots of reasons. I thought we had a lot of common interests
when we met, which is what attracted me to him. But the more we were together,
the more I saw that he was more interested in himself than he was in me. It
took me awhile to really get it. He’d buy me nice things, but then I’d realize
that he was buying me things because he wanted me to have them, not because I
wanted them.”

“Not sure I follow.”

“Like, he’d buy me designer stuff,
you know, purses, shoes. It was nice, but he bought it because he wanted me to
look a certain way and impress his friends. Everything with him was an exercise
in how I made him look. Kinda sad that I didn’t catch on quicker, really.”

“Is he the reason you moved here?”

“Part of it. I was getting fed up with
a lot of things. Getting fed up with him was just the final push.”

“Do you miss any of it?”

I finished the whiskey and sat
thinking for a minute. “I miss the hospital where I volunteered. And there are
places I liked in the city, but overall, I haven’t missed it like I thought I
would. And I definitely don’t miss him.”

“How about your job? I imagine the
few hours at our little book store aren’t terribly exciting compared to
whatever you did before.”

I laughed. “No, but I...” I stopped
short, deciding whether or not to continue.

“What?”

“I didn’t really have a job,
technically.”

“Technically?”

I sighed. “I don’t really like to
talk about it. It’s awkward.”

“Oh, c’mon. We just shopped for
socks together.” Jack gave my leg a shove with his foot, following up with a
big grin.

“Fine. My family is...well-off.
Really well-off. So, I decided I’d rather spend my time doing things I enjoy
and things that matter rather than pursue some career I end up hating. I do the
occasional odd job, but I haven’t had a regular nine-to-five job in a really
long time. That’s my big secret.”

“So, you’re a rich girl.”

I grimaced. “I don’t really want
that getting around. People make assumptions based on that sort of thing, you
know. I didn’t want anyone judging me without getting to know me first.
Especially in a little town like this.”

“Your secret is safe with me. So
long as you don’t start walking around here with a tiny dog in your purse or
anything like that, we should be okay.”

“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes, but
was grateful for the good natured teasing. “How was the soup?”

“Good. ‘Course, it’s been a long
time since I came home to dinner waiting for me, so it is possible that I am
just enjoying the novelty. Tomorrow I’ll probably be telling you it needs
salt.”

I smiled and stood up with my hand
out, “Refill or sink?”

Jack handed over the empty bowl.
“Sink. No reflection on the soup. I’m just beat.”

I took the bowl to the sink and
washed it while Jack put the soup away. I felt silly, but I was enjoying the
simple domesticity of cleaning the kitchen with someone who shared the chore. I
placed the bowl in the drying rack as he slid the pot in the sink. “You can
leave that to soak overnight. We should really get some sleep.”

“Agreed. I’m beat too.”

“You can have my bed. I’ll stay
downstairs on the couch.”

“That’s silly, Jack. I live right
there. I’ll go sleep in my house.”

“Except for the fact that you would
be leaving Emma alone with me. The town wouldn’t think too highly of their
Sheriff if they heard that he had the perky young waitress spend the night.”

“So it’s better if you have two
women sleeping over?”

“Under the circumstances, yes.”

“Fine. You’re the expert on this
town. But I’m not taking your bed.” Jack opened his mouth in protest, but I cut
him off. “I’ll be fine out here on the couch with a couple of extra blankets.”

He shrugged, recognizing that I
wasn’t going to give in. “I’ll go get some then.”

“I’m going to run to my place and
grab some sweats.”

When I walked back into Jack’s and
got to the living room, the couch was dressed with a soft blanket covering the
cold leather, a squishy down pillow, and a pile of thick blankets to wrap
myself. It was quiet already, so I curled up on the surprisingly comfortable
couch, burrowing under the blankets and closing my eyes.

“James?” I opened my eyes to see
Jack squatting next to the couch, smiling at me in my cocoon of comforters.
“Need anything else?”

“All set,” I replied as I wiggled
contentedly under the blankets.

He stayed there silently for a few
seconds, before saying good night and heading upstairs.

“Really? It’s not too late to go
drown our troubles in old movies and ice cream.”

Emma and I were standing on the
church steps, about to go in. She shook her head and smiled.

“No, I always feel better after
confession. But your ice cream plan sounds great for after.”

I smiled and followed her in,
watching as she entered the confessional. I wasn’t sure how long this sort of
thing would take, but since the church was empty, save Emma and the priest in
their little box of secrets, I decided to look around.

Even as a child, I always found the
details of a cathedral both beautiful and unnerving; chubby baby-faced cherubs
and the eyes of apostles and martyrs watching me from the stained glass panes.
Aside from feeling like I was being watched by the varied cast of characters, I
did love the ornate designs that seemed to be everywhere in this church. Unique
fleur-de-lis-like patterns swirled around tapestries, striking against the
stone and dark wood of the floors and walls.

I took a seat in a pew, glancing at
my phone, wishing small towns like this had better wireless. At the house I had
an adapter for my laptop which still dropped connection from time to time, but
out and about there was rarely a wireless signal strong enough to go online. I
sighed, slumped down in my seat and closed my eyes. I started thinking about
the night before. Despite the madness of Andy’s disappearance, I enjoyed my
evening taking care of Emma. And Jack. It was so nice to be around someone who
showed a genuine interest in someone other than himself.

More specifically, it was nice to be
around someone who seemed so interested in me. The more time I spent with him,
the more at ease I felt. And those brief moments when he’d touch my hand or
tuck my hair behind my ear, well, nothing Dylan ever did gave me the same rush,
even when we first started dating.

As I sat there thinking about how
Jack made me feel, I heard Emma and Father Mike’s voices emerge.

“Thank you so much, Father Mike.”

“Of course, Emma. I’m happy to see I
could bring you some comfort. Just remember what I said.”

Emma took Father Mike and me by
surprise when she gave him a big hug and kiss on the cheek. She walked towards me
smiling, a smile I hadn’t seen all day, wrapping her arm around mine as we
walked towards the door.

“Jameson.” Father Mike’s voice
echoed through the cathedral. I paused, turning around.

“Yes?”

“It’s your turn, isn’t it?”

Emma dropped my arm. “Oh, I’m sorry,
James. I didn’t even think about that. I can sit here and wait. You go ahead.”

I started to hesitate, looking at
Emma, then over to Father Mike. He stood there waiting, a half grin on his
face. A smirk.

“Fine.”

I walked over to the confessional
and stepped in, sitting down next to the screen, noticing the same design I saw
on the tapestries.

“Isn’t this whole thing sort of
unnecessary? I mean, I know who you are, you know who I am, and what if I was
claustrophobic?”

“Are you claustrophobic, Jameson?”

“I haven’t broken down in tears or
run from here screaming, so I think the answer to that is obvious. I’m just
saying.”

“Uh huh.”

“So this is the part where I’m
supposed to tell you my sins.”

“That’s the idea.”

“I can’t really think of any off the
top of my head. What do people usually confess?”

“Lots of things. Lies, impure
thoughts, things like that.”

“I guess I’m good then. I should let
you go.”

“We all sin, Jameson.”

I let out a sigh. “Okay. I beat up a
six year old boy.”

“Excuse me?”