Save Me Once

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

“Do you have to be on your phone while we eat?” Caroline regretted asking the question as soon as the words left her mouth.

Her husband glanced up sharply. “I’m working,” he explained.

Caroline could have told him that. When was he not working?

“I just thought that ...” Caroline began but stopped when the tuxedoed waiter came to fill her empty water glass. At least this restaurant kept them hydrated. The casino joint where they’d had their lunch charged four bucks just for bottled water.

Caroline let out her breath, reminding herself not to argue with her husband. Not here. Not now.

Eventually, they’d talk about his manners at the table. She started rehearsing the most diplomatic way to explain to him how she felt ignored. Unappreciated. But for now, she’d give him some leeway. He was here, after all. That had to count for something.

Actually, it counted for a lot.

She still remembered how scared she’d felt when she mentioned the idea of this conference. Calvin was still recovering from that horrible attack last summer. The one that almost claimed his life. Sure, the two of them had experienced their fair share of issues leading up to the event, but there’s nothing like having your husband almost murdered on the job to give you a bit more perspective.

Before then, she and Calvin had fought incessantly about church. He complained that she was brainwashed, that the pastor who baptized her only wanted her money, that Christians were all hypocrites. Self-righteous snobs, he called them. People who were convinced they’re better than anyone else, totally oblivious to how foolish they look to the rest of the world. That was Calvin’s opinion, at least, an opinion he shared with Caroline on a near daily basis.

Not that she had been all that much better. Calvin was disappointed in her. In a moment of perfect candidness — maybe induced by his painkillers after the attack, maybe not — Calvin told her that he hated the way she’d drop Bible verses into their conversations. How it always made him feel like she was judging him. Like he’d never be good enough for her.

So she eased up. It wasn’t easy. She still wanted to see Calvin saved, but she couldn’t force him to believe the truths of God’s word. Couldn’t pressure him into a real conversion any more than she could force her students at Medford Academy to learn their history lessons.

And so she stopped sharing those Bible verses. Stopped asking Calvin if he wanted to go to church with her on Sundays or pray with her before meals. Sometimes she felt like the loneliest believer in the world, but things could be worse.

Much worse.

While they sat across from each other at the table, she studied her husband’s face, trying to decipher if the message he’d been reading on his phone would help with his current investigation.

Calvin would deny it, but he never handled cases that dealt with children well.

And Caroline knew this case he’d been working on was hitting him particularly hard.

Hitting both of them hard, to be honest.

Calvin scowled at his screen.

“Is there news?” she asked quietly, scouring his expression for a sign of hope. Any sign of breakthrough.

He jerked his head up, startled. Had he forgotten she was there?

If he were working any other case, she might have demanded his full attention, but this case was personal to them both.

Becky Linklater, the girl who disappeared mysteriously last summer, had never been in Caroline’s class, but she was well known at Medford Academy. A kind, bubbly, gregarious student. The sort who’d try out for the cheerleading team the second she reached high school and perform on the varsity squad by her sophomore year. A sweet little thing with adorably springy curls and dimples, a mix between Shirley Temple and one of those contemporary teenage pop stars.

Nobody in Medford was taking this missing person case easily.

Calvin shook his head.

“Nothing?” Caroline spoke the word quietly, as if by not giving full voice to the hopelessness of the situation, she might bring Becky back. Restore the missing teen to her parents.

The waiter came by with their food. “I hope you’re both hungry tonight,” he said, gallantly placing their dinners in front of them.

Calvin set down his phone. Finally. He gave her a brief nod before cutting into his steak. His version of pre-meal conversation. A second later, he was chewing a piece of meat so raw the juices stained his mashed potatoes pink.

“Where do you think she is?” Caroline asked. It was rare for Calvin to share anything about the cases he was working. Rarer for her to get personally involved.

But this was Becky Linklater they were talking about. Perfect student. Smiling, athletic, and kind. A charming thing, really.

Maybe too charming. Caroline wasn’t blind. What if some predator saw those springy blond curls and decided ... She squeezed her eyes shut just for a moment. This wasn’t what she’d hoped to be thinking about during Calvin’s time off from work. She’d thought that getting him out of Boston would be good for them both. Maybe that explained in part why she’d booked their conference in Vegas instead of something closer to home. Maybe she hoped that if she put enough literal distance between himself and his office ...

Well, who was she kidding? Caroline knew Becky’s mother. Margot Linklater was barely able to hold up under the pressure of her missing daughter. Caroline wasn’t a mother herself, but if she were in Margot’s place, wouldn’t she want to know that Boston’s finest detective was working on her case twenty-four hours a day instead of traveling for a vacation with his wife to the other side of the country?

There were plenty of times when Caroline hated her husband’s job as a detective. The long hours, the endless stretches where he’d go weeks on only a few hours of sleep and dozens of pots of coffee a day. She hated the way his work made him so jaded, so distant.

But this was different. If answering a few text messages could do anything — and she meant literally anything — to restore Becky Linklater to her family, it would be worth the loneliness she felt.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Calvin asked, his mouth full of potatoes.

Caroline eyed her seafood salad, something the online travel bloggers had raved about, and realized she was no longer hungry.