covering his whiskers. Jeremy slid the slider door closed as the phone rang so loudly he nearly jumped.
Michelle pounced on it like a cougar onto an unsuspecting antelope. “Hello?” she said into the handheld receiver. “Yes, this is Mrs. Pescoli . . . Uhhuh. Wait a sec, I’ll get him.” Her smile had fallen from her face and her gaze when she looked at Jeremy again had lost all of its teasing glint. She headed toward the archway leading from the kitchen and with her hand over the receiver yelled,
“Luke?” No response. “Luke! Telephone! It’s the police!”
Jeremy’s heart dropped like a stone. “The police?” he repeated as Bianca, cell phone in hand, appeared.
Her eyes were round. “Is it Mom? Is she on the phone?”
Of course not, you nitwit. Michelle would have said,
“It’s your ex-wife” or “Regan’s calling again” or “The bitch is on the line,” not “The police.” He was about to say what he was thinking until he noticed the fear in Bianca’s eyes. She knew. As well as he.
“What d’ya mean, it’s the police?’” Lucky demanded, zipping up his fly and buckling his belt.
“The sheriff’s department.” Michelle was as serious as Jeremy had ever seen her as Lucky grabbed the receiver.
“Hello .
.
.
yeah, this is Luke Pescoli .
.
.” He
glanced at his kids in one quick sweep. “They’re here. With me. What’s going on?”
And then he listened. While Bianca bit her lip, her fingers curled over her cell in a death grip, Michelle standing like a statue in her stupid apron
CHOSEN TO DIE
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and holding the pancake flipper, even Cisco, for once, standing stock still, Jeremy held his breath.
“Yeah . . . I see . . . But she wasn’t inside . . . ?”
Jeremy couldn’t stop himself. “Who? Who wasn’t inside? Mom?”
“Shut up!” Bianca hissed, but she was white as a sheet.
As if from a distance he heard a horn beep.
“Yeah, well, I’ll keep them here with me until we know more,” Luke said quietly. Sober as a judge, he hung up. The car’s horn honked impatiently.
“What?” Bianca asked, tears welling.
Jeremy’s ears started a dull ringing.
“They found your mom’s Jeep,” he said. “Down in the gully, off Horsebrier Ridge.”
Bianca let out a little squeak.
“That’s no ‘gully.’ It’s a damned abyss,” Michelle whispered.