7.
Don and Joyce begin to phone the Baxters. But the phone rings and rings and rings, with no answer. And then it breaks into an answering machine and Helen Baxter’s voice comes on all sickly sweet and Don wants to throw the phone against the wall.
One in the morning.
Two.
Three.
They keep phoning.
No answer.
“Where is she?” Joyce cries.
“I’m going over there. I’m going to find my daughter.”
Joyce wants to try Derek first. She thinks that maybe Lindsay went to Derek’s and spent the night there. Maybe the Baxters don’t know this and just assume Lindsay is home in her own bed. Maybe Don’s incessant phoning has woken up their baby. Maybe they have unplugged the phone.
“Does a phone ring when it’s unplugged?” Joyce asks. “I mean, if the Baxters have unplugged the phone do you think i
