19. Nightly Conversation
627 Words
Nadine had a ritual when she was preparing herself to bed. When he was home, Alex liked to lay in bed, back comfortably supported by fluffy pillows, watching his wife’s rituals before laying down next to him. He was more mouth watered as soon as her body started to change with the pregnancy.
That day, however, he had something upon his mind that kept his brow frowned. She kneeled beside him in bed and tried to adjust the extra weight until she found a comfortable position. His eyes wondered through her until they fell upon her tummy. He caressed it with both his hands, a tormented look in his bright eyes.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked softly. He looked at her, but his eyes were driven to her belly again when the baby kicked. His eyes darkened when he felt it.
“Do you think the little one in there recognizes me?” he whispered.
“Of course. He only rests at night when your hand is near mine on my belly…”
He caressed her a bit more and then made room for her to adjust in his arms.
“What happened today, Alex?”
“A girl was found at the high school with her wrists sliced. She was taken into the ER and then I found out she had been rapped. When I tried to contact her mother, I found out she had died during the night, od’d on sleeping pills.”
There was so much angsty in his voice that Nadine’s heart almost cracked in two.
“Oh my God, that’s terrible!”
“And it seems she was bullied at school. She was nerdy, and more of a target than someone could predict… not her teachers, not the principal…”
Nadine’s heart nearly broke, but if she knew her husband, something more was on his head.
“But you’ll do justice for her.” She said resolutely. “You always do.”
“Do I, princess? How can you be so sure?”
“You did it for me… you saw me when I was invisible, you breathed life into me… You’ll do the same for that poor girl…”
His eyes wandered to her pregnant belly and a smile crept to his lips.
“Well, maybe not the same way… but I get what you mean…”
He kissed her tummy lovingly and nestled her in her arms as comfortably as she could.
“I couldn’t find anything related to her work… she was cleaning houses, but it seems she had less and less work… Bernice was the only one who said she kept going there on a weekly basis, but it’s as if all the others didn’t exist…”
“You think she was fired?”
“She had monthly deposits in cash in her bank account, and the clerk said she would deposit it every first Monday of the month.”
“So, you’re thinking it had to come from somewhere…”
“Yes, but from where? It’s not as if there are a lot of options in Paradise Mountains…”
“You said she drank…”
“Yes, but I never saw her drunken. She only drank at home, apparently…”
“And the pills she had?”
“Prescribed to her when her husband left.”
Nadine waited. She could almost see the engines turning around in Alex’s head.
“You don’t believe it’s a coincidence…”
“I don’t believe in coincidences, period. Something here doesn’t add up, but until I have the results back from the lab…”
“What will you do in the meantime?”
“Tomorrow I’ll go knocking on her neighbor’s doors. Someone is bound to have seen something! And in the meantime, maybe Cassie will wake up and I can question her.”
“You’ll catch him. You always do.”
The soft confidence in her voice made him smile. Too bad he wasn’t feeling as confident as her…
- Writer
