Stolen in the Night (3 page)

“May I have your attention, please?” the ticket agent announced over the PA system.
“We are now beginning to board flight Two-eighty-six to Montreal, with a stop in Boston.”

Erny barreled over to where Tessa sat. “Ma, that’s us. You better put the paper down.”

Tess was jerked back to the present. Grim-faced, she took out their boarding passes
and zipped up her bag. She forced herself to smile at her son. “You looking forward
to this trip?” Tessa asked him.

Erny nodded. “You think Uncle Jake will take me for a ride in his truck?”

“Oh sure,” said Tess.

“Come on, get up,” Erny urged.

“Take it easy. We’re not boarding with this group. Sit down a minute.” Erny collapsed
into a seat, jiggling his leg. Tess went back to the paper and read the final paragraph
of the article:

“Like hell,” Tess muttered, folding up the paper.

“What?” said Erny, turning to his mother.

“Nothing,” said Tess. “Let’s go.” She shouldered her bag and they joined the line
to board the plane. As they passed a waste can, Tess tossed the newspaper into it.

T
ess and Erny rolled their suitcases down the jetway and came out into the arrival
gate at the Unionville airport. Tess looked around for her sister-in-law, Julie, who
was supposed to be meeting them. She didn’t see Julie anywhere. What she saw instead
were clusters of reporters with microphones and newscameramen stationed around the
small waiting area of the airport. Tess had a bad feeling that they were here because
of the news conference tomorrow. She knew that the case was a big deal on the Internet
and on the network and cable news shows. She lowered her gaze, hoping that they had
not somehow gotten wind of her arrival this afternoon and were lying in wait for her.

Gesturing for Erny to join her, she pulled her bag toward a bank of seats in an empty
arrival gate, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed Julie’s cell. After a few rings,
Julie answered, although the reception was poor and Julie sounded exasperated.

“I’m stuck out here, trying to get into the parking lot,” Julie complained. “There’s
about a million news vans gumming up the works because the governor is arriving. You
know—for tomorrow. Sit tight. I’ll be there to pick you up as soon as I can park.”

“We can come out and meet you,” Tess suggested, but it was too late. Julie had already
ended the call.

Tess tucked her phone away. Good, she thought. The reporters were waiting for the
governor. It was just anxiety that had made her think they would be looking for her.
How would they recognize her anyway? she thought. After twenty years, she bore no
resemblance to the child who had testified against Lazarus Abbott. “Okay, Erny,” she
said, “Aunt Julie is on her way. I’m going to duck into the ladies’ room. You need
to go to the men’s room?”

Erny shook his head.

“I’m going to leave my bag, then. You wait right here for me, okay?”

“Can I get something to drink?” he asked.

Tess reached in her satchel, extracted a bill, and handed it to him. “Okay. There’s
a newsstand right over there. Get what you want. But keep an eye on the luggage. I’ll
be right out.”

Tess watched him tear off for the newsstand and then she pushed open the door to the
restroom and went in. After a quick stop in the toilet, she came out and checked her
makeup in the mirror. She looked washed-out and tired under the unflattering lights.
She swiped a lipstick across her lips and was about to turn to go when she heard a
feeble cry from the stall at the end of the row. Tess hesitated and then she heard
the cry again.

“Are you all right?” Tess asked, feeling awkward.

“I need some help.”

Tess walked down to the handicapped stall and pushed on the door. It was not locked
and it gave way. Tess saw a small-boned, delicate woman with a gamine haircut sprawled
on the floor of the oversize stall.

“Oh my God. Are you okay?” she asked, crouching down and reaching under the woman’s
arms. The woman was wearing a cashmere tunic that was soft to the touch and her arms
were thin and felt rubbery in Tess’s grasp.

“If you could just help me up,” said the woman.

“Sure,” said Tess. “Sure.” She pulled the woman to her feet.

The woman seemed more downcast than embarrassed. “I’m sorry to bother you like this.
I have a…condition. Sometimes I…lose my balance. Could you just help me outside? These
floors are slippery. My husband’s outside. He’s waiting for me.”

“No problem,” said Tess. She put an arm around the woman’s birdlike waist and they
shuffled along together. Tess could see bruises on the woman’s thin forearms as her
sleeves rode up. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Fine,” said the woman grimly. “Quite a commotion here today, isn’t it?” She clearly
wanted to change the subject.

“No kidding,” said Tess.

“The governor’s arriving. My husband and I are meeting him. He’s staying with us,”
the woman said proudly.

“Really?” said Tess.

The woman nodded. “He and my husband went to college together. My husband publishes
a newspaper.” They had made their way out of the restroom and a strikingly handsome
man with soft black hair that flopped across his forehead rushed up to them.

“Sally,” he cried. “What happened?” The man was dressed casually and had wide, intense,
gray eyes, the pupils ringed in black.

“I’m fine. I had a little episode, but this lady helped me,” said Sally.

“Oh, thank you so much,” he said, slipping his arm around his wife in place of Tess’s
arm. “I’m very grateful to you.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Tess.

“Mom,” Erny cried, rushing across the concourse with a bottle of Gatorade and a comic
book.

Tess could tell that the publisher was about to introduce himself and his wife and
ask her about Erny. The last thing Tess wanted was to mention her own name. A newspaperman
who was meeting the governor was sure to recognize it right away and be full of questions,
and that was something Tess definitely preferred to avoid. “Come on,” she said to
Erny. “We’d better scoot.” She gave the man and his wife a friendly smile and started
to nudge Erny to gather up his bag.

All of a sudden Tess heard someone calling her name. She looked up and immediately
caught sight of her sister-in-law Julie, a heavyset woman with glasses, her blonde
hair cut short in a no-nonsense style. Over her nurse’s uniform Julie wore a bulky
sweater of variegated colors that she had most likely knitted herself, Tess thought.
Knitting and church were Julie’s primary interests now that her daughter was grown
and out of the house. Julie’s round face broke into a sweet smile and she waved enthusiastically.

Tess waved back. Though only in her late thirties, her sister-in-law looked much older.
She had been a teenager when Jake first met her during their family’s ill-fated camping
trip to Stone Hill. Back then, Julie was a teenage beauty with long, wavy blonde hair
and a curvaceous figure. She and Jake had fallen in love with adolescent intensity,
quickly and completely. During the days after Phoebe’s disappearance, and then later,
during the trial, Julie had stayed glued to Jake’s side. Tess could still remember
spying on the teenage lovers, sitting nearly on top of each other in the corner of
the living room at the Stone Hill Inn where the DeGraffs were given rooms for a pittance
throughout the whole ordeal. A year later, when Jake was finished with high school,
he moved up to Stone Hill to be with Julie, and they married shortly thereafter. Their
one child, Kelli, was now in the army and Jake had a house-painting business in Stone
Hill.

Julie opened her arms wide and embraced Tess and then Erny. “Look at you!” she exclaimed
as she gazed admiringly at Erny. “You are really getting big.”

Erny shrugged, but smiled. His aunt was always kind to him.

“Do you have any other luggage?” she asked.

“No. We’re good to go,” said Tess.

“Well, okay,” said Julie. “I’m parked out here.” Then she noticed the publisher, who
was insisting that his wife sit down and rest. “Chan!” she exclaimed.

The man seemed mystified by the sight of Julie calling his name. He frowned slightly,
combing his unruly hair back off his forehead with his fingers. Then suddenly recognition
dawned in his pale, gray eyes. “Julie. Hi. I haven’t seen you in…”

“A long time,” Julie said. She looked pointedly at the petite woman on his arm.

“Oh, this is my wife, Sally.”

“How do you do?” said Julie warmly, smiling at the delicate woman. “I’ve heard about
you. It’s nice to finally meet you. My husband’s the one who painted your house this
summer.”

The woman’s smile transformed her pained-looking features. “Oh yes. Of course. How
is Jake?”

“Fine. We’re both fine,” said Julie, nodding enthusiastically. “What are you folks
doing here?”

“We’re here to pick up the governor,” said Chan. “He’s coming straight from a party
meeting in St. Louis. We knew each other in college so I invited him to stay with
us tonight.”

“Oh,” said Julie. “Chan, Sally, I want you both to meet my sister-in-law, Tess DeGraff.
She and her son came so they could be here for the announcement tomorrow, too. Tess,
this is Channing Morris. He’s the owner of the
Stone Hill Record
where the press conference will take place. And this is his wife.”

Tess cringed inwardly, but she smiled at them. “We’ve met,” said Tess.

“Well, not officially,” said Chan. “I didn’t realize you were…involved in this whole
thing. It must be a terrible ordeal for your family. If it’s any consolation to you,
most of us think Edith Abbott is kind of a crackpot. Don’t quote me,” he said, smiling.

“Thanks,” said Tess. “Frankly, I’ll be glad when it’s over.”

“I’m sure you will be. Hey, if you’re going to be around a little while,” he said
eagerly, “I’d love to sit down with you and talk about all this for the paper.”

Tess forced herself to smile politely. Despite his disarming smile, Chan Morris was
a journalist with a newspaper to sell and hers was a meaty story. Even Wade Maitland,
her dear friend and the executive producer of her crew, had tried hard to convince
her that they should accompany her to New Hampshire and shoot footage for a possible
documentary about the controversial death penalty case. Tess had refused in no uncertain
terms. To her, it was not a story, but her family’s never-ending nightmare. “Well,
maybe, after it’s over,” said Tess. “Today we’re all a little on edge.”

“Of course you are,” said Chan. He glanced at his watch. “The governor’s flight should
be arriving any minute. My wife has been so keyed-up about this visit,” he said, looking
indulgently at the pretty woman on his arm. “She’s been fussing over the house and
the food for days.”

Sally colored slightly. “Well, he’s an important guest,” she said.

“I’m sure it’ll be lovely. You have such a beautiful home,” said Julie.

Sally looked confused. “Have you visited us?”

“No, no. Not for years. But everybody knows the Whitman farm…” said Julie.

“Julie, speaking of that,” said Chan, the friendly tone of his voice turning decidedly
brisker, “can you ask Jake when he’s going to finish painting the trim on the third-floor
windows? The house looks…unfinished. Frankly it’s a little embarrassing with the governor
coming. I’ve left him half a dozen messages, but…”

Julie’s face turned pink. “He still hasn’t finished the trim? I’m sorry, Chan. I don’t
know what he was thinking.”

“Once I paid him, he seemed to disappear,” said Chan.

“I’ll tell him,” Julie promised. “I feel terrible about this.”

“Not your fault,” said Chan, although he clearly wasn’t saying the same about Jake.
“Well, we’d better be getting to the gate. Nice to meet you, Tess. I’m sure everything
will turn out…as we expect it to tomorrow.”

“Thanks. Nice to meet you both,” said Tess as the couple smiled and turned away.

Julie was shaking her head. “What am I going to do with him?” she said.

“Who?” Tess asked.

“Your brother. He never finishes his jobs. He painted their house this summer. It’s
the end of October and he still hasn’t done all the trim. I don’t know what to do.
If I say anything to him, he goes ballistic and tells me to mind my own business.”

“Jake,” Tess shook her head.

“I tell you, Tess, he has the worst reputation around this town.”

Tess knew that Julie was probably right, but she didn’t want to become embroiled in
a discussion of her brother’s marriage and his shortcomings. She groped for a change
of subject. “They seem like nice people,” she said, nodding toward the newspaper publisher
and his wife, who were slowly crossing over to the arrival gates.

“Chan? Oh yeah. Gosh, I’ve known Chan since he moved here in junior high.” Julie shook
her head and assumed the sort of grave expression she wore when she was about to convey
tragic gossip. “He lost both his parents in one year. He had to come and live with
his grandmother.”

Tess glanced at Erny, hoping he wasn’t listening, hoping Julie’s mention of the publisher’s
sad childhood wouldn’t remind him of his own similar fate. But Erny, like most children,
was not terribly interested in the grown-ups’ conversation.

“He was quite the talk of the town when he arrived, I’ll tell you. He turned every
head. Every girl at school had a crush on him. I even dated him for a while,” Julie
announced proudly.

“Really?” said Tess. She could easily imagine how Chan Morris’s handsome face and
large gray eyes had set teenage hearts aflutter.

Julie nodded. “My father had high hopes, I can tell you that. He was picturing me
as Mrs. Channing Morris, living large in that big house on the Whitman farm.” Julie
sighed. “But no such luck,” Julie said.

It annoyed Tess to hear Julie obviously rueing the fact that she had ended up with
Jake for a husband instead. Her brother had his faults, but he had worked hard and
been a good father to Kelli, as far as Tess could tell. And judging from the fact
that Channing Morris had failed to even recognize Julie at first, it was plain that
the publisher felt no similar regrets. “His wife is really lovely,” Tess said.

“Oh yeah. She seems sweet. But it’s sad. She’s got a muscle-wasting disease. Did you
see how she was leaning on Chan? When she’s by herself she has to use a cane or a
wheelchair. Everyone knows about her at the hospital. Apparently there’s not much
they can do for her.”

“That is sad,” said Tess.

“It’s a tragedy. For both of them. I mean, to look at them you would think they had
the world on a string.” Julie shook her head

“It’s true,” Tess murmured. “You never know.”

Tess put an arm around Erny’s narrow shoulders and together they followed Julie, who
was extracting her car keys from her purse as she chattered on about the publisher
and his wife. Tess’s thoughts returned to her own family’s sorrows and to the grim
mission of her visit here. Oblivious to the fact that she had lost her audience, Julie
was still gossiping as she led the way to the automatic doors and out into the airport
parking lot.