Chapter 27
JUDE
“We’re sure this is the right place?” Nora asks.
“Griffin wouldn’t have sent us on a wild goose chase,” I say.
For a moment, I take the distraction of Nora chewing her lip.
I love it when she looks like this, her gaze unfocused, her mind ticking.
But soon she’s talking again. “The photo where they’re standing in front of this cottage is a year before she was murdered back in Vermont.
She could be pregnant here. Her dress is kind of…
billowy.” Nora looks up at me, her face flooded with something that looks like hope.
I feel it too. “A love child would be the ultimate proof they were together.”
“And good reason for her husband to want her dead,” I add.
“Exactly. But what happened to the baby? In all the records I read, there was nothing to indicate Eleanor had been pregnant, or had a child. There’s no mention of one when she died.”
I run my hand over my head, thinking. “Did her husband have a baby with someone else, maybe? Was she forced to look after his love child?”
“No,” she says, adamant. “George died with no heirs, remember? Even illegitimate. JEQ mentioned in the diary that their lack of children was something he blamed Eleanor for.”
I feel overwhelmed, suddenly. “Maybe we have enough to go to Griff’s contact at the police. You’ve got the cot on video, right?”
“I do. But how are we going to explain to them that we got it?”
I grimace. Shit. I hadn’t thought about how a B when we were on the hunt for anything at all related to Eleanor Cleary, and then on the physical hunt for the cache that took us all summer to find.
My chest does a strange squeeze. We were friends then. I thought things couldn’t get any better. But this is better.
As if to prove it to myself I frown. “Let me think for a sec.”
Then I dip my face down to hers and kiss her, taking her mouth against mine.
Because I know now that this is where I feel most at home.
Even in this dark and slightly terrifying place, with the wind rattling the plywood and my extremities starting to go numb despite my giant parka and boots, I feel an indescribable warmth with the press of her against me.
“Yeah,” I say, breaking the kiss. “Let’s go see the nuns. But I’m going to need 100% more kissing on this trip.”
Nora laughs, slightly breathless. “If it’s like that, definitely.”
But another rattle has me glancing to the window again. “I need to check on Cap.” Thank God for Gerrard’s satellite phone. We don’t have service here, but hopefully when we get back down to the highway we will. Still, a little knot of worry begins to grow in my stomach.
Nora nods.
The trip back through the dark basement isn’t half as bad as it was going in, mostly because there’s more light down here than there was upstairs, given the top of the cellar door has blown open.
But that knot tightens as we get outside.
It’s snowing, and the wind is blowing in hefty gusts.
I’m suddenly worried about driving all the way back to the resort.
But I don’t show Nora that. She pulls her hood tight around her, heading for the Range Rover.
I stick the bar back on the door, wedging it as best I can into the old hinge, then look around and grab a small, snow-covered boulder, thumping it onto the door to make sure it stays closed.
The drive to the convent is tense, with snow coming so hard my wipers can barely keep up.
The prediction for that dump tonight has definitely come early.
Nora is looking as worried as I feel. I tap my fingers on the steering wheel and even go so far as to whistle before Nora says, “Jude, it’s okay to be worried.
Hopefully they have a phone, and we can at least check on Cap. ”
I stop tapping. “Thanks, Nor.”
But all I can think is, you lost focus, you fuck!
The drive up to the convent is shorter than the one to the cottage; the building is visible from the road. It’s an old stone church with a long stone building attached to it, with a large van parked off to the side.
“There,” Nora says, pointing to a door on the longer building. There’s a light on over it.
We run to the front door with our jackets pulled tight against us. I bang on the door, my heart now thudding with concern. I grip Nora’s hand while I wait, and she squeezes tight.
“He’s trained, remember? Griff vouched for him.” She has to practically shout to be heard over the wind. But she knows exactly where my brain is going.
I smile, gratefully, but all I can think about is Cap, out in this snow.
Without me.
I’m about to bang again when the door opens, and a small round woman with a leathery looking face appears. I guess I expected an old-school nun in a habit, but she’s wearing a dull gray sweater and navy skirt not unlike the kind Nora normally wears. Her eyes go wide when she sees us.
“Güte Güte!” She reaches out and takes both our hands, pulling us inside and slamming the door shut behind us. The foyer is tiny, the walls a pale yellow, with ancient thin red carpeting on the floor.
“Wer bist du? Was um alles in der Welt machst du bei diesem Wetter drau?en?”
“Please,” I say, my voice strained. “We need a phone.”
I realize I’m speaking in English, and she’s not going to understand me.
“Phone,” I say, holding my thumb and pinky fingers in the shape of one to my ear.
Nora’s fumbling for her phone, pointing at it and frowning with a thumbs down.
“I’ll get the translator,” she says to the woman, who clearly can’t understand.
“Carolina!” the woman cries out.
She tsks, then beckons us to follow her.
We do, up a couple of stairs to a long hallway, then through a door to what looks like a lounge area, with an ancient couch, several easy chairs arranged around an elderly looking TV set on a stand, and shelves lined with books.
There’s even a ping-pong table and a little kitchen.
And sitting all over the room are half a dozen women of various ages and sizes, almost all of whom startle at the sight of us.
Almost all of them stand up, too, except for an ancient-looking woman in a rocking chair with a book in her lap. She just watches curiously.
“Carolina!” the woman who let us in cries again, and a skinny young woman with short black hair comes scuttling over.
The woman speaks briskly in German and the woman—Carolina, I guess—nods.
“Hello,” she says in a thick German accent. “Can we help you?”
I breathe a sigh of relief and explain the situation as briefly as possible. I only realize I’m rambling when the woman looks deeply lost, and Nora places a hand on my arm.
“Our phones—they don’t work here. May we use your phone to call his son? He’s outside.”
“Yes.” Carolina nods, looking relieved herself. “Please, come. Mrs.—?”
“Nora, please,” she says. “And this is Jude.”
She moves quickly to the kitchen, pointing to an old landline phone on the wall.
Nora helps by reading out the number from her phone, then I’m dialing with wobbling fingers.
It rings. Twice, then a third time, and I’m about to break the goddamned receiver in my hand when a voice comes through on the other end.
“All??” The line is crackly, but I recognize Gerrard’s voice.
I slump against the wall, my throat choked with relief.
Nora looks at me questioningly and I nod, pulling her against me, tipping the phone so she can hear. “Gerrard. It’s Jude. You guys are okay?”
“Oh, yes, Jude, hello. We are very good. Just dinner, you know. Sorry for the volume.” I realize then I can hear raucous laughter in the background.
“We saw the weather coming in at noon, so we stopped at an inn here. Farrah, she said it was good. Is that okay? Would you like him back to the resort? We can go, maybe when the weather clears…”
“No,” I say. “No, we’re just glad he’s safe.”
“Oh yeah. He’s teaching us some game where you throw the pieces at our face? It’s rather shocking. But the patrons here love it.”
I laugh softly. Fuck, I miss him. We’ve only been apart for the day and all I want is for him to be right here, with Nora and me. “Is he available to talk?”
My arm is hooked around Nora’s neck, her head tucked under my chin. I dip my face down as we wait. Her scent swirls in my nostrils, and for the first time since we got here, I start to relax.
It’s only then I notice every set of eyes in the place are fixed on us, half of them looking kind of swoony. I also see what’s on the TV.
“Dad?” Cap’s voice is breathless, like he ran over.
“Yeah, buddy. It’s me and Nora.”
“Hey, Cap,” Nora says, her smile a little wobbly like she’s on the verge of happy tears. I get it, my throat’s thick with them too.
“This place is so cool!” Cap goes on to tell us about the inn, which apparently has various taxidermy animals all over the place, and light fixtures made out of skis. “There’s this lady here, and she’s teaching me how to yodel! Wanna hear?”
He doesn’t wait for us to respond.
“YODELAY HEE HOOOOOOOOO!” Cap screeches into the phone.
Nora and I both bite down to keep from laughing. I press my forehead to hers. “I’m so glad you’re good, Cap,” I say. “I miss you so much.”
“Yeah, me too, Dad! I’m really sad we have to go home in three days, but Christmas is coming, remember? And you said I might get that golf game…”
As Cap goes on about his Christmas gifts, I can’t break my gaze from Nora’s.
I lift my forehead up. Three days. That’s all we have left. I knew that, but hearing it, especially from Cap, makes it more real than it’s ever been.
“Dad, it’s my turn again! I gotta go.”
“Yeah,” I say, my voice tight. “Hey, Cap, can I talk to Farrah before you hang up?”
“Yeah, Dad. Love you!”
“Love you too.”
“Love you, Nora,” Cap says.
“Me too, Cap,” Nora says. “Love you so much.”
She pulls away from me then, turning and straightening her hair, nodding at Carolina, who’s been hovering a few feet away.
They speak to each other softly as Farrah comes on the line.
“Hello, Jude?”
“Hey, Farrah,” I say. My voice is stiff, and I make an effort to soften it. “I uh, just wanted to say thanks for looking out for him. Cap.”
“Of course, Jude.”
“He’s…your son too, and I’m sorry I didn’t properly appreciate that before.”
There’s a long pause. “It is okay, Jude. It was a difficult…everything was difficult.”
I nod, pinching the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. “You guys still on track to come back the day after tomorrow?”
“That is what Gerrard says. We are having a good time, and we are being very safe, Jude. Please don’t worry. Please…enjoy your time with Nora. She is being Cap’s mother, Jude.”
“Yeah, okay,” I say, copping out completely. “See you in a couple days, Farrah.”
“Bye, Jude.”
I don’t know if it’s Farrah’s broken English, or the fact that she’s speaking the truth, but I swallow hard, looking over at my best friend as I hang up. I hate how the thought of Nora being more than just my best friend both feels so right, and yet scares the shit out of me too.