Chapter 18 Lindy
Lindy
As the sunset began to tint the sky outside the windows of Innisfree, everyone gathered in the living and dining rooms. Lindy
had called a family meeting after getting back from Portland, where three TV stations had promised to run stories on David
and show his picture.
Kate, back from Bangor, sipped from a large glass of Cabernet and sat at the dining table with Josh and his wife, Marielle,
their heads bowed together as they reviewed the list of where flyers had been posted. Cody bounced on his toes beside the
staircase like a boxer before a fight. Emma was seated in the blue chair in the living room, and she and Eli, who was perched
on the chair’s arm, were trying again to unlock David’s phone. Reese sat on the other arm with a pen and paper, looking toward
the ceiling and occasionally making a note. More channeling? Lindy had to assume. She wondered briefly what would come through,
then realized she had to be truly desperate to be wondering that.
Greta set a plate of cheese and olives on the coffee table and sat down beside Lindy on the couch, a bit too close. “Your
father was tired,” she whispered. Lindy bit her lip to keep from saying, Seriously?
The screen door swung open and in walked Hailey, with Jack Westfield trailing.
Hailey had a big paper sack in her hand, and Jack was carrying a stack of five pizza boxes.
So strange: There was an ease about Hailey that Lindy hadn’t seen in at least two years.
Not that she was smiling. She looked appropriately concerned, as she apologized that it had taken them so long to get there.
When Lindy’d called two hours ago, Hailey and Jack had been an hour away, posting flyers at gas stations and shops in Brunswick, and they’d offered to pick up pizza on their way home.
“We got a few pints of gelato from Gelato Fiasco, too,” Hailey announced, moving toward the kitchen with the paper bag, as
Jack set the pizzas on the dining table beside where Greta had put out plates and napkins, glasses, wine, sodas, and beer.
“I’ll put it in the freezer for now.” Hailey truly did look . . . lighter somehow? Very odd, given the circumstances.
“Hey, man!” Cody was saying, going to hug Jack, who looked astonished at how Cody had grown. Jack had been taller than Cody
seven years ago, and now was six inches shorter. “Good to see you!” Eli also got up to greet Jack, giving an uncomfortable
half hug the way boys did. Lindy had forgotten how much her two sons had idolized him back in the day. Even Emma looked up
from David’s phone and gave Jack a little wave and smile, and Emma didn’t favor many people with her smile.
Well, Lindy couldn’t worry about Jack Westfield now. “All right, everybody! Grab some pizza, then we’ve got things to discuss.”
“Okay,” Lindy said loudly, waving for everybody’s attention as they settled in with their pizza, beer, and wine. Lindy wasn’t
drinking anything in case a call came and she needed to drive somewhere. She gave a quick update on the TV stations, the police,
the hospitals, and the various searches they’d all done, concluding, “All we know so far is where there’s no trace of him.
So, next steps. Tomorrow, I’m going to drive to Cranston and see if I can find anything in our financials.”
She wasn’t going to say this out loud, but the thing was, she still hadn’t had a call or text back from Tiffany.
And she’d started to think, if David was having an affair, maybe he’d been stockpiling cash for a getaway?
If he had been, Lindy would’ve had no idea.
She really didn’t keep close track of their finances.
More accurately, she didn’t keep track at all.
David managed everything on his PC at home.
He also kept paper statements in files in his desk drawer, she was pretty sure.
They—or he—might have whole accounts she knew nothing about.
And he could have lied to Lindy when he’d called Saturday morning and told her he was on his way. If he was running off with some woman,
spurred by a fiftieth-birthday midlife crisis, it seemed unlikely he’d have come right out and said so.
“Eli,” Lindy said, “I was hoping you’d come with me and help me search the computer.” Her kids were all way better with computers
than she was, and Eli was the best researcher.
“Sure, Mom.”
“I’ll come, too,” Emma said. “Reese needs to get back to New York for work, so can we drop her at the bus station?”
Lindy couldn’t help feeling relieved that Reese and her “clairaudience” would be leaving, and she was glad to think of Emma
coming to Cranston. Eli and Emma always felt better when they were together, and Emma tended to see things that the rest of
them missed, or at least to see things differently. “Of course.”
“Jack and I will keep searching and posting flyers,” Hailey piped up, and Jack gave a nod to confirm—almost like they were
a couple! Annoyed with how quickly Jack had parachuted back into her daughter’s life, Lindy also noted, really for the first
time, Noah’s glaring absence. He lived an hour and a half away. He owned a car. And he hadn’t bothered to come check on Hailey?
Or offered to help search for David?
“Me, too,” said Cody.
Lindy shook her head to bring herself back to the present. She noticed Cody hadn’t taken any pizza. He still wasn’t eating?
Goddamn it, David. “You three go together. I don’t want anybody going anywhere by themselves.”
“You guys should check lighthouses,” Emma said, with a glance at Reese. “We have reason to believe he may be at a lighthouse.”
“We do?” said Hailey.
“Not really.” Lindy couldn’t hold it in.
“Mom,” scolded Emma, then turned to Hailey. “Reese is clairaudient, and she got the word ‘lighthouse.’ ”
“Really?” Kate said. “That’s amazing!”
Lindy, still not buying it, was surprised by Kate’s enthusiasm. How much wine had Kate had tonight?
But it wasn’t like they had much else to go on. “Fine.” She turned to Hailey, Jack, and Cody. “Kids, if there’s a lighthouse,
or a trail by a lighthouse, that it seems like Dad might have stopped at, it won’t hurt to take a look. Let’s not tackle all
sixty-five right now, but Pemaquid, the Portland Head Light, you know the ones he’s aware of.” Lindy realized then that tears
were streaming down her face. She tried wiping them away. They just kept flowing, like blood. Emma looked alarmed at the sight,
then cut her eyes over at Reese, who let out an exasperated breath.
“It’s not her fault!” Lindy said, still swiping at her tears with the back of her hand. Emma never needed an excuse to break
up with anyone, but Lindy, even if she wasn’t Reese’s biggest fan, didn’t want to be the cause of another fracture. “It’s
nobody’s fault. We’re all doing the best we can.”
Reese coolly tore off the piece of paper she’d been making notes on and handed it to Emma, who looked down to read it.
Lindy was hot with embarrassment, even as her tears still flowed. A room full of people. She glanced around, saw eyes welling
in sympathy or fear. “Agenda item one: Let’s all try not to lose it,” she said, trying to laugh, wiping her face again. Her
mother squeezed her hand so tightly it hurt. Kate came over with her wine glass, sat down on Lindy’s other side, and took
her other hand. Lindy was grateful.
Emma was shaking the little piece of paper at Reese. “What does this mean?”
Reese shrugged. “Just what it says.”
“I’ll go to the police in person tomorrow,” Josh broke in, as if to rescue them all from Lindy’s tears, from the fear welling in the room, from the tension between Emma and Reese. “State and local. I know it’s a lot of jurisdictions all along the route, but maybe if I show up in person . . .”
“Good idea, Joshie,” Kate said.
What went unsaid, Lindy realized: Police generally figured that a fifty-year-old man was fine—and nobody’s victim—even if
his family didn’t know where he was. A couple of the TV stations had told her as much today and wouldn’t run the story as
a result. That police officer had said it, too: Legally, an adult has the right for people not to know where he is.
“I’ll stay by the phone at the yellow cottage,” said Marielle.
“I’ll stay here at Innisfree,” Greta said, squeezing Lindy’s hand again. “I’ll make sure there’s plenty for everyone to eat.”
Lindy happened to catch Hailey’s eye then. Seeing the worried way her daughter was looking at her, she immediately tried to
telegraph that she was okay. Then she noticed the softness with which Jack Westfield was gazing at Hailey, and she remembered
the wedding to-do list, all the things she and Hailey should be doing this week instead of what they were doing now. The best-laid plans, David always said. She thought again of Noah’s absence. It plain did not make sense that he wasn’t here. Lindy had always
liked Noah! (He brought Lindy flowers whenever he and Hailey visited!) David didn’t, not really, though he tried. “There’s
just something I don’t trust about the kid,” he’d said.
“You haven’t really spent time with him,” Lindy had argued. “He’s offering our daughter a life. He’s going to be very successful, you know? He’s smart, talented, and handsome! Bleu was a semifinalist for the James Beard
Awards. And that’s mostly Noah’s work, even though he doesn’t always get the credit.”
“According to him, it’s mostly his work,” David had said skeptically.
Now Jack Westfield was here instead, the wedding was probably going to need to be canceled, and Hailey’s whole future could
be in jeopardy—
Agenda item one, don’t lose it, Lindy reminded herself.
She wiped away more involuntary tears and met Hailey’s eyes again across the room.
They were going to get through this. And if they found David alive, if it turned out he’d run off with this little Tiffany girl, or otherwise intentionally ruined their daughter’s wedding plans—not to mention her parents’ fiftieth anniversary—she was going to divorce him so fast his head would spin.
Although, unfortunately, just thinking of needing to divorce him made her head spin. She’d never once imagined such a thing, not in all these years.
As soon as Lindy declared the meeting over, people began chatting in small groups. Kate patted Lindy’s knee and got up to
refill her wine glass. David, Lindy scolded internally, because his absence had to be the reason Kate was suddenly drinking so much. Lindy had privately always thought Kate’s issues with alcohol as a younger
woman had been brought on by worry about David. The pattern seemed to be repeating itself now.
Then Lindy noticed Emma and Reese quietly arguing, just as Greta touched Lindy’s arm and said softly, “I think we should cancel
the anniversary party. Your dad and I don’t want—”
“No!” Lindy said. So many of her parents’ old friends—the ones that still traveled—had planned their summers around coming
for the party, swearing not to let it slip to Greta or Tom that they’d be there. One of the joys of the planning had been
imagining how surprised and thrilled her parents would be to see so many old friends. “Not yet. Everything is pretty much
set.”
“But I really don’t think—”
“Mom, please. We all need something to look forward to, right? I mean, today’s only Monday. I’m sure David will turn up by
this weekend.” Though, as soon as the words were out, Lindy realized she wasn’t sure of that at all.
Greta looked skeptical, but just pursed her lips, nodded, and got up to go help Kate, who’d started clearing plates, as Hailey
came over to Lindy.
Across the room, Emma said loudly to Reese, “That’s not true!” She jumped up, crying, and ran upstairs. Eli, alarmed, hurried after her. Reese stood, hands on hips, and glanced around the living room, sending angry darts everywhere, then stormed upstairs, too.
Lindy’s mom-antennae were on high alert—what could Reese have written on that piece of paper to make Emma so upset?—but she
felt strangely powerless to move.
“Eli’s got it, Mom,” Hailey said quietly.
And how strange to realize: Hailey was right! Lindy didn’t need to get involved. Emma was a grown adult, plus she had Eli
to help her, and Emma had always preferred his help to Lindy’s from the time they were two years old.
Lindy squeezed her daughter’s arm, then went to the dining table, looking over Josh’s and Marielle’s shoulders at the list
of where flyers had been posted. Cody, without a word to anyone, pulled a chair over to the phone and sat down, pulled out
the list of hospitals, and started making calls.
Ten minutes later, Reese was hauling her suitcase downstairs, and Kate, who’d been helping Greta in the kitchen, was telling
Reese there was no taxi but she’d be more than happy to drive her to the bus station in Portland right away.
Josh, overhearing, stood up. “I’ll do it, Kate. You’re drunk.”
The room froze in shocked silence—at The Cove, people didn’t say such things. “I am not!” Kate said, as tears sprang to her eyes.
But Josh was moving for the door. An angry-looking Reese and her suitcase trailed him. “How many glasses of wine have you
had?” he asked his sister, who put her fists on her hips as he walked out.
Goddamn it, David, Lindy thought again, hating him for a moment. Where are you? He had never understood what she always, always had: That without him to hold the center, everything would fall apart.
It was her mother’s favorite Yeats poem, other than the one about Innisfree: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold . . .”