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“It was a huge place,” Will said, trying to remember as we drove towards Boston. “Outside of the city, with iron gates among the trees. You couldn’t see the house from the street. But once you came up the drive, you could see it, this block of granite almost. Very imposing, but not inviting.”
Will told me how they spent the weekend at the house, being served meals by the servants and having their drinks brought to them at the fireplace.
“It was surreal, like from another century.”
Mac’s father changed for dinner and expected them to do the same. When neither Will nor Mac had any formal dinner clothes, they were not allowed at the dinner table and had to eat in the kitchen.
“His father was a right ol’ bastard,” Will remembered. “But I liked eating in the kitchen. It was warm there and friendly. The cook was this lovely old lady who kept pinching Mac’s cheek, telling him how handsome he’d grown up to be. He kept telling her to get her eyes checked.”
He paused. “I vowed never to go back there again after that weekend. But here I am again.”
We arrived in Boston around midnight. We started driving out on the back roads, in the general direction Will remembered. But it was dark and too long ago.
“Let’s try to get some sleep,” I said.
We found a spot by the side of the road and pulled off.
Will got onto the back seat and I lay next to him.
We held each other close.
He was wound tightly, like a spring, and I tried to think of what I could say to make things better.
“I love you,” was all I could come up with. “We’ll find her, I’m sure of it.”
He tightened his arms around me, but he didn’t speak.
Chapter 28
Will
We needed coffee.
Lots and lots of coffee.
Driving through Boston in the early morning was depressing. I was cold, miserable, and worried to death about Zoë. Where was Jade? I checked my phone repeatedly but there were no new messages.
Not since 1am, which was the last time I’d checked it.
We’d managed about an hour or so of sleep, but I couldn’t settle.
Nikki suggested we look for coffee.
“I could murder a donut,” she said, trying to cheer me up, I guess. She was being supportive, and I appreciated her being there, but I couldn’t lighten up.
We finally found a diner that was open. The smell of fries and oily eggs made my stomach turn, but after a cup of strong, bitter coffee, I was ready to have a conversation again.
“Why would she take Zoë?”
Nikki pulled her shoulders up, helplessly. “I’m guessing she isn’t thinking straight. Mac says she lost her job?”
I shook my head.
“Her and Mac, they had so much going for them, then they threw it all away.”
“Sounds like their parents screwed them up, though,” Nikki said.
“Sure, but there was so much money, they could’ve studied anything, started any business and their parents would help. But they preferred to snort it up their noses, push it down their veins.”
