Olivia didn’t answer right away. Carrying her mug, she paced the area in front of the sofa. “What makes you think Dan might be seeing someone else?”
Grace didn’t have any specific details. “It’s more of a gut feeling,” she said with a helpless shrug.
“Think back over the last six months. Has he taken special care with his appearance, attended meetings at odd times of the day or night?”
Her mind was a blank. “Uh…not that I recall.”
“Didn’t you say he went hunting last fall?”
Grace nodded. He’d taken up the sport after a long absence, and while it wasn’t something she could possibly like, she’d been grateful that he was showing interest in an activity other than watching TV. He’d left on a Friday afternoon in late October and returned on the Sunday evening. He’d spoken enthusiastically about his trek through the woods, more voluble than he’d been for quite a while.
“He went alone?” Olivia asked.
Dan hadn’t mentioned anyone else, but at the time Grace hadn’t thought of that as odd. He didn’t have a lot of friends and often preferred his own company.
“Did he bring home any game?”
“No.” But that made sense, too, since it’d been years since he’d gone hunting. Putting down her coffee, Grace frowned, remembering that weekend. “Are you suggesting he was with someone else?”
Olivia boldly met her look. “I wouldn’t know, but deep down I think you do.”
Perhaps she did. That free weekend had been wonderful for her. She’d spent a delightful two days with Maryellen and Kelly, shopping at an outlet mall in Oregon. It’d been their first “Mother-Daughter Getaway Weekend,” an event they hoped to repeat annually.
“He seemed…happy,” Grace murmured. He was so rarely in a good mood that it’d struck her as unusual. She couldn’t believe that a man would go from another woman’s bed and then home to his wife, without somehow betraying his guilt. She couldn’t accept that her husband was capable of such a thing, and yet…
They heard a car outside and Olivia glanced out the living-room window. “Troy’s here.”
Grace had opened the front door and was standing on the porch as the sheriff came up the walkway.
“Thanks for coming,” Grace told him, grateful he’d decided to attend to this himself.
Troy removed his hat as he stepped into the house and nodded in Olivia’s direction.
“I wasn’t sure who else to call,” Olivia explained.
“You did the right thing.” Troy was a good-looking man who’d been two years ahead of them in school and the biggest heartthrob in Cedar Cove. He’d gone into the service after graduation, then joined the sheriff’s department on his return. For the last thirty-eight years, he’d kept order in their community; ten years ago, he’d been elected sheriff. Folks liked and trusted Troy.
Grace invited him to make himself comfortable and he chose to sit in Dan’s recliner. He carried a clipboard and had a pencil ready.
“I take it you’d like to file a missing person’s report.”
“Please,” Grace said, nearly choking on the word.
“Tell me what you know,” he said gently.
Grace told him everything she could think of. Although it broke her heart, she mentioned the hunting trip and Olivia’s suspicions that there could be another woman in his life.
“Do you think there’s someone else?”
Grace raised her hands in a gesture of defeat. “What is it people say? The wife is always the last to know.” The more often she acknowledged the possibility, the more real it seemed to become. She told herself Dan wouldn’t do that to her, to their daughters. She had to believe it. Yet she knew something wasn’t right and hadn’t been for a very long time.
“What happens next?” Grace asked once the report had been completed.
Troy glanced at Olivia and then back at her. “Actually, nothing.”
“Nothing?” Grace was appalled.
“I’ve checked both hospitals in the area, but they don’t have anyone admitted under Dan’s name, nor do they have any unidentified patients.”
“He hasn’t been arrested, has he?”
“No,” Troy confirmed. “Not by us and not by the State Patrol.” In other words, no one knew anything about Dan or could guess where he might have gone. “As far as I can see, there isn’t any evidence of foul play.”
Grace nodded. She’d walked through the house a dozen times during the night, looking for even the tiniest clue that would tell her where Dan might be. She’d combed through his pockets, his dresser, everything.
“Then we have to assume Dan is missing of his own accord,” Troy said calmly.
Confused, Grace looked at her friend. “What Troy is saying,” Olivia told her, “is that it isn’t a crime for an adult to run away.”
“Husbands and wives abandon their families. Unfortunately it’s a common occurrence.”
“If that was the case,” Grace snapped, “then Dan would’ve taken something with him, don’t you think? All he had were the clothes on his back.”
“I realize it might not make sense,” Troy went on.
“Make sense?” Grace echoed. “This is ludicrous! My husband is missing and the authorities won’t do anything to help me find him.”
Troy held her gaze. “I’m sorry, Grace, but that’s the law. If anyone sees him, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks for nothing,” she muttered, crossing her arms. She was furious, embarrassed and filled with a restless energy she didn’t know how to dispel.
It was then that Grace heard the back door open and close. A moment later, as if he hadn’t a care in the world, her husband walked into the living room.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, obviously surprised to find Olivia and Troy in his home.
“Dan!” Grace’s relief at seeing him was so great, she started to weep. “Oh, Dan. Dear God in heaven, where were you? I’ve been out of my mind with worry.”
He ignored her. “Is there a problem here, Troy?” he asked stiffly.
“No.” The sheriff stood, tore the report free from his clipboard and folded it in half. He handed it to Grace and, without a word of farewell, headed out the front door.
“I’d better get ready for court,” Olivia said. She glared fiercely in Dan’s direction and quickly left.
“You called the sheriff?” Dan said as soon as they were alone. He glowered at her as though she’d done something wrong.
“Where were you?” Grace cried again, unable to hold back her anger or her tears. “Don’t you realize what you put me through?”
“It’s none of your damn business where I was.”
“Like hell!” she shouted. “You’re my husband.”
Dan scowled darkly. “I refuse to allow this marriage to be a ball and chain around my neck.”
Grace was so shocked, she