Читать книгу Because You Loved Me - M. William Phelps - Страница 16

After freshening up, Chris grabbed some clean clothes and packed them into a bag. According to what he later said, it was pushing 7:00 P.M. by that point, so he decided to telephone Jeanne to see if there was something she needed. (Chris McGowan’s telephone records later backed up the time of the call.)

Six rings later, Chris hung up the telephone. She’s probably putting the dog out or taking him for a walk.

It wasn’t unlike Jeanne not to answer her telephone. Jeanne wasn’t one to sit still; she favored doing things constantly to keep herself busy, as opposed to hanging around the house waiting for the kids to come home. Stay busy, Jeanne always said. Stay active. Stay focused. “Healthy heart, healthy mind.”

Jeanne’s only son, Drew, was at a friend’s house. According to a note left on the kitchen counter, Billy and Nicole were at Leda Lanes, a local bowling alley, playing pool. “Jeanne, don’t 4 get!!…We will probably also go to Bruster’s (an ice cream shop about a quarter mile from Jeanne’s house) (Nicole’s idea)…,” Billy wrote, signing the note for the both of them.

As a postscript to the brief note, Billy said if Jeanne needed to find the two of them, she should call his cell phone. He thanked Jeanne “4 the ice cream” in the freezer and signed, “Love, Billy & Nicole. PS: Have Chris come over for a Pictionary rematch.”

Like Billy and Nicole’s absence from the house, the note wasn’t out of the ordinary. Nicole was good about telling Jeanne where she and Billy (or one of her other friends) went off to. “Jeanne always knew where her children were,” noted Chris later, “and what time they were coming home.”

Soon after checking his e-mail, Chris pushed himself away from his desk and decided to buzz Jeanne at home one more time. It was a few minutes after seven.

But she still wasn’t answering.

She’s probably busy cleaning up, thought Chris. No big deal.

When Chris reached his car, he picked up his cell phone, which was sitting on the front seat, where he had left it. It was 7:15 P.M., he knew, after looking at the LCD time display on the phone. He was hoping to see a message from Jeanne. But, instead, Billy’s number was staring back at him.

Nicole?

Indeed, it was Nicole; she had called five minutes before, at 7:10 P.M.

Odd, thought Chris. Nicole calling him.

“I had always told Nicole,” said Chris, “that it was important to leave brief, short and sweet voice mails. I don’t like long, drawn-out messages, and she knew it. Although, it wasn’t unusual for her to leave a detailed message; however, I always told her not to be so winded. That is the only reason why I saved that particular voice mail.”

For whatever reason, Nicole’s message was tedious to the point of rambling. Instead of being pithy, as Chris had explained to her more times than he could recall, Nicole began, “Chris…I was unable to reach anyone at home. I just tried calling the house. My mom’s not home yet. It’s getting late. I figured she’d be with you. Just wanted to let you guys know me and Billy will be late for dinner.” As if Chris didn’t know, Nicole added, “It’s Billy’s last day here…. He’s going back to Connecticut tomorrow….” She was calm, recalled Chris. Not one imperfection or stumble in her sweet teenage voice. Chris could even hear Billy in the background telling Nicole to let Chris know where they’d be and how long they’d be out.

“Give him my number,” Chris heard Billy shout.

Then Nicole spoke again: “It’s getting kind of late”—according to Chris, Nicole sounded “cool as a cucumber” here as she spoke—“so we are just wondering if she (mom) was with you. We really don’t know when we’ll be back. Call us on Billy’s cell phone if you need me.”

Sitting in his car listening to Nicole’s voice mail didn’t affect Chris one way or another. It was typical Nicole speak. She had always been good about telling Jeanne where she was and when she’d be home. Obviously, she couldn’t reach Jeanne and figured she’d call Chris and fill him in so he could relay the message to Jeanne when he saw her. Nicole was good like that. It wasn’t until Billy entered the picture that she’d started to fall back on communicating with Jeanne regularly, and even then it was spare. Still, Chris accepted that Billy and Nicole were kids, and tried to explain to Jeanne more than once that it was in their nature to break the rules.

“He’ll be gone soon, Jeannie,” Chris told Jeanne earlier that week. “Let them have their fun. It’s almost over. She’ll find another boy soon enough.”

Jeanne couldn’t keep watch over Nicole 24/7. She knew that. She had to trust her on some level. Nicole’s relationship with Billy, as far as Jeanne saw it, was going to fizzle soon enough. Nicole had her junior year of high school ahead of her. She needed to redeploy her mind back to schoolwork. If Billy loved her the way he said he did, he was going to wait until she graduated. No two ways about it.

Before pulling out of his driveway, Chris saved the voice mail and decided to phone Jeanne once more. Maybe she wants a bottle of wine?

Once again, no answer. But Chris wasn’t alarmed by Jeanne’s sudden absence from the house. “I truly thought that she was just busy. Drew was always going somewhere, doing something. It occurred to me that Jeannie was perhaps dropping him off at a friend’s, or taking him out somewhere in town.”

She could also be across the street or at a neighbor’s house next door talking. Maybe she took off to the store.

The road to Jeanne’s was an autopilot drive for Chris—one he had traveled so many times throughout the past three years he couldn’t count. His car, he jokingly said, drove him there; he didn’t have to think about where he was going.

Closer to the house, Chris stopped at a 7-Eleven convenience store located directly in back of Jeanne’s house. He picked up a bottle of soda. It took him approximately four minutes to walk into the store and get back to his car. More out of habit than any other reason, he picked up his cell phone one more time to check if Jeanne had called.

She hadn’t.

Chris looked out across the street from the 7-Eleven. Huh? From the parking lot, he could see Jeanne’s car parked in her driveway.

She was definitely home.