Читать книгу Eleven Hours - Paullina Simons - Страница 12

Rich called their hospital’s labor and delivery ward to see if a Didi Wood had been admitted and was told no.

Finally he left the Laredo Grill. What mall had she been in? Was it Collin Creek right across the road, or the Galleria, or Valley View? NorthPark? She could have been calling from anywhere. She had had a doctor’s appointment at eleven, so perhaps she was at Collin Creek, which was the closest to the doctor and to the Laredo Grill. Rich wished he’d gone with her to the doctor’s as he usually did.

He called the doctor’s office. The receptionist told him Didi had left at eleven-thirty after her routine weekly checkup. Then the doctor came on the phone and told Rich that Didi had dilated another centimeter to about two, normal for this stage in the pregnancy. Rich asked if Didi had mentioned where she might be heading. The doctor replied that Didi had said she might do a little shopping, but hadn’t said where. Rich hung up.

Instead of going back to work, he drove to the Collin Creek Mall. His Didi was nothing if not a creature of habit, and whenever they went to the mall – any mall – Didi always parked near Dillard’s. He drove up and down the rows of cars, looking for their new white Town & Country – the Cadillac of all minivans, as the pamphlets had said.

He thought he’d seen the van several times, but he was wrong.

Remembering he had a meeting with marketing at three, Rich called his office manager and said he was tied up and couldn’t make it in. She sounded nervous on the phone, and said, ‘But Rich, your meeting.’ And he said to her, ‘But Donna, my wife.’ And hung up without an explanation.

Then he called home. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well and had gone home to lie down. Totally unlike Didi, but maybe.

No one answered. The babysitter must be picking Amanda up from school. Rich left a message for Didi to call him as soon as possible at the office. What could he do? He had to believe that Didi was still upset about the fight last night. It was the only explanation.

But he didn’t believe that. It wasn’t like Didi to pay him back for anything. Even when they fought, she still made him dinner, still went to sleep with him, and she never stood him up if they made plans to meet. Never.

Unprecedented events worried Rich. He remembered his dad, back in Chicago, every day for twenty-five years coming home from work on the 5.54 PM train. The train was sometimes late, but Richard Wood Sr never missed that train – well, almost never. The day he missed the 5.54 was the day he died.