Читать книгу Old Heart - Peter Ferry - Страница 3

Dad’s gone,” Brooks said into the telephone.

“What do you mean? He’s dead?” said Christine.

“No, no. He’s just gone. He’s not here.”

“Oh, my God, you scared me. ’Course he’s not there. He told us he was going fishing with Mike and Irma, remember?” And there was at least the tone of remonstrance in that last word, as <if she were reminding him that he’d been drinking that day. “They probably aren’t back yet.”

“Yeah, except I stopped in True Value on my way over here, and there was Mike McIntyre, so I said, ‘Hey, how was the fishing?’ and he didn’t know anything about it.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.”

“Well, could we have misunderstood?”

“No,” said Brooks as if saying, ‘I hadn’t had that much to drink.’ “Besides, his big suitcase is gone and half his clothes including winter ones and all his pills and toilet stuff. Cleaned out. And his keys were on the kitchen counter. He never leaves those keys.”

“What in the world?”

“I’m telling you, I think the old fucker pulled a fast one on us. I think he’s taken off.”

“How could this have happened? This is your fault. Damn you, Brooks! If you hadn’t pushed him so hard …”

“Christine,” Brooks said very slowly, “he’s had a stroke.”

“You don’t know that. You do not know that!”

“Like hell I don’t.”

“Roger Daugherty gave him a clean bill of health.”

“Right. You really think Dad went to see him?”

“Why would he lie, Brooks? He’s never lied about anything.”

“That’s just the point. He’s never done any of this weird stuff before. They’re behavior changes. Go on line; look it up. Google TIAs. He may have had a bunch of them.”

“Okay, okay,” said Christine. “Maybe you’re right, but Jesus, it’s all beside the point. The point is he’s not there. He’s gone somewhere. So what do we do now?”

“We find him. We go get him. We bring him back.”

That’s what they said then. That’s what they told me later. That’s how the great chase began.