CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

No one had ever gone missing in Tom’s River, Wisconsin before. The town was safe, beautiful, nestled in the valley alongside the river, surrounded by hills and trees. The people who lived in Tom’s River knew each other since they were little, watched each other grow up, marry, settle down. They cared for each other. When a stranger came to town, everyone was aware of it.

But it had been three days now since Kyle Denton had vanished. He was gone without a trace. He had never showed up for work one day, and not a thing of his had been moved in his home or office. Even his toothbrush was where it belonged. It was as if he disappeared into thin air.

“People just don’t disappear,” Officer Doting kept pounding Kyle’s wife, Megan. “They leave clues, give warnings.”

Megan wracked her brains for the right answer. She couldn’t come up with anything, though, through all these days of questioning. She was just as shocked as everybody else.

The police had let up for a little while now, and numb, Megan sat staring out the huge glass wall in the back of her house. The late summer afternoon had turned hot and sultry, and her long strawberry-blonde hair stuck to her neck. She hadn’t showered or brushed her hair for two days.

This can’t be happening

, she thought.

It wasn’t possible

.

Megan felt she was going to wake up and it would all be a dream. Kyle would walk in as usual. At moments she was positive—at other times, she just didn’t know.

Outside, she could still see police cars surrounding their home, yellow tape tied around the property, announcing a possible crime scene. Evidence from inside was being collected. All day long cops scoured the rooms, opening drawers, ruffling through albums, dusting for fingerprints, taking Kyle’s computer to the precinct. What did they hope to find? Megan felt totally exposed and invaded.

Tiny drops of water were forming on the glass wall, looking like beads of perspiration. A year ago, Kyle had insisted on tearing down the back wall and making it all glass. The old wooden walls of the farmhouse they had converted had become oppressive to him. He couldn’t take them anymore, he declared one day, startling Megan. He wanted to be able to look outside at the meadow, now lush with summer green. But Kyle was not here to enjoy it. Where was he?

The front doorbell rang but Megan didn’t have the strength to get up and answer. She almost didn’t care who came in. She was exhausted and this had been the first break she’d had from police and reporters since it all began. And it was only the beginning. Kyle’s face was now being beamed across all local TV stations. As news of him going missing spread to the neighboring counties, the phone had been ringing off the hook. The case was quickly becoming news. It was the only way for the police to get the leads they needed. Someone had to have seen something. Anything. They were pleading for someone to come forth.

Until then, of course, they focused on Megan, as she was the last one to see him alive.

“We always look first at the nearest of kin,” Officer Doting had told her early on.

Megan said she understood and was subjected to questioning for hours on end in what once was the comfort of her living room. She’d sat on the edge of the sofa and racked her brain about what could have happened to her husband. It seemed as if nothing about their life together was off limits. But Megan didn’t have much to tell. Things were fine, they were normal--or so she thought.

“No such thing as normal in a case where someone goes missing,” he said.

He kept asking the same questions over and over. Nothing Megan said satisfied him.

Megan’s mother scurried into the living room now, holding Mallory, her six year old daughter in her arms. Mallory had been glued to the kitchen window since it all happened, waiting for her daddy to come home.

“Officer Doting is outside again, checking things,” her mother breathed, barely meeting Megan’s eyes. Megan wondered why her mother couldn’t look at her, what she thought had happened, why she stayed in the kitchen and barely came out.

Officer Doting strode back into the room. He was heavy set with a ruddy complexion and narrow black eyes, dressed in the usual police uniform. Without much ado, he sat down on the chair opposite Megan and started tapping his heavy fingers on the frail, antique table next to him. Megan had thought they were finished for the day.

“Did something new come up?” she asked.

He shook his head abruptly. “Just more questions. Okay, think hard now. Could your husband have told you about a trip he was taking that you might have forgotten?”

It was obvious he’d found a new tack.

“How could I have forgotten something like that?” Megan replied. All his questions lead down the same blind alleys. Megan did not remember anything like that at all.

“Think harder. Anything?”

Kyle worked for a branch of his family’s brokerage firm, here in Tom’s River. He didn’t often travel for business. If he did, Megan would know about the trip weeks before. Their life together had been steady, regular.

“No, there wasn’t a trip planned,” Megan answered methodically.

“Not a trip that you know about, anyway,” Officer Doting was irritated. By now he was probably as tired as she was. “Husbands seldom tell their wives

everything

.”

Megan bristled, not sure what he was implying.

“What do you mean by that? Kyle didn’t have any secrets from me. I told you that already,” she said.

“If you knew about it, it wouldn’t be a secret, would it?” Officer Doting’s thin lips parted in a half smile.

The room grew warmer and warmer as they spoke. She wanted to get up, open all the windows, let the summer breeze blow in and clear her mind. Megan and Kyle had known each other since college, had been together throughout the years. She trusted him. He’d never given her any reason not to. She wanted to feel Kyle beside her now, tell him she’d dreamt that he’d vanished. He’d probably just laugh a little and shrug his shoulders. Kyle had never known how to really comfort her, but his just being there was always enough.

“You trusted the guy?” Officer Doting repeated, his voice got gravelly.

“He was my husband. I loved him and I knew who he was,” Megan insisted.

“Yeah, wives think they know their husbands until something like this happens.”

Megan realized he was egging her on, trying to get her to crack. He wanted her to say something he could latch onto. That was fine. She wanted to say something he could latch onto, too. She wanted them to find Kyle - and bring him home.

“Kyle’s life was an open book,” she declared, for what seemed like the hundredth time. “He loved me. He loved our daughter. He couldn’t wait to see Mallory when he came home from work at night. He was never as happy as when she was born. “

Officer Doting listened, but his dark eyes squinted. He wasn’t buying it. Megan didn’t know why.

“Everything perfect in our perfect small town?” he chortled. “Is that what you want me to tell the reporters? The two of you were a model couple?”

So, that’s what it was about: the reporters. Megan wanted to say that, but stopped herself. She could see how nervous Officer Doting was to have a case like this on his hands. The spotlight was on him and it wasn’t the kind of attention he was used to. He probably had no idea how to get the job done and was too proud to admit it.

“Okay, come clean with me, Megan,” he said then in a low tone, “a guy doesn’t just disappear out of the blue. Even in Tom’s River, no marriage is perfect.”

“I didn’t say it was perfect. I said it was fine. There’s a difference.”

“What’s the difference?” he shot back at her. “We got to get facts here. This could be a homicide we’re looking at. It could be just the beginning.”

“The beginning of what?” Megan flared up.

“The beginning of more trouble than you or I ever could have imagined.” Officer Doting’s hands began to shake. “They’re searching the hospitals as we speak. Kyle could be there, dying.”

Megan trembled.

“Was the guy sick? Have blackouts? Heart ailments?”

“I told you, he was in the peak of health, forty two, an avid athlete, good looking, strong. He loved tennis and swimming,” Megan repeated.

“But he could be laying somewhere in a hospital right now,” he said.

“Wouldn’t the hospitals call?” Megan had repeated. “Kyle always had identification on him.”

“But his wallet was left at home on the side table.”

“He could have had other ID.”

They’d gone over this many times. Officer Doting was relentless, though.

“Kyle could have gotten dizzy and fallen off the bridge into the river. The rapids are high these days. The banks are swollen. As we speak, the police are combing the rivers. They’ve called the police in from Green County too.”

Megan had never felt so alone in the world. The thought of Kyle lying in the river was more than she could bear. Don’t pass out, she said to herself, limply. This will be over. He’ll walk in the door and straighten it out.

“He was such a strong swimmer,” she could barely continue.

Megan thought about Kyle swimming and playing tennis in the summer, how much he loved it. It took almost all his spare time.

“I know he’s a strong swimmer,” Officer Doting murmured. “But it’s possible he got sick and fell in. People have accidents, you know.”

Megan’s heart began beating fast. “Did someone tell you that he was in the river?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly,” he said, “but we can’t discount foul play. Someone could have pushed him. You have to be ready for everything. There’s been no activity on his cell phone or credit cards for days. They weren’t at your house, either. Could have been stolen.”

“By who?” Megan retorted. “Someone in Tom’s River? Kyle loved this town. He was raised here, went to school nearby, knew every inch of it, knew all the people.”

None of it mattered to Officer Doting.

“Kyle worked at the brokerage house,” he continued, his voice thumping against Megan’s mind. “You guys in debt? He gamble? Had any enemies?”

“No! No! He didn’t gamble. Had no enemies I ever heard of. He was a straightforward guy.”

“But something happened to him. How about women?”

“What are you talking about?” Megan’s lip quivered.

“Your husband ever look at someone else?”

Megan stared back at him, combing her memory. Had she been living in some kind of cocoon? She worked teaching school at day and tending to the home and her daughter afterwards. Kyle spent the weekends mostly doing sports. Other than going to church on Sundays, and socializing with local friends and couples, going to the movies, having dinner, there was not much chance he had to run into other women. Had he found them elsewhere? Had he grown tired of their simple lifestyle that she had always found so safe and soothing?

“Guys wander in a long marriage, you know,” said Officer Doting. The heat of the afternoon was overwhelming and he was also sweating now.

“Kyle was loyal to me.” Megan proclaimed once again.

“That’s what they all say. We’re looking at his computer now.”

Megan stared more deeply at him. He said nothing, just stared back.

“Did you find something on his computer from another woman?” Megan finally asked.

“No,” he barked. “Wish we had. Wish we had something. All we saw on the computer were his plans to go deer hunting this fall.”

“Deer hunting?” Megan was bewildered. Kyle had never gone hunting. She had no idea he had plans like that.

“Yeah, there’s lots of stuff on his computer about deer hunting.”

“I have no idea where my husband is,” she finally cried out, at her wit’s end. “I have no idea why he would vanish. There is no reason. We were happy. He loved his family. We didn’t argue. His business was fine. We were not in debt. He had no enemies. He never looked at another woman,” the words poured out by themselves, one after another.

After two more days of this, Megan’s mother insisted that she get a lawyer. Megan refused. She was totally innocent, there was nothing to hide and getting a lawyer might create a different impression. Besides, this all had to be a horrible mistake. They’d been married for ten years, and one thing about Kyle was that he’d always done what he said he would. He always came home.

Officer Doting let up for a little while and went into the kitchen to pour himself some fresh lemonade that Megan’s mother had waiting. While he was gone, Megan put her head back on the sofa. But in just a few minutes the front door opened once again and she heard big footsteps coming into the room. She lurched up swiftly.

“Is that you, Kyle?” she called out.