It was only six in the morning, but the sky was already light in these last days before the solstice. Hadley crept out of bed, not feeling inspired to go to work, mostly due to a headache from all the wine she’d consumed the night before. She vowed to drink at least three cups of tea during the day for a self-styled detox.
Jonah was still sleeping. His body followed the dictates of clocks in a way that hers would not. He never woke before the alarm, and he rarely woke in the middle of the night to contemplate his life. It wasn’t that he had no self-awareness or desire for introspection, he just seemed to control the timing of it better than she did, choosing his morning runs to consider the trajectory of his life. She wished she could do the same.
When she went for a run around the lake, her mind tended to either relax into the soothing presence of the nearby water, which she preferred, or it ran in time with her feet thudding on the ground, circling around her plans for the day, repeating her schedule to her as if her brain were concerned she might forget the time of her first class without a reminder every time her playlist advanced to a new track.
She stepped into the short hallway, pausing outside Geneva’s door. She pressed gently on the handle, opening it a few inches. Geneva was sound asleep, her neck-length dark hair tossed across the pillow like a handful of feathers. Hadley closed the door and moved past the entryway and dining room to the guest suite. The door was wide open. The bed was made and the blinds opened to the clear, pearly sky.
Standing in the doorway, she tried to recall hearing the sounds of Alice leaving in the dark. It surprised her and bothered her slightly that she’d been able to sleep right through the faint noises and disturbance in the air of someone moving around in her house, running water, jogging shoes thudding on tile.
She turned and went to the kitchen. She ignored the coffee pot for now, filling the kettle for her first promised cup of tea.
Carrying the mug of peppermint tea through the great room, she stepped outside onto the patio. It was a little cool for sitting outside, but when she was awake this early, she loved enjoying daylight while most of the others in the world around her remained asleep. She sat with her knees bent, her feet tucked under her hip, cupping her hands around the mug to warm them, putting her face close to feel the steam on her skin.
By the time she went back into the house, the patio was getting warm and the mug was empty. It was already seven o’clock. She couldn’t believe she’d sat there, thinking of nothing much, for all that time. She’d hardly noticed her empty mug or thought about coffee or breakfast.
She could hear Jonah moving around before he entered the kitchen. “Coffee ready?”
“Not yet. You didn’t go for a run?”
He gave her a self-deprecating smile. “Too much wine.”
“Same here.”
“Yet Alice, who is older than both of us and isn’t accustomed to this altitude, is out there.”
“She’s in better shape. She runs at least five or six miles a day, sometimes more.”
“So I’ve heard.” He grinned and kissed her forehead. “I hope you had an adequate birthday celebration.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “The best.”
She made scrambled eggs and toast for both of them while Jonah brewed coffee and scanned the news.
By quarter to eight, they were finished eating and the kitchen was cleaned up.
“I’m going to check out front,” Hadley said. “Kenny waylaid her yesterday, and I’m guessing that’s why she’s not back. Five miles wouldn’t take this long.”
Jonah put his arm around her waist and pulled her close for a kiss. “Maybe she’s trying to burn off that lavish dinner and took a longer run. Anyway, I’m off to work. Late, but nothing I can’t recover from.” He pulled away and gave her a confident grin.
When she heard the garage door open, she went to the front door and looked out at the street. It was deserted. Surely Alice hadn’t gone into Deborah’s house with Kenny. Would she do that? Yes, she’d brushed off Hadley’s warning, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t considered it after the fact.
Hadley walked down the front path and stepped into the street. She waved as Jonah backed out of the driveway, then turned to look at Deborah’s house. All the blinds were closed. She walked slowly toward the quiet house. If Alice hadn’t gone over there, she hated to disturb Deborah.
She stood for several moments. Would Alice take a longer than usual run while she was visiting Hadley? They wanted to spend as much time together as possible. Finally she walked up Deborah’s front path, looking down at the last minute to notice she was barefoot. She tapped lightly on the door, hoping that if they were still asleep, they wouldn’t hear. Deborah’s kitchen was to the left of the front door, so if Alice and Kenny were in there drinking coffee, they would surely respond to the gentle knocking.
After standing in silence for another minute, she retraced her steps and went into her house. She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Alice, wondering why she hadn’t done this first. Her concern over Alice’s interest in Kenny had caused her thoughts to rush immediately in that direction.
She took her phone to the bathroom and placed it on the counter while she brushed her teeth and slipped on a pair of sandals. She needed to get to work. Her first class—beginning sculpture—was at nine thirty. She tapped her phone, even though she knew she would have noticed if a message had floated across the screen. There was no response from Alice. It hadn’t even been ten minutes since she’d sent her message, but still…Anxiety began to eat at her stomach. The assault of the young woman a few weeks ago crept to the front of her mind like a snake slithering out of the weeds.
Her phone remained dark. She picked it up and called Elena, who managed the art program at the community center. “Hi, Elena. I’ll get right to the point. I mentioned my sister is visiting—”
“You did,” Elena said.
“She went for a run this morning, and she should have been back an hour ago. I’m a little worried about her. I need to go look for her…to make sure she didn’t fall and hurt herself.”
“Wouldn’t she text you if she needed help?”
“That’s why I’m worried.”
“I can cover your nine thirty class. Or maybe I’ll give Darrell a call. He could—”
“That’s great. Thank you so much.”
“Send me an update, okay? I hope she’s alright.”
“Me too,” Hadley whispered.
She took off her sandals and skirt, tugged on jeans, and shoved her feet into athletic shoes. She left a note for Geneva. She wasn’t going to wake her and turn this into a full-blown panic. She needed to stay calm. It might be nothing more than a twisted ankle, although then Alice would have texted…maybe she tripped and fell and her phone broke. Maybe she was out of coverage range.
First, she returned to Deborah’s house. She rang the bell, and Deborah answered immediately. “Is everything okay? You look upset.”
“Just a little worried. Alice went for a run, and I thought she’d be back by now. She didn’t stop by here, did she?”
Deborah shook her head.
“Is Kenny home?”
“He’s sleeping.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Let me know she’s okay,” Deborah said.
Hadley nodded. She hurried along the path and set off down the street. It was three blocks to the trailhead. When the wooden sign marking the entrance was in sight, she began jogging toward the route Alice had declared her favorite. It was the one with the greatest incline, a bigger challenge for experienced runners, and less popular.
Now that the sun was fully up, the air was growing hotter and dryer. She walked quickly, checking her phone compulsively to see if there was a response from Alice. Why hadn’t they ever turned on the option for tracking each other? It was controlling and slightly paranoid, Alice had said. Now, Hadley longed for the connection, no matter how creepy it might seem. How did she even know Alice had taken the same route that morning? How did she know she was even out here? Maybe Deborah didn’t know for sure where Kenny was, and Alice had gone off for breakfast with him. But if she had, wouldn’t she answer the text?
By the time she’d gone about a mile, she was sweating and starting to worry this had been a mistake. If Alice was hurt, or had somehow gotten lost, it would be much better to have professionals looking for her. If she’d slipped down a steep hill, Hadley might not even be able to see her. But she couldn’t turn back. That felt like an even bigger mistake.
As she half-jogged, half-ran, she called Alice’s name. The only response was the silence of the birds, frightened by the volume of her voice. She slowed to a walk so she didn’t wear herself out. She was in decent shape, but her easy jogs were a different kind of fitness compared with running up an incline.
She was almost at the top of the trail, ready to descend in a loop back to the spot where she’d started out. She paused, taking deep gulps of air.
Something flickered at the corner of her vision. A wild creature moving in the sagebrush? She took a few steps off the trail. Immediately, she changed her mind and jumped away from the shrubs, back onto the packed dirt path. It could have been a squirrel or some other small creature, but it also could have been a rattlesnake. She shivered. She didn’t mind snakes in terrariums, but preferred not to encounter one while she was alone out here. Without the sound of her footsteps, the air around her was eerily quiet. Above, a hawk surfed the air current.
Something kept her from walking forward—a hollow feeling in her stomach—as if whatever had moved had captured her attention for a reason. A short way from where she stood were some boulders and, beyond that, a cluster of saplings. She moved toward the boulders and saw the thing she had refused to imagine finding—a foot, wearing a purple and white athletic shoe, protruding from the rocks.
She stepped around the first boulder. Lying curled on her side was Alice. Blood caked the side of her face, clotting on her neck, thick and hideously dark in her silvery hair.
A scream rose from some place so deep inside, Hadley hadn’t known it existed. It wormed its way out of her throat as she dropped to the ground, landing hard on her knees. She crawled toward her sister’s body, sobbing. As if her limbs couldn’t connect with her brain, with what she was seeing, she grabbed Alice’s leg and shook her, trying to rouse her.
She cried and whimpered, falling on Alice’s motionless legs. She wailed, her voice drifting through the stillness as she held on, feeling the subtle warmth that was still there.
By the time her sobs had eased and she’d moved away, the sun was much higher in the sky. Still crying, her face smeared with tears and mucous, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked it and started to type a message to Jonah. No, that was wrong. She needed to call the police, the paramedics. Again she started crying, knowing paramedics would be useless. She glanced at the top of the screen. No signal. A single bar popped up, then faded again to a straight line.
“Nooo!” She couldn’t leave Alice just lying here, exposed and alone while she made her way all the way back down the trail, walking until a signal appeared. “No!” Her body shook with her cries, but still the bars refused to appear.
She reached for Alice’s hand. She picked it up and kissed her palm, squeezing it for a moment before she stood.
She’d run downhill for nearly half a mile before she had a strong enough connection to make the call. She sat on a large rock and called 911. Then she sent a text to Jonah. She didn’t think she could talk to him. Her words would be nothing but cries he wouldn’t be able to decipher. And hearing her grief, he might think it was about Geneva. She couldn’t do that to him. The clarity of her thoughts shocked her. For a moment, she hated herself for being able to plan a coherent course of action.
Moments after the message went through, Jonah was calling. His voice breaking, he told her to stay where she was. He would find her. She didn’t argue. She needed to wait for the police and medical people anyway. She wasn’t going anywhere until Alice was safely…she wasn’t sure where, but she wasn’t leaving her sister. She turned and began hiking back the way she’d come. When she reached her sister’s body, she settled beside her, holding onto Alice’s ankle as if it would keep her steady.
Jonah arrived before the police. He must have driven like a maniac. He held her and let her cry. All the sobs and grief and whimpering that had rushed through her over the past hour returned with even greater force. Or maybe it just felt that way now that Jonah was here, and now that the police were moving around the spot where Alice was lying. Other people, fully alive, made it more real.
Finally she moved away from him. A furious thought rose inside her. She tried to keep it in check, but it burst out of her lips, the words like spears. “I told you to go running with her. We knew that it wasn’t…that woman who was attacked before…if you—”
“That’s not fair.” Jonah took several steps away from her. “That is not fair at all.” A moment later, his face softened. “Okay. I’m sorry. This is horrifying. You’re angry. It’s okay.” He moved toward her and put his arms around her again, holding her as tightly as he could. “Cry and rage as much as you can. It’s okay. It’s okay.”
She sobbed and trembled in his arms, and only a single thought settled in her brain. If only he’d gone with her.