Chapter 18

 

Stonington, CT

8:30 a.m.

 

Sitting in Amy’s kitchen, Barbara Quayle let out a frustrated breath and hung up the phone. All the circuits were still tied up. She couldn’t call out. Nobody could call in. The last person who’d called them was a parent from the twins’ elementary school phone chain. That had been around seven o’clock. They closed the school right after the attack in New London harbor.

Right now, Barbara didn’t know if she should be taking the kids somewhere. If she should, she didn’t know where. The twin’s grandparents were still away, but she didn’t really know what help they’d be, anyway.

She’d been occasionally sneaking into Amy’s bedroom, keeping an eye on the news on her television. She didn’t want to let Zack and Kaitlyn see what was going on where their mother worked. Not that anyone really seemed to know what was going on. The only things that the news reporters appeared to be certain of, so far, was that a fire had broken out in the shipyard and something unexplainable had happened in the harbor. They kept showing the Coast Guard ship that had been damaged, and the New London Ledge lighthouse that had been demolished. Although witnesses in Groton and New London claimed to have heard and seen explosions, the news people were being very careful with their speculations. Whether the submarine leaving the harbor had done the damage or not, no one would say officially.

Barbara reached inside her pocket and opened the cap to her blood pressure pills. She wasn’t due to take one until tonight, but she didn’t care. Her heart was pounding, and she felt lightheaded. Her blood pressure had to be up. She took one.

There was something terrible going on. She knew it, and she could see it on every station that she turned the channel to. And she was scared—not for herself, but for the twins and for Amy.

Where was she?

She’d hoped Zack and Kaitlyn would sleep late today, but both of them were up and looking for their mother as soon as the call had come from the phone-chain parent. Barbara hadn’t said anything about what she’d seen on the news. She even let them watch one of their Disney movies while they ate their breakfast, sitting on the sofa in the living room. That was a huge treat. She knew for a fact that Amy never allowed TV and meals to go together. But even that kind of indulgence hadn’t fooled them.

Kaitlyn barely touched the waffles Barbara had popped in the toaster. She had no interest in the movie, either. She was cuddled on the window-seat, her face pressed against the glass pane, watching the rain outside and the quiet street. She was waiting for her mom to come home.

Zack wasn’t much better. He pretended that he was watching the movie, but Barbara knew the young boy was aware of every move she made in the apartment. His gaze followed Barbara whenever she disappeared into Amy’s bedroom. He watched her pick up the phone a dozen times as she tried to get through to the shipyard, or to Amy’s pager, or to her cell-phone. She wasn’t able to get through on anything.

Barbara grabbed her cup of tea. It was already cold, but she didn’t care. She joined Zack on the sofa. He was just a few bites ahead of his sister when it came to breakfast.

“Not hungry today?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “Did mommy call?”

“No, sweetheart. There’s something wrong with the phone lines this morning. They’ll be fixing them, soon.”

Sirens from the borough and the neighboring towns had been blaring intermittently for the past hour. The twins hardly seemed to notice them. Barbara figured she was mostly responsible for the children’s nervousness; they were too smart not to see and sense her restlessness.

“So, how’s the movie?” Barb asked.

Zack shrugged and his gaze moved to his sister again. Kaitlyn was still in her pajamas, and her short, curly hair framed her innocent face like a halo. She wasn’t paying attention to anything but that road.

“How about a game of Sorry,” Barbara said, trying to put some enthusiasm into her voice. As painful as that game was for her to play, it was always good for at least an hour’s distraction.

Kaitlyn didn’t answer.

“No, thanks,” Zack murmured.

He drew his knees to his chest and laid his head on Barbara’s lap, his eyes on his sister and the window. The older woman ran her fingers through the young boy’s silky hair. She had to put the minds of these two at ease, somehow. The problem was that she wasn’t really in any better shape than they were.

She was worried sick about Amy. The young mother always called home from the shipyard at 6:30 on the dot. That was their morning routine, Barbara’s wake up call. They always had a few minutes of quiet conversation about how they’d each lasted through the night.

There’d been no call this morning. That was a first. The phones were working at 6:30, too. She wondered if it was worth it to try the phone again. Maybe the lines were operating now.

Barbara had experienced a very difficult time emotionally after her husband’s death five years ago. She hadn’t known where she wanted to go, what she wanted to do. Her four kids were scattered around the country, living their own lives. She even had three grown grandchildren out on the West Coast. There was nowhere else she wanted to move to permanently. Three or four times a year, she traveled a week or two at a time to see her kids and grandchildren. But Connecticut was home, in spite of the frigid winters.

Having Amy and her twins move into the renovated school building in Stonington Borough had been an absolute blessing. Although they were strangers, she and Amy had become friends in no time. The young mother’s tireless energy and her dedication to her children were remarkable. But that wasn’t all of it. Being a single mother and holding a full time job didn’t force Amy to spend the rest of her time in a shell. She made a point of getting to know Barbara, involving the older woman in her family’s activities. Amy had forced her out of the cocoon she’d begun to construct around herself.

Before Barbara knew it, the four of them were a family. The fact that Amy actually paid her for staying with the kids was ridiculous. Barbara felt she should pay them for the joy they gave her. But Amy was as stubborn as she was proud. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Barbara wasn’t a churchgoer—hadn’t been for years—but sitting in Amy’s apartment now, she found herself praying for these precious children and for their mother’s safe return home.

“Someone’s driving up the street,” Kaitlyn announced excitedly. She raised herself on her knees. Her hands and face pressed against the window. Drops of rain formed rivulets down the outside of the glass.

Barbara didn’t have the heart to remind the child that there were a dozen apartments in this building and the car could belong to any of their other neighbors.

“Two cars,” Kaitlyn reported happily.

Before Barb could get herself off the sofa, Zack was on the window seat next to his sister.

“Neither of them are mommy’s car,” he said.

“Oh,” Kaitlyn said, disappointment in her voice.

Barbara reached the window and looked out. A sedan, followed by an SUV and a third car, had turned on the street. A state police car brought up the rear. A little caravan.

Her heart pounded so loud that she could hear it in her head. A cold feeling of doom edged into her bloodstream. All the other excuses she’d been preparing for the children withered on her lips when the four cars pulled up in front of the building. As they looked down on the cars, people started to get out. Official looking people in raincoats.

“Who are they?” Zack asked.

Barbara’s knees were weak. She lowered herself onto the window seat next to the twins. They were walking toward the main entrance of the building.

“Strangers,” Kaitlyn answered her brother. “They have nothing to do with us.”

As the intercom buzzed from the front door, Barbara stared at the twins, wishing the little girl had been right.

~~~~