Michael?” Julia said after the line went silent.
She paced out of the kitchen. Whatever conversation the boys had been sharing trailed off. They listened in nervous silence as she walked to the far end of her living room and stared out the window. Outside, life was peaceful. Birds sang as the summer sun still hung above the easy hills to the west. A car rolled slowly by, someone’s father just getting home from work. She heard the faintest sound of children laughing from somewhere down the street.
“Michael?”
She pulled the phone away from her ear. The call had ended. She dialed his number, but it went straight to voicemail. She tried his other cell phone, the work-issued one; same thing. Figuring he was dialing her as she dialed him, she ended that call without leaving a message. To be honest, she hadn’t expected him to pick up the call to his old cell number. He hadn’t been using it much recently. It was probably in his briefcase. Plus, calls got dropped all the time, she thought.
It was nothing, she kept saying to herself. Unfortunately, the more she repeated it, the more worried she felt.