Page 2 of Drowning in Lies
"Oh God, can you imagine if I did that?" I asked with a wicked grin.
Sherry snorted. "Don't you dare, Lila."
I laughed at the very idea of it, and my old friend looked at me and smiled. Reaching over to clasp my hand, she said, "It's good to see you laughing again, sweetie."
I sobered at the reminder of the sad cloud I'd been living under for months. I had suffered a miscarriage seven months ago. I hadn't even realized I was pregnant until I wasn't anymore, because I'd been told from a young age that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant at all. A car accident my family had been in when I was eleven had taken the life of my father, and I'd suffered severe injuries to my lower abdomen and pelvis. I'd recovered completely, but the initial injuries and resulting scar tissue had supposedly rendered me infertile.
David hadn't been home that evening, when the mild abdominal pain I'd had in the afternoon progressed to a searing pain that brought me to my knees. He'd gone out to dinner with clients and had been schmoozing them until very late in the evening. David hadn't picked up when I'd called, so I had called Sherry, who had quickly decided I needed an ambulance.She and her husband Chris had met me at the emergency room, and Chris had finally been able to reach David a little before midnight. He had accidentally turned his ringer off on his phone.
I knew he'd felt guilty, so I had tried not to make it worse by letting him know how scared I had been, and how much I'd needed him with me. I had still been struggling with my grief when my mother had fallen two months ago at her home in Chicago. I had traveled from our home in Indianapolis, staying by her side daily in the hospital and then in the subsequent rehab facility. I would return home for a night or two before making the drive back to Chicago for several days. I'd repeated that pattern until a second fall three weeks later had resulted in a brain bleed from which she couldn't recover. David had been out of town on business when she died, and I'd been unable to reach him until the next morning. I'd been inconsolable, and his explanation that he'd taken the sleeping pills that had been prescribed for his frequent insomnia had barely registered.
I closed my eyes for a moment at Sherry's words, then smiled softly. "The past seven months have been the worst of my life, but I'm getting there, a little at a time. I think I'm finally heading in the right direction."
She gave my hand a final squeeze as Vanessa walked back to the table.Her long dark hair looked as though she'd repeatedly run her hands through it. She looked a little flushed, and her eyes were a tiny bit red like she may have been crying. Sherry shot a sharp glance my way and I gave an almost imperceptible shrug to indicate that I didn't know what was wrong.
"Are we ready to head to the spa?" I asked, eager to lighten mood and get on with our day. We spent the next several hours being pampered with massages, facials, manicures, and pedicures. I was completely relaxed, a welcome relief after the heartache I'd had recently.
Vanessa, however, seemed to get more tense the longer we were there, and by the time we finished, she had begged off on joining us for the cookout.
"Could you just drop me back off at my place? I think I'm getting a migraine and I just need a quiet night at home," she said with a pinched expression on her now pale face.
"Oh, of course, you poor thing. I knew you didn't look good today," I said. "Please call us if you need anything. I can have David run some dinner over to you if you'd like?"
She stiffened a little, and the expression on her face hardened a bit. "No thank you. I don't really feel like eating."
After we dropped her off, Sherry and I continued toward my house. Chris was going to meet us there so he and David could watch the game after we ate. I pulled straight into the garage, and we entered through the mud room. I called out for David as we walked into the kitchen but got no answer.
Looking around at the breakfast dishes still sitting on the table, I groaned. A quick glance into the laundry room revealed the load of wet towels still in the washer. I called a little louder for David, grumbling to Sherry when he still didn't answer.
"Oh, that man! I swear, if he's still out on that boat I'm going to smack him upside the head. He promised me he would be back and cleaned up in time to grill those steaks, but it doesn't look like he's set foot in this house all day."
Sherry snorted and shook her head. "You know how men are. I swear they do this shit on purpose, so we don't ask them to help the next time."
I laughed in agreement as I walked over to look out the back door toward the lake. "Well, his boat is out by the dock so he's not still out on the lake at least."
I picked up my shopping bags and walked toward the staircase. "I'm going to run these upstairs. I assume David is up there getting ready, so I'll try to hurry him along. Nothing like waiting until the last second when you have guests coming for dinner, huh?"
I came back downstairs a few minutes later with a disgruntled huff. "He may not be out on the boat still, but he also hasn't been back here to shower and change by the look of things in our bathroom. The shower stall is bone dry and I don't see the shirt he was wearing this morning."
"Maybe he ran over to the neighbor's house?" Sherry suggested.
I shook my head. "The only neighbors we have within half a mile are the Carson's, and they left last week for a month-long trip to Europe to celebrate his retirement."
I tried calling him, but his cell phone went to voice mail after several rings. I left a quick message, then texted him but got no response. I tossed the phone on the table and opened the refrigerator.
"I'm sure he'll show up soon. His car is here so he didn't go far." Sherry and I started getting the food ready while we waited for our husbands to arrive.
Chris got there about twenty minutes later, as I was on the back deck firing up the grill to get it ready for the steaks. I heard Sherry telling him that David wasn't around and hadn't answered his phone. I'd called three more times, and the text message I'd sent still said 'delivered' so it hadn't been read.
"OK, this is getting a little ridiculous," I said as I turned the grill off and walked back inside. "I'm going to go look for him. Maybe he took a walk in the woods and lost track of time? Or he's walking around the lake for some reason? It's the only thing I can think of."
Chris and Sherry joined me, and we split up, each heading a different direction into the wooded trails that surrounded our house on the front and sides. We called out for him, but after ten minutes or so, I headed back toward the house. Sherry met me at the side of the house, and we both turned to look for Chris. He was standing on the dock looking at the boat, then looked out over the water.
He called out to us, concern filling his voice, and we both hurried over to him.
"Lila, I can see his phone laying on the floorboard of the boat. The rope at the front of the boat is half untied from the mooring cleat on the dock. David wouldn't have left it like this." He swallowed tightly, "I hate to say this, but I think we need to call the police."
Chapter 2: Sorry For Your Loss
