I love how these wipers go on automatically! Dad, this car is sick!
Jake wished to God he had said no. If he had, none of this would have happened, Kathleen would be alive, and his son would be happy and carefree. As it was, Ryan was upstairs hiding in his room and getting ready for bed, so he’d be asleep by the time Pam got home. It was the only way he could avoid her cross-examination about the flu, his homework, or how he’d spent the evening.
Suddenly there was a commotion at the front door, and Moose scampered off, barking toward the entrance hall. Jake worried that it could be the police and hurried from the kitchen.
“Honey!” Pam burst through the front door, alive with excitement. She tossed her car keys, little purse, and black shawl on the console table, and Moose wagged his tail frantically.
“Hey, hi!” Jake tried to recover. “You’re home early.”
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Pam closed the door behind her. “I’ve been calling and calling!”
“I didn’t hear it, sorry.” Jake must have forgotten about his phone in the rental car. “What’s up? How come you didn’t park in the garage?”
“I didn’t bother, I’m in a rush! Where’s Ryan?” Pam was already heading for the stairwell, her high heels clacking on the hardwood. “Ryan, come down! Come downstairs!”
Jake didn’t like what was going on. This wasn’t the way he planned it at all. “He might be asleep, honey. He wasn’t feeling well—”
“Oh please. He’s been on the phone for the past hour.” Pam took off her high heels and placed them on one of the steps, to be taken upstairs. “Enough with the shoes. Showtime’s over.”
“Mom, what do you want?” Ryan called from his room upstairs.
“Come down, right now!”
“I’m in bed!”
“Come down, this is important!” Pam rolled her eyes and looked at Jake with a knowing smile. “He must be talking to the girl. I checked online and he’s on G-chat, too. Did he do his homework?”
“Some of it, I think.” Jake began to worry, wondering who Ryan was talking to on the phone and online. “He didn’t feel well.”
“He has a French vocab test on Tuesday, so he has to study in advance because of the playoffs.”
“Aw, cut him a break. He’s sick. He slept most of the evening.” Jake marveled that his wife always had Ryan’s schedule in the back of her mind, running on a parallel track with her own.
“Were you born yesterday?” Pam snorted good-naturedly. “He may have been in his room, but if he was on the phone and G-chatting, he wasn’t studying or sleeping.”
“It’s hard to focus when you don’t feel well.”
“Mom, what’s going on?” Ryan appeared at the top of the stairway and walked down slowly, running his hand along the banister and blinking against the bright lights of the hanging fixture in the entrance hall. His hair was messy, and he was dressed for bed in a maroon Chasers Nation T-shirt and pajama pants.
“Come down, I want to talk to you and your dad.” Pam beamed up at him, but Ryan avoided her eye as he descended the stairs, and Jake wanted to give him the heads-up.
“Ryan, Mom says you’ve been on the phone, but I thought you were asleep. You playing possum, buddy?”
“Nah, sorry.” Ryan looked away, and Pam threw open her arms when he reached the floor and gave him a big hug.
“I’m sorry you don’t feel well, honey. But humor me and come into the kitchen. I really need to talk to you and your dad.”
“What about?” Ryan asked, his tone offhand, as Pam released him from her embrace, took him by the arm, and led him into the kitchen in her stocking feet, with Jake and Moose behind.
“I have amazing news, truly amazing.”
“Great, Mom,” Ryan said, but Jake looked past his son’s shoulder to the TV on the counter, where the local news had just begun and the top story was being reported.STUDENT KILLED IN HIT-AND-RUN, read a lurid red banner across the screen, and an attractive African-American anchorwoman was saying, “A tragic story is first up tonight. A teenage jogger identified as Kathleen Lindstrom was struck and killed in Concord Chase last night, while running on Pike Road. Police believe the vehicle struck the jogger, then fled the scene…”
Jake crossed the kitchen to turn off the TV, but Pam grabbed his arm, beaming.
“Honey, sit down. Ryan, you, too. You have to hear this.”
“I was just about to turn off the TV—”
