The Grave Between Us by Tal Bauer

Chapter Seventeen

By the timethey got back, it was almost time for Noah to pick Katie up from cheer practice. He gave Jacob his car keys, took his own keys back from Cole, and gave Cole the keys for one of the handful of cars Sophie had pulled for Director King and his team.

There was a sticky note on Cole’s computer monitor that said, You’re with me. King. Cole sighed and headed for the conference room. When Noah looked, he saw the door was open and no one else was in there, so he took the opportunity for a few more minutes with Cole. “Where is everyone?”

“King stays moving. He hates staying still during an investigation. He’ll keep the others on the move, too. Running down leads, chasing tips, working old files… anything to keep momentum going,” Cole said as he powered on his laptop. “Remember when I was running around the country?”

“I do. I’m glad you don’t anymore.”

Cole smiled. “Me, too.”

King and his team had been busy. Maps of the US, Iowa, and Des Moines lined one wall, and what looked like every whiteboard in the Des Moines office covered the wall of windows overlooking the parking lot. One of the whiteboards, in fact, looked suspiciously like the one from Noah’s office. He frowned.

He stayed with Cole as long as he could, searching the greater Des Moines area and then the central Iowa region, making lists of parks and rivers, lakes and waterways. There were more than he expected. Water storage tanks for farms and drainage ditches carved into the countryside might not be Ingram’s top choices, but Cole said they couldn’t rule them out entirely.

When he had to leave, he kissed Cole hard before heading out with Jacob. “Come home soon,” he told Cole. “I’ll order a pizza for us.”

He picked up Katie, and they swung by their favorite pizza place. He texted Cole the whole drive, checking his phone at every red light and stop sign. Katie was talking at him, what felt like a recitation of every moment of her weekend before updating him on school gossip and the ongoing dramas of her friend group. He nodded his way through it, throwing in an occasional “Oh yeah?” or “Wow” for variety.

Pizza picked up, he texted Cole. Got your favorite. On the way?

In a few. I want to organize everything we found into search zones for tomorrow.

Okay. Don’t take too long. ILY

ILY too. He got a heart and a blowing kiss emoji.

No update from Cole by the time they got home, so he texted, Should we eat without you?

Yeah, Cole texted. Sad emoji. I think I can eliminate some of these parks, but I think I can also put some at the top of the search list. I need a little more time here.

He and Katie ate in the kitchen, and then they struggled through her math homework together. Katie kept asking when Cole was getting home, her questions turning to whines as she got grumpy with Noah, with her homework, and with life in general. By the time they switched to chemistry, Katie was grumbling under her breath and Noah was ready to walk away. He wasn’t the one in chemistry class. He’d graduated high school long ago. But he stuck it out, and eventually, the homework was complete.

Cole still wasn’t home by eleven. At a quarter past, Katie suddenly remembered she had to do her laundry, specifically her cheer uniform for the pep rally in the morning. Of course, the uniform she needed—“It’s the home jersey, Dad! The home jersey. The blue one. How can you not remember what it looks like?”—was nowhere to be found, and they spent ten minutes tearing apart her bedroom, flinging piles of dirty clothes left and right. Katie threw herself down onto her bed, bemoaning life and laundry and asking where Cole was for the thousand-and-first time.

“Go take a shower,” Noah told her, sagging against her bedroom doorframe. “I’ll start your laundry, and I’ll check downstairs for your uniform.”

He grabbed her hamper—and there was her uniform, crumpled against the wall like a run-down cartoon character mashed into the carpet. Sighing, Noah put it on top of her dirty clothes. He turned his brain off as he loaded the washer, refusing to acknowledge the grown-up look to Katie’s underwear and bras. What happened to his little girl?

Katie was apologetic after her shower, giving him a long, tight hug. She smelled like coconut bodywash and shampoo, and her damp hair soaked his shirt, but he held on, breathing her in. “I found your uniform,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “It’s in the wash.”

“Is Cole on the way?”

He sighed. “Let’s text him.”

He texted, and Katie texted, and then they waited. Katie heard back first: I’m so sorry :( and I had to work late, but I’ll come give you a kiss when I get home. We can have breakfast together. Noah got I’m sorry, hon and I can’t stop yet. Not if it means we’re closer to finding Ian, and Kerrigan.

I don’t want you driving late alone.

I’ll call you when I’m leaving.

I want to radio for a WDMPD unit to escort you home, too.

Okay.

Noah tucked Katie into bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She had her phone in her hand and was checking her text messages every minute. “Let Cole work, sweetie,” he said, kissing her hair. “He’ll be home soon.”

He left her watching her phone on the nightstand, her eyes illuminated by the glow of the screen, her blanket pulled up over her mouth and nose.

He switched her laundry to the dryer and then grabbed a beer and collapsed on the couch. Katie’s textbooks and homework were still spread across the kitchen table. Her shoes were on the floor, her backpack open and spilling papers and makeup and colored pencils all over the tile. His iPad was on the coffee table, and Cole’s watch was next to his copy of the New Yorker, a magazine he’d read in DC and couldn’t give up, even though there was no chance of him grabbing a weekend performance of whatever off-Broadway show was featured in the reviews or heading to the city for the latest and greatest food truck or hideaway bar. Sometimes, Noah felt bad about that. Cole had such a rich life on the East Coast. He could get to Manhattan or Philadelphia in hours, could fill himself to the brim with culture.

Now, Noah took him out for taco pizza, and when it warmed up, they were planning on catching a game at Principal Park, the best minor league stadium in America. Come summer, there was the state fair, of course. But for all the botanical gardens and art parks the city had installed, Des Moines couldn’t compete with DC or New York. Did Cole miss that? Was this the life he’d imagined? A moody teenager, a middle-aged dad, a house backing up to a cornfield and a swath of woods?

He tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. Listened to the clock’s ticktock. His phone rested on his thigh, and as he waited for Cole’s call, his eyelids got heavier and heavier, eventually falling shut and staying closed.

His thoughts, as he fell asleep, drifted from the real to the imaginary. He remembered Cole on one knee, like he’d been Christmas morning, this time in a field of sunflowers. Marry me, Cole said. Marry me, Noah. I want forever.

I want forever, too, he whispered. He tried to reach for Cole, take his hand, but every time he tried, Cole seemed farther and farther away, the field expanding between them. The sunflowers rose, growing taller than Cole, hiding him. Noah tried to push through the stalks, grown thick like corn, but the harder he searched, the farther away Cole seemed to be. I want forever, he heard like an echo.

And then the field withered, the stalks turning from vibrant green to desiccated brown, the flowers wilting and fading, the blooms falling to the ground, withered and brittle before they landed. He was left in an empty field, miles and miles of death around him, the world decaying and no Cole in sight. I want forever whispered on a frigid wind that caressed his cheeks.

He tried to scream Cole’s name, tried to run in every direction, searching for his lover.

Death is forever, Noah.