Among the Missing Read Online Free Page B

some kind of
wife
, a negligible figure whom he expected to serve him. He seemed to like the children best, and of course they were very attached to him as well. They liked to show him off to their friends, and to repeat his funny sayings. He liked to ride on their shoulders, edging sideways, lifting his wings lightly, for balance.
    Occasionally, as they walked around with him, he wouldlaugh in that horrible way. “Haw, haw, haw!” he would squawk, and the children loved it.
    But she herself was often uncomfortable with the things Wild Bill said. For example, he frequently said, “Hello, sexy,” to their eight-year-old daughter, Jodie. There was something lewd in the macaw’s voice, Cheryl felt, a suggestiveness she found troubling. She didn’t think it was appropriate for a child to hear herself called “sexy,” especially since Jodie seemed to respond, blushing—flattered.
    “Hello, sexy,” was, of course, one of Wendell’s sayings, along with “Good God, baby!” and “Smell my feet!” both of which were also part of Wild Bill’s main repertoire. They had subsequently become catchphrases for her children. She’d hear Evan, their six-year-old, out in the yard, shouting “Good God, baby!” and then mimicking that laugh. And even Tobe had picked up on the sophomoric retort “Smell my feet!” It bothered her more than she could explain. It was silly, but it sickened her, conjuring up a morbid fascination with human stink, something vulgar and tiring. They repeated it and repeated it until finally, one night at dinner, she’d actually slammed her hand down on the table. “Stop it!” she cried. “I can’t stand it anymore. It’s ruining my appetite!”
    And they sat there, suppressing guilty grins. Looking down at their plates.
    How delicate she was! How ladylike! How prudish!
    But there was something else about the phrase, something she couldn’t mention. It was a detail from the series of rapes thathad occurred in their part of the state. The assaulted women had been attacked in their homes, blindfolded, a knife pressed against their skin. The first thing the attacker did was to force the women to kneel down and lick his bare feet. Then he moved on to more brutal things.
    These were the crimes that Wendell had been convicted of, three months before. He had been convicted of only three of the six rapes he was accused of, but it was generally assumed that they had all been perpetrated by the same person. He was serving a sentence of no less than twenty-five years in prison, though his case was now beginning the process of appeals. He swore that he was innocent.
    And they believed him—his family, all of them. They were all determined that Wendell would be exonerated, but it was especially important to Tobe, for Tobe had been Wendell’s lawyer. Wendell had insisted upon it—“Who else could defend me better than my brother?” he’d said—and Tobe had finally given in, had defended Wendell in court, despite the fact that he was a specialist in family law, despite the fact that he had no experience as a criminal attorney. It was a “no-brainer,” Tobe had said at the time. “No jury would believe it for a second.” She had listened, nodding, as Tobe called the case flimsy, “a travesty,” he said, “a bumbled investigation.”
    And so it was a blow when the jury, after deliberating for over a week, returned a guilty verdict. Tobe had actually let out a small cry, had put his hands over his face, and he was still in a kind of dizzied state. He believed now that if he had only recused himself, Wendell would have been acquitted. It had affected him, it had made him strange and moody and distant. Itfrightened her—this new, filmy look in his eyes, the drinking, the way he would wander around the house, muttering to himself.
    She felt a sort of hitch in her throat, a hitch in her brain. Here he was, laughing with Jodie and Evan, his eyes bright with amusement as she slammed her hand down. She