The Daylight Marriage Read Online Free

Hannah’s hairbrushes, “one full of hair, if you’ve got it.” Duncan said that a bracelet, maybe hers, had turned up. A hairbrush? A bracelet? Lovell had thought that this was beginning to sound more like an investigation than a search effort.
    Now Duncan said, “Just so you know, we found the bracelet on a beach in South Boston.”
    â€œSouthie?”
    â€œYep,” he said. “Carson Beach. Be right back . . .” He left Lovell alone.
    Lovell dropped his eyes to the eggplant-colored carpet. The room was still. He had the sensation of standing alone in the eye of a storm. Every second of this grew stranger and more unnerving. He thought for some reason of Boston University and Doug Bowen. Neither had anything to do with South Boston, as far as he knew.
    Lovell had given Hannah several bracelets over the years. Had she gone for a walk and, thinking back on that last night, decided to heave one of them into the ocean?
    Duncan returned and handed Lovell a heavy plastic bag with a bracelet inside. The silver links, the small amber beads. He had gotten her this one for their last wedding anniversary. Lovell’s mouth went dry. The detective waited, his thumbs dug into his pants pockets.
    Lovell set the bag on the desk. “Yes,” he finally said.
    â€œAny reason she might have been in Southie?”
    â€œI was just trying to figure that out. We don’t know anyone there.”
    Duncan made his mouth impossibly small and clapped his hands together. “One of the girls at the flower store? Hannah called her to say she was running late for work because Janine was home sick.”
    â€œJanine wasn’t home sick,” Lovell said.
    â€œWe know. Hannah made the call from Boston,” the detective said. “You look a little sick yourself, Mr. Hall.”
    Lovell blinked. “Please call me Lovell. I have no idea where my wife is right now. I’m standing here in a police station identifying her bracelet. So yes, I don’t feel so well. Do you have people searching South Boston?”
    â€œCan you give me your best guess why Hannah might have driven herself to Carson Beach?”
    â€œI honestly—I’m telling the truth—I have no idea,” Lovell said. The argument might explain some part of what was going on right now but certainly not everything. “I assume you checked with her sister? Her parents?”
    â€œWe did.”
    â€œI know you talked to her friend Sophie. None of them knew anything?”
    â€œNot a thing.” Duncan cleared his throat. “Jeez, you really are tall. I guess Hannah’s tall too for a woman, but not as big as you are.”
    Lovell almost wished this man would come out and accuse him of something.
    If he admitted that they’d had an explosive exchange the night before she left, if Lovell admitted that Hannah may well be off somewhere planning her next move, deciding whether to even stay married to him, the police would probably halt their search. If they had even begun it. He would rather have them drag her back home to him than leave her alone out there, pissed off or defeated or distressed and vulnerable in some place that might not be all that safe.
    â€œAny other insights you can give us?” Duncan asked.
    â€œI guess not,” Lovell finally said.
    â€œNeed you to sign this,” the detective said, beginning to shuffle through a stack of papers on his desk. He handed Lovell a ballpoint pen and a clipboard that held a triplicate form onto which his alibi had been typed. He had been at work during the time Hannah disappeared, save the twenty minutes he went out to grab lunch and the brief time later when he had to get something he had left in his car. Lovell signed his name. Duncan muttered his thanks and told him they would be in touch.
    THAT EVENING, ETHAN came and crawled onto his father’s lap on the couch, though he hardly fit anymore. “Come sit with us?” Lovell