What Follows After: A Novel (16 page)

Gina couldn’t believe the atmosphere at the grocery store or the prices. “Look at that, Rose, hamburger forty-five cents a pound. It was thirty-five cents when I went shopping here three days ago.”

“And did you see the pork chops?” Rose said. “Seventy-five cents a pound. That’s up over a nickel since the weekend.”

“I have half a mind to put all this stuff in my cart back and go to another store,” Gina said. “I think they’ve marked all the prices up because of this Cuba thing.”

“Probably gonna be the same everywhere else,” Rose said.

“Look at all the people. You’d think the food was gonna run out by tomorrow.” Gina walked beside Rose as they made their way down the meat aisle.

“I wonder if it is,” Rose said. “You think they announced something new over the radio this morning? Maybe we missed it.”

“I don’t think so.” Just then a middle-aged woman pushed her cart past them. “Excuse me, ma’am,” Gina said. “Why are there so many people in the store shopping now?”

The woman slowed but didn’t stop. “Didn’t you hear the president last night? Or read the papers this morning? We could be at war with the Russians in a few days. My husband says they could be firing nuclear missiles at us at any moment.”

“But they wouldn’t bomb here,” Rose said. “Not Daytona Beach.”

“Maybe not. But they could bomb the Cape, and the fallout could certainly reach here. And what do you think will happen if they bomb all the major cities on the East Coast? People are saying the economy could shut down completely . . . for weeks, or even months.” The woman started pushing her cat faster. “Excuse me, I’ve got to keep going.”

Rose and Gina stopped and looked at each other. “You think we should buy some more things?” Rose said.

“I don’t know,” Gina said. “I can’t imagine that really happening. Did you listen to what the president said last night? We had the TV on, but I was so distracted I don’t remember most of it.”

“We did listen to it, on the radio in the car. It sounded pretty serious, but I didn’t think he was saying we were going to war. Mike said he was saying it could happen, not that it will.”

“Maybe people are just panicking and overreacting like they always do. They did it two years ago when Hurricane Donna came through. The grocery shelves were bare.”

“You’re probably right,” Rose said. “But still, maybe just to be safe, we should buy some extra things. You know, just the necessary stuff. Even if they’re wrong, all this panic buying could cause a food shortage by itself.”

Then Gina remembered. “I can’t, I didn’t bring any extra money. Just enough for a few things.”

“Well, we did, Mike and I. Let me help out.”

“I can’t let you do that. You’re our guests.”

“Don’t be silly, Gina. This isn’t like some planned vacation. You and Scott weren’t expecting us. C’mon, I insist.”

They stood there looking at each other. “Okay,” Gina said. “I guess that would be all right. For now. But I’ll pay you back when we get to the house.”

Rose started moving the cart forward. “You’ll do no such thing.”

“Do you want to split up, so we can get done faster?” Gina didn’t like being gone from the house that long.

“We could, but then we couldn’t talk. And you know what will happen when we get home. The guys will be there, including Colt. And then we’ll have to start fixing dinner.”

Gina walked back and picked up another pound of ground beef and put it into the cart. “Is there something specific you wanted to talk about?” She hoped it wasn’t about Scott’s cheating. She couldn’t talk about that without breaking down or getting angry.

“Kind of,” Rose said. She hesitated. “I told Mike about . . . you know, what Scott did . . . at the party. What you saw.”

Gina stiffened up but kept walking.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I felt he needed to know. I mean, it sounds like it’s the main reason you two aren’t together anymore. Which sounds like the main reason the boys ran away.”

“Do you two talk about everything?” Gina tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice, but she couldn’t help feeling a little betrayed. She had assumed what she shared was just something between them. She walked over and picked up a package of chicken breasts.

“Pretty much,” Rose said. “Certainly about important things. I’m guessing you and Scott don’t? I don’t mean just since he moved out. I’m talking about when you were together. You guys didn’t talk about things? You know, how you’re feeling, the things that bother you . . . or bother him.”

Gina could hardly believe the question. She and Scott never talked like that, and she didn’t know any other wives who talked with their husbands about things like that, either. Everyone knew men didn’t share their feelings, even with each other. “Let’s head down this aisle. I want to pick up some cans of tuna.”

Rose waited for a woman to pass then turned the cart to the right. “I guess you didn’t like that question?”

“It’s not that, Rose. Scott and I didn’t have that kind of relationship. We never have. For one thing, we hardly ever got to see each other. For most of our first two years together, he was off in Korea. You knew that. Then when he got home, he wanted to finish college. He got this idea that he had to do it himself. He wouldn’t take his father’s money and go full-time. His dad even offered to help us with room and board, not just tuition. But Scott said no. Instead he worked full-time and went to night school for seven years on the GI Bill, while I sat home alone trying to be the good little housewife and mother.” Look what that got me, she thought. Now they were separated, she was working full-time, and her little boy was—

“Why wouldn’t Scott let his father help him?” Rose said.

“He said, for one thing, the help came with strings. His father would only pay if he went into business and finance, like Scott’s brothers. Scott wanted to pursue engineering.”

“Okay, but didn’t he graduate three years ago?” Rose said.

“Yes,” Gina said, reaching for the cans of tuna. She waited a moment to continue until a woman with a toddler in her cart got far enough away. “Nothing changed after he graduated. I thought it would. The whole time he was going to night school he promised me it would. But right after he graduated, he started working at GE. Then it was all about climbing up the ladder as quickly as he could. He hated being the low man on the totem pole, having to listen to all these younger guys who went to college right out of high school and graduated several years ahead of him. So once again, he’s leaving me alone night after night, getting home late, so he can impress all his bosses and get promotions.” Gina pointed to a jar of mayonnaise. “Of course, now I don’t even know if that was true.”

“If what was true?” Rose put the mayonnaise jar in the cart.

“Why he got home late each night, once he started working
at GE. It was probably just a lie, to cover up his affair with that redhead.” She looked down the aisle. “We should probably get another loaf of bread, or maybe two. Of course, it’ll probably just go stale before we can eat the second one.”

“I’m sorry, Gina. I didn’t mean to bring all this up. Mike and I just want to help you while we’re here, if we can. I kind of knew all the things you just told me, not about the part about Scott cheating but about him being too busy all the time and you being so lonely. I could tell something was wrong every time we’d visit from Savannah. I even talked to Mike about it.”

Of course you did, Gina thought. You and Mike talk about everything.

“The only reason I’m bringing it up is, Mike thinks he can help Scott with this. And since it seems to be at the core of your troubles as a couple, we thought—”

“Help Scott with
what
, Rose?”

“Help Scott see how wrong it is, how wrong it’s been to keep neglecting you, neglecting your relationship all this time. A few years ago, our pastor back home helped Mike understand some things about a husband’s role in the home. He went to a men’s breakfast and completely changed after that. Mike’s even helped some husbands in our church get to a better place in their marriages. And I thought, maybe—”

“Rose, I appreciate what you’re saying and what Mike wants to do. But there’s really no point to it.”

“No point?” Rose said. “It could change everything in your relationship.”

Gina sighed. “No, it can’t,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes. “Can it take the picture out of my mind of my husband in the arms of that redhead? Or hearing her tell me how much they’re in love? Can it bring my little boy home?”

“Are there more bags in the trunk?” Scott asked.

Gina and Rose carried their shopping bags past Scott and Mike standing in the living room. “Quite a few,” Gina said. “Make sure you carry them from the bottom so they don’t rip. The kid who bagged them was in a hurry. He filled some of them too much.”

Scott and Mike headed out the door. “I thought you were just gonna get enough for dinner,” Scott said.

“We were,” Rose yelled. “This is Plan B.”

“What’s Plan B?” Mike said, stopping at the doorway.

“It’s what you do when the world is about to be annihilated,” Rose said, “and you’re afraid you might run out of groceries.”

Mike laughed and so did Scott as he unlocked the trunk. It felt good to laugh, but the feeling didn’t last long.

“Colt?” he heard Gina yell from inside the house. “Colt, where are you?”

He’d better get in there, quick.

“Colt!” She sounded more frantic.

“He’s okay, Gina,” Scott said, running toward the front door. “He’s across the street, at Murph’s house.”

She met him at the doorway. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I walked him over there myself a little while after
you left for the store. Thought it would do him some good to get his mind off things.”

All the panic left her face. “I wish you had told me.”

“I was going to, but you just got home.”

She went back toward the kitchen, and Scott headed back for the grocery bags. He and Mike made several trips back and forth, carrying the overloaded brown bags. When they were done, Mike said, “Are you two going to be fixing dinner for a little while?”

“Yes, we are,” Rose said. “Why, what do you have in mind?”

“Something Scott just said gave me an idea. I think he could use a little fresh air. Thought maybe he and I could take a little walk on the beach. You up for that, Scott?”

Scott walked into the dining area and faced the two women. “I am if it’s okay with Gina.”

Gina looked up from a bag she was unloading. “Sure, go ahead. It’s going to take us at least thirty to forty minutes to fix dinner. Would you mind checking on Colt first, make sure he’s still all right?”

“Sure, I can do that. By the way, the FBI called.” Over the next few minutes, Scott updated Gina. As he did, Rose led Mike out to the driveway, saying she needed to talk to him for a moment. When Scott finished filling Gina in, he joined them out front.

Mike pulled out his car keys. “I’ll drive, if that’s okay with you. I love driving on your beach. I’ve never seen a beach like the one you’ve got here.”

“I thought you were going to take a walk,” Rose said.

“We are,” Mike said, “after we drive a little bit. I just want to get down to that section of sand dunes a few blocks north of here.”

“Well, keep watch of the time,” Rose said.

“And can you pick up Colt on your way home?” Gina said.

Vic and Nate got out of their car in downtown Orlando and hurried into the office building that housed the FBI’s Orlando office. Ed Foster, the special agent in charge as well as Vic and Nate’s boss, had called them in for a special briefing. Not only them but all the agents who worked out of the Orlando office. They rarely met all together this way, so Vic assumed it was something pretty important.

As they entered the room filled with agents and Vic saw the man standing next to their boss, Vic knew his assumptions had been correct.

“Okay, men,” Foster said, “I think everyone’s here that’s supposed to be. I’ll get a memo out to the few agents who couldn’t make this meeting. Needless to say, nothing that is said in this briefing can leave this room. You all know the man standing to my left, Associate Deputy Director Stanley Harbaugh. I’ll let Director Harbaugh take it from here.”

Foster stepped to the side, and Director Harbaugh stepped forward. “Gentlemen, I don’t have to tell you very much about the state of affairs we’re in at this moment. How many of you listened to the president’s speech last night?”

Vic looked around. Every hand was raised.

“Good,” Harbaugh continued. “I can tell you that the federal government has been eyeing this missile situation for almost a week now. The president decided to go public last night because things have reached a critical stage. It is no exaggeration to say we are all in grave danger. By all, I literally mean every man, woman, or child living on the planet right now. As of this moment, we have no indication that the Soviets intend to back down and honor this blockade. I mean quarantine. But I am also reliably informed that the president was not saber rattling in his speech last night. He meant every word. The consequences of doing nothing are unthink
able. But as I see it, the consequences of a major confrontation between us and the Soviets is equally unthinkable.”

Vic looked around the room. There wasn’t a sound other than the director’s voice. Every eye was fixed on his face.

“For the first time in my adult life,” Harbaugh said, “I believe we are on the edge of a nuclear catastrophe. It could actually happen this time, gentlemen. And we don’t have much time. This is not something we can afford to play out over the next few weeks. I’ve been told the Soviets are just days away from their long-range missiles being ready to launch. The president, along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a host of advisors, have decided if the Soviets do not back down before that moment, we must do whatever it takes to stop them.”

“So, we’re talking World War III?” one of the men said.

Harbaugh nodded. “Yes, we are. Part of the reason I’m sharing all of this with you is because the situation is so grave. We think it’s only a matter of time before the general public begins to realize what’s at stake, what we’re really facing here.”

“I think many of them already do, sir,” someone said.

“I’m sure some of them do,” Harbaugh said. “Our job is to help maintain the safety and security of all our citizens . . . even during a time like this. Agent Foster here is holding a stack of special assignments, security matters we have thought through and anticipated back in Washington. And I’m sure a host of things will arise we haven’t anticipated. Each of you needs to take one and look it over carefully before you leave.”

Vic looked over at Agent Foster, who was holding a small stack of paper. His and Nate’s names better not be on that list. He’d already been assured they would be staying on this kidnapping case. Foster noticed him looking his way. He pointed to the stack of assignments and shook his head no. Vic interpreted this to mean they were in the clear.

When the assistant deputy director had finished and asked if there were any questions, Vic decided to be a little bold and raised his hand. “Excuse me, sir. Special Agent Victor Hammond here.”

“Go ahead, Agent Hammond. You have a question?”

“More like a special request, sir.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

Everyone turned and looked his way. “My partner Nate Winters and I are already working on a kidnapping case, a child abduction that happened just north of Jacksonville yesterday afternoon in a diner.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Harbaugh said.

“Thank you, sir. But as you know, if we weren’t in the middle of this major national crisis, this kidnapping would be front and center, and we’d be getting all kinds of help to find this little boy.”

“That’s true.”

“I realize these aren’t normal times,” Vic continued, “but I wonder if I could make an appeal on behalf of this little boy’s family . . . if any of you men find yourselves with any spare time at all in these critical next few days, could you give us a hand? I’ve got my own stack of copies here. A picture of the little boy named Timmy. He’s only six. And a sketch artist’s drawing of the kidnapper. Could you take one of these with you as well? I’m hoping they’ll be in every newspaper in the state by the end of the day or tomorrow morning.”

“We can do that, Agent Hammond,” Harbaugh said. “In fact, why don’t you come up here and take a few minutes to bring us up to date. And Agent Winters can pass out those sketches.”

Vic nodded and handed the stack of paper to Nate as the two of them made their way forward.

“Men?” Harbaugh said. “Do anything you can to help find this little boy. Are there any more questions?”