Read Online Sleep No More by Susan Crandall - Free Book Online Page B

Explorer.
    "He looked for his lost keys in the flour canister. He was in an absolute panic." Her voice held a sad resignation. "Mom had been doing most of the driving. Still, it was so unlike him to get that worked up over something like misplaced keys." She sighed. "I suppose I should have been watching him more closely since she died."
    "They did a lot together, your mom and dad?" he asked.
    "Everything. Since he retired, they even sold the second car."
    Jason nodded, thinking the best specialist for Alzheimer's and dementia was seventy-five miles away from Preston.
    "This is it, on the right." She pointed toward a white two-story with a wide front porch. "Pull in the driveway. His car should be in the garage."
    Jason did as instructed. Abby was out of the car and trotting toward the detached garage before he got his key out of the ignition.
    She opened the side door, leaned in, and popped right back out. "His car's gone," she called as she hurried back toward where Jason stood with his car door still open.
    "Let's check the house anyway to be sure he isn't here," he said.
    "His car is
gone
."
    "What if he loaned it to someone? What if it's in the shop?"
    "Why wouldn't he have told me when I called for a ride?"
    Because he might not have remembered.
"It'll only take a second. Check the house."
    "I don't have a key."
    "Let's make sure the door's locked."
    Looking annoyed, Abby walked over to the back door. Jason followed a few steps behind.
    She gave him a this-is-a-waste-of-time look as she put her hand on the doorknob. That expression changed to surprise when she turned the knob and the door swung open. "He always locks the door."
    "Dad?" she called as she stepped inside.
    A quick search of the house confirmed neither her dad nor his car keys were there.
    They returned to Jason's car and backed down the drive.
    He noticed someone sitting in a gray Chevy Impala across the street and half a block down. "Is that a neighbor?"
    Abby followed his gaze. "I can't see well enough to tell with those tinted windows. I don't recognize the car."
    "Maybe he saw your dad leave." Jason got out. He hadn't taken two strides in that direction when the car pulled away from the curb.
    Jason held up a hand to stop him.
    The car accelerated on past.
    Jason got back in the car with Abby.
    "Maybe he didn't see you," she offered. "Lots of the neighbors are elderly."
    "Maybe."
Only if he was too blind to drive.
    "Take me back to the hospital."
    He looked at her. "Janet is watching for him there. Is there anywhere else he goes on a regular basis?"
    "The post office. The grocery, I guess."
    "We'll check there." He backed the rest of the way out of the drive and headed toward town.
    They didn't find her father's Explorer at either place.
    Jason asked, "Friends?"
    Abby bit her lip. Her toes were tapping against the floorboard and her hands had once again picked up those hospital papers and wrung them into a sweaty pulp. "John and Constance Zeiss are really the only people he's spent any time with since Mom died." She looked at him with wariness. Clearly his ex-mother-in-law had let her opinion of him be known.
    "Hey, it's a public street. We'll drive by and see if his car is there."
    The appreciation in her eyes made it seem as if he was making a Herculean sacrifice. He assured her, "It's okay. Constance hasn't come after me with a rifle... yet." He winked and was rewarded with a smile.
    Tom Whitman's car wasn't at the Zeisses'. At Abby's suggestion, they checked Abby's mom's grave at the cemetery. No luck.
    "I think I should drive you home. You can get cleaned up and...," he stopped, unwilling to finish.
    "What? What are you thinking?"
    "You don't have your cell. Your home number is the only way he, or someone on his behalf, can get in touch with you."
    "On his behalf," she echoed weakly. "You mean the police. You think something's happened to him."
    "It sounds like he's had some confusion already. Sometimes people get disoriented while driving. Sooner