Five Days in Summer

Smith lurking behind them, notebook poised, but it was just a police car driving toward the back parking lot.
    “Nearly always,” Dr. Bell answered.
    “So we could be no closer than we were yesterday.”
    “Possibly not.” Bell’s eye slid toward the SUV. “They seem to be coping.”
    “I don’t think they’re taking this too well, actually,” Will said. “How could they? She’s their mother.”
    “If things don’t... improve... it will get worse.” Dr. Bell paused to consider Will for a moment before saying, “The children may need counseling.”
    Will nodded, but he knew that in the worst-case scenario no amount of counseling would help his children.
    “I’ll see if I can come up with some names for you on the Cape,” Dr. Bell said. “And in New York.”
    “Fine. Thank you.” Will squeezed the trigger of the driver’s door and it popped open. He wasn’t ready to make plans for after . There was no after. There was only now and before.
    Dr. Bell smiled. “I’ll need a way to reach you.”
    “Of course.” Will slipped a business card out of his wallet. He wrote down his cell number, and Sarah’s number. “You can call on either one.” He got into the SUV, rolled down his window and cranked the engine. He wanted out of the parking lot, away from the police station with all its people who were schooled in expecting the worst, away from the buzzingresidue of Eric Smith. Away. Back to Juniper Pond, where soon Charlie and Val would be arriving to take the boys off the island to the relative safety of home.
    Dr. Bell waved. “I’ll look into it today.”
    The boys buckled themselves up in the backseat as Will reversed out of the parking spot.
    “What exactly is going on, Dad?” David asked.
    Will glanced into the rearview mirror and saw both his sons riveted to it, waiting for their father’s answer. The boys still didn’t know he was sending them away, and wouldn’t until the last minute. He didn’t want any arguments or bright ideas.
    Keep it simple.
    “The police are going to find Mom.”
    Sammie’s face opened in a smile. He relaxed into his seat and looked out the window. But not David. He remained tensed forward, watching Will’s reflected eyes.
    “How do you know?”
    Will pulled over to the side of the road just before it turned onto Route 151 and twisted around to face Sam and David. “They think Mom was taken by someone—”
    “Kidnapped,” David said.
    Will nodded.
    “Why?” The relief vanished from Sammie’s face.
    “I don’t know why,” Will said. “We’ll find out eventually, but right now the thing is just to find her, right, guys?”
    Both boys nodded, a little dazed.
    “They think they know who took her, and they’re following him.”
    “And if they follow him,” David said, “they’ll find her?”
    Will nodded. “They’re going to call the state policeand they’ll also get help from other agencies if they need to.”
    “Like the FBI?” David asked.
    “Like on TV?” Sam.
    Will nodded. “Probably the FBI. They’re like the brains of the whole country. They try to know everything that’s going on, good and bad.”
    “But they can’t, right, Dad?” David said. “Know everything?”
    “They know a lot more than most of us,” Will said, understanding that in their gaps of knowledge, Emily could be lost.
    He turned around and started to drive. For a second he felt himself rise on a current of fear; the peppery swell in his muscles, the collapse in his lungs, the craving for oxygen. He and Emily had prided themselves on sheltering their children as much as they could living in the heart of the city; giving them the richest childhood possible, building their confidence so when the time came to face the world they’d have an inner buffer. Out of thin air they’d invented love, created a family, and in the warmth of their home deciphered meaning from the code of a cynical society. They had succeeded better than anyone had a right to hope for. Until now.
    “Where are we going?” Sammie asked.
    Will felt her hand reach behind his neck, the gentle warmth of her fingertips calming him as he drove. Their voices contained her; she resonated everywhere. She was gone but not gone, living inside his skin.
    “To the hospital.” Will kept driving, kept breathing. “To see Maxi.”
    Sarah was in the waiting area on the pediatric floor, reading a magazine. She looked wretched, Will thought; whatever sleep she’d managed the night beforehad