Eleven Hours. Paullina Simons

NorthPark? She could have been calling from anywhere. She had had a doctor’s appointment at eleven, so perhaps she was at Collin Creek, which was the closest to the doctor and to the Laredo Grill. Rich wished he’d gone with her to the doctor’s as he usually did.

      He called the doctor’s office. The receptionist told him Didi had left at eleven-thirty after her routine weekly checkup. Then the doctor came on the phone and told Rich that Didi had dilated another centimeter to about two, normal for this stage in the pregnancy. Rich asked if Didi had mentioned where she might be heading. The doctor replied that Didi had said she might do a little shopping, but hadn’t said where. Rich hung up.

      Instead of going back to work, he drove to the Collin Creek Mall. His Didi was nothing if not a creature of habit, and whenever they went to the mall – any mall – Didi always parked near Dillard’s. He drove up and down the rows of cars, looking for their new white Town & Country – the Cadillac of all minivans, as the pamphlets had said.

      He thought he’d seen the van several times, but he was wrong.

      Remembering he had a meeting with marketing at three, Rich called his office manager and said he was tied up and couldn’t make it in. She sounded nervous on the phone, and said, ‘But Rich, your meeting.’ And he said to her, ‘But Donna, my wife.’ And hung up without an explanation.

      Then he called home. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well and had gone home to lie down. Totally unlike Didi, but maybe.

      No one answered. The babysitter must be picking Amanda up from school. Rich left a message for Didi to call him as soon as possible at the office. What could he do? He had to believe that Didi was still upset about the fight last night. It was the only explanation.

      But he didn’t believe that. It wasn’t like Didi to pay him back for anything. Even when they fought, she still made him dinner, still went to sleep with him, and she never stood him up if they made plans to meet. Never.

      Unprecedented events worried Rich. He remembered his dad, back in Chicago, every day for twenty-five years coming home from work on the 5.54 PM train. The train was sometimes late, but Richard Wood Sr never missed that train – well, almost never. The day he missed the 5.54 was the day he died.

       1.45 PM

      Didi racked her brain to find something to say to stop the man, stop him before he drove his car out of the parking lot. Hope was a caged bird, and it was caged outside the NorthPark Mall. Once they were out of the lot and on Dallas streets or on the open road, the little bird called hope would flee this man’s car. Didi had to try something now, while there was still a chance. Her mouth was dry and her heart was beating fast as she took a deep breath.

      ‘Listen,’ Didi said. ‘We’re not rich people, but –’ She wanted to cry but wouldn’t let herself. ‘Call my husband. I’m sure he’ll give you money –’

      His soft laugh interrupted her.

      So he was listening. Her words were getting through. Heartened, Didi went on.

      ‘I just want to say, I mean, if you –’ She choked up. ‘If you let me out now, I’ll walk back to my car and I’ll never mention this to anybody. We’ll never see each other again, but, please, couldn’t you just…just let me go?’ Didi’s legs felt clammy. Trying to ease the tension, she rubbed the Belly.

      ‘Tell me, won’t you be sad for us to part and never see each other again?’ he asked.

      What is he talking about? thought Didi. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe he’s made a mistake. Maybe he’s mistaken me for someone else. He acts as if he knows me. A crazy mistake but a mistake. He must think I’m someone who lives in Starwood or in Highland Park. I’m not, I’m not, she wanted to say.

      ‘I’m sorry, do you know who I am?’

      ‘Yes,’ the man said. ‘Fate has brought you to me.’

      Didi felt sick.

      Shaking her head, Didi said tearfully, ‘What does fate have to do with it?’

      ‘Why, everything,’ he said.

      ‘But my husband is waiting for me,’ Didi said. ‘If I don’t come soon, he’s going to get very worried. I know he’ll call the police –’

      ‘We’ll be far away then, ma’am,’ he said.

      Didi’s heart expanded. It felt as if it were going to explode out of her chest. She put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from making a wailing sound.

      So he seemed to have plans for them. He was moving along, traveling somewhere, and she was hurtling with him. By the time Rich was aware she was missing, they’d be far away. Sweet Jesus, what did that mean?

      ‘He’ll get worried right away. I’m never late,’ Didi said. ‘And if I am, I always call.’

      ‘You’re not near a phone,’ he said.

      Didi almost mentioned her cell phone, but stopped herself. So the man hadn’t seen her call Rich at the Warner Bros store. She didn’t want to alert him. Rich would definitely call her. Maybe there was a way to trace the cell phone to where she was. Maybe the phone had some kind of a Didi-homing device. The police could call the number and locate Didi. She kept quiet for a moment while sadness swept through her unsettled stomach.

      ‘I just want to say,’ she tried again, ‘if it’s money you want, I’m sure we can come up with something –’

      He laughed softly again.

      ‘Or,’ Didi tried, encouraged by his smiling. ‘You could let me out.’ She looked at him with hope. ‘There’s no harm done –’

      ‘There is already.’

      ‘No, not really,’ she said quickly, wanting to wipe her mouth. ‘I think you’ve made a mistake. You must think I’m rich, but I’m not really –’

      ‘I don’t think that, ma’am,’ he said.

      She pressed on, ‘But if you continue, then you know, this will be a…a…’ She couldn’t get the awful word out.

      ‘Kidnapping?’

      ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘All you have to do is let me out right here. Please,’ she added. ‘Stop and think, think. Don’t you know that kidnapping is a capital crime? In Texas, I think you get life for it.’

      ‘They’d have to catch me first,’ the man said.

      ‘But they always catch the –’ Didi wanted to say the bad guy.

      ‘Not always,’ he said. ‘Let them try to find us.’

      Didi stared at him, wanting to argue. Not catch the bad guy? That wasn’t possible. They always caught the bad guy.

      Didn’t they?

      ‘What you’re doing,’ she said, ‘It’s –’

      ‘Yes, I know,’ he interrupted, smiling coolly. ‘I’d better take care not to get caught then, hadn’t I?’

      Didi stopped looking at his upturned nose and faced the road. Her mind was frenzied. She tried to make her body outwardly still, but her legs from the knees down were uncontrollable.

      Didi saw he was headed toward US 75.

      As if reading her mind, the man said, ‘Hang on, baby. There is no looking back. Nice try, though. But we’re in it for the long haul. For the whole haul,’ he said in his nasal drawl.

      Didi put her arms around herself and stared ahead. Fear was invading her lungs from the malodorous car every time she inhaled. They made a right onto the expressway service road, and in a few seconds