But finally she realized it was getting late and they had to think about making arrangements to get home, and it was then she realized she hadn’t seen Bennett for a while. When she had gone through the house twice without finding her, she tracked down Robert and drew him aside.
“I don’t want to make too much of this, but I can’t find Bennett Scott,” she advised quietly. From her look, he knew right away this wasn’t good.
He raised and lowered one eyebrow in a familiar Robert gesture. “Maybe she went home.”
“Without Harper?”
He shrugged. “Maybe she got sick. Are you sure she’s not here somewhere? You want me to ask around?”
She wheeled away abruptly and went back downstairs to the rec room. Kneeling next to Harper as the little girl worked to make something out of Play-Doh, she asked if her Mommy was there.
Harper barely looked up. “Mommy go bye-bye.”
Nest felt her throat tighten in panic. “Did she tell you this, Harper? Did she tell you bye-bye?”
Harper nodded. “Yeth.”
Nest climbed back to her feet and looked around helplessly. When had Bennett left? How long had she been gone? Where would she go without taking Harper, without telling anyone, without a car? She knew the answer before she finished the question, and she experienced a rush of anger and despair.
She bounded back up the stairs to find Robert. She would have to go looking, of course—even without knowing where to start. She would have to call John home to watch the children while she took the car and conducted a search.
In a snowstorm where everything was shut down and cars were barely moving? On a night when the wind chill was low enough to freeze you to death?
She felt the futility of what she was proposing threaten to overwhelm her, but she shoved aside her doubts to concentrate on the task at hand. She found Robert coming down the stairs from the second floor, shaking his head.
“Beats me, Nest. I looked everywhere I could think—”
Nest brushed the rest of what he was going to say aside with a wave of her hand. “She’s gone. I got that much out of Harper. She left sometime back. I don’t know why.”
Robert sighed wearily. “But you can guess, can’t you? She’s an addict, Nest. I saw the tracks on her arms.” He shook his head. “Look, I know this is none of my business, but—”
“Don’t start, Robert. Just don’t!” She clenched his wrist so hard he winced. “Don’t lecture me about the company I keep, about Bennett and John Ross and all the strange things happening and how you remember it was just like this fifteen years ago on the Fourth of July! Just warm up your car while I get the children into their coats and boots and then drive us home!”
She let go of his wrist. “Do you think you can manage that?”
He looked mortified. “Of course I can manage it! Geez!”
She leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You’re a good guy, Robert. But you require a lot of maintenance. Now get going.”
The demons bundled Bennett Scott into her parka and took her out of the house and into the night, letting the drugs in her system do the job of keeping her in line. Snow was flying in all directions, the wind was blowing hard, and it was so cold that nose hairs froze, but Bennett Scott was floating somewhere outside her body, barely aware of anything but the pleasant feeling of not really being connected to reality. Every so often, something around her would come sharply into focus—the bite of the wind, the white fury of the snow, the skeletal shadow of a crooked tree limb, or the faces of Findo Gask and Penny Dreadful, one on either side, propping her up and moving her along. But mostly there was only a low buzzing in her ears and a wondrous sense of peace.
Findo Gask had left everything in the house as he found it, closing the front door behind them without locking it. He wanted Nest Freemark to return home without suspecting he had been there, so he had been careful not to do anything that would scare her off. If she grew too cautious, it would spoil the surprise he had left for her.