* * *
We hurried down the block and got in the car. The hotel was five minutes from the interstate. I stopped and filled up on gas, and then hit the interstate heading south. We drove in silence until we crossed the North Carolina state border.
“It’s a good six hours to Savannah, so catch up on sleep if you need to,” I said.
Bear said nothing. He stared out the window. His elbow propped on the door sticking out the open window.
I reached inside my jacket and traced the edges of the envelope Jessie left me. I wondered what the letter said. Probably the same things she said five years ago when we split up for good. Although, for good didn’t mean forever. She even told me that. And I thought that maybe for good ended now. Apparently not, though. I needed to talk to her. To find out if it would make a difference if I left the military and became a cop or a firefighter or anything other than what I was now.
“Did she say anything?” I asked.
“Who?”
“Jessie. Did she say anything at all that gave you any indication she was leaving?”
“Nah. She just slipped out in the middle of the night.”
I turned the wheel, adjusting to the curve in the road and said nothing.
“Maybe once we’re done you should go back to Virginia.”
“Think she went home?”
Bear shook his head. “After what’s happened? I doubt it, man. She probably got on a bus, went to the airport and picked a destination.”
“That’s how she ended up in Virginia.”
“I remember, Jack.”