The Divide by Nicholas Evans Read Free Book Online

on the couch, reading Treasure Island and breathing the warm, sweet smell of him, another man’s child he had come to love as his own. The boy was nearly eight but small and skinny and looked younger. The hummingbirds never came and when it was dark Ben carried him slack and sleeping to his bed.
    It was Eve who answered when Kendrick called. And Ben knew from her face and from her voice what kind of call it was. She handed him the phone and muted the TV. She sat up and swung her legs out of the bed and Ben reached out to try to make her stay. She always moved away and found something to do when his other life called. When he had once mentioned this she said it was only to give him space, but he suspected it was also to protect herself. She whispered now that she would make them some tea and be right back.
    Special Agent Dean Kendrick worked out of Denver and had become Ben’s main contact with the FBI. There had been others with whom he had talked during the past three and a half years that Abbie had been on the run and many more, he was sure, who had watched him and followed him and bugged his phones and e-mails and monitored his bank accounts, faceless men and women who probably knew more about his habits than he did himself.
    The ones whose names he knew and whom he had called for news every few weeks were civil enough though rarely friendly. But Kendrick was different. He seemed genuinely sympathetic and had almost become a friend, though Ben had only ever met him once. They even called each other by their first names now. Maybe he was just better at his job than the others. He certainly made Ben feel more at ease and, of course, if he felt that way, he might more likely let something slip, some secret snippet of information that might help them catch and convict his daughter. Ben only wished he had such a secret.
    “Ben, how’re you doing?”
    “I’m fine. How are you doing?”
    “I’m okay. Do you have someone with you?”
    It seemed an odd question, given that he’d just spoken with Eve.
    “Yeah. We’re just watching a movie. Why?”
    “I’ve got some news. About Abbie. They were going to get one of our guys in Albuquerque to drive up and tell you in person but I thought you’d rather hear it from me.”
    He paused. Ben was way ahead of him.
    “I’m afraid it’s not good news.”
    But still his heart chimed. What was good news or bad news when it came to Abbie? And good or bad for whom? She hadn’t called any of them—not him, nor Sarah, nor even her brother Josh—in almost three years now. If the FBI had caught her that would surely qualify as good news, wouldn’t it? He swallowed.
    “Uh-huh?”
    “They found her body up on the Front Range in Montana, west of Great Falls. She’d been there awhile. Ben, I’m really sorry.”
    Cary Grant was about to get beaten up by two heavies. He was trying to charm his way out but it wasn’t working. Ben’s brain felt closed. His daughter dead? He could see it almost dispassionately as a concept but it wasn’t something he was going to let into his head. It wasn’t possible. Eve appeared in the doorway with two mugs of green tea. She stopped there and stood very still, her loosened hair raven against the pale of her shoulders, steam curling from the mugs, the candlelight dancing in the creases of her peach satin robe. Watching with those still brown eyes, knowing.
    “What kind of condition . . .”
    Ben couldn’t allow himself to finish the thought. His little girl decaying, a carcass picked at by savage animals. No.
    “I mean, are you sure it’s her?”
    “A hundred percent. Fingerprints and DNA. Ben, I’m so sorry.”
    There was a long silence. Ben felt as if he were watching his world unhinge and twirl slowly away from him. Eve put down the tea and came to sit beside him on the bed. She laid a cool arm around his shoulders. Kendrick waited and when Ben was ready they talked some more. About practical things, from which Ben began to fashion a