“You know a man named James Hubbel? A deputy sheriff for the County of Los Angeles.”

“Mr. Hubbel is my father-in-law.”

“He’s concerned about his daughter. He got in touch with my sergeant. Thought I’d come out and make sure she’s okay. Is she here?”

“No.”

“No? Where is your wife, Mr. Jackson?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“You can’t? Why can’t you?”

“I don’t know where she is. She left me. Never said where she was going. Has Mr. Hubbel filed some kind of complaint against me? Is there a missing persons case?”

Rappaport’s big ears seemed to move back like a dog’s.

“How long ago?” he asked.

“Five days now.”

“So you’re all choked up about this, huh?” asked Officer Buzas.

Ray stared at him. Rappaport coughed, eyeing Ray almost apologetically, as if he too was disturbed by Buzas’s bluntness.

If they had a warrant, they would have pushed him aside and would be searching his home right now. Ergo, this was an exploratory visit, the first aside from that unofficial one from Leigh’s father, and not entirely unexpected.

He said, “I understand Mr. Hubbel’s concern, and I wish my wife would call her folks and say she’s okay. But isn’t it fairly common, spouses separating? One leaving the home? Not telling her husband where she’s gone to get her life together or whatever? I mean, she’s a grown woman. She can go where she wants, can’t she?” He couldn’t keep anxiety from creeping into his voice.

“Where would she go?” asked Rappaport.

The ultimate question they had come to ask. Ray scratched beside his mouth with a sharp fingernail. “No idea.”

“When did you last see her?” asked Buzas.

“Late Friday night, as I said. We had some painful things to discuss. She”-he thought back to that night, struggling against emotion-“walked out. She didn’t tell me where she would go.”

“What time was this?” Only now did Ray realize that Officer Buzas was taking notes.

“About nine. I don’t know. Maybe ten.”

“What did she take with her?”

He thought. “A flowered carpetbag she uses for overnight trips. She must have packed that. Some jewelry, I noticed later. Underwear, I assume. Some of her toiletries are missing from the bathroom.”

“I would have tried to stop her,” Officer Buzas said, looking at his partner.

Ray said nothing.

“What was the subject of this fight?” Rappaport asked.

“I didn’t say we fought.”

“Okay. What painful things did you discuss?”

“Obviously, it was about problems in our marriage.”

“You seeing someone else, Mr. Jackson?”

“No, no.”

“What about her?”

“We were just-I’ve been working hard, and she was upset.”

“What have you done to try to make contact with her?”

“Nothing. I think she just wants to have a few days to herself, to cool off.”

“She hasn’t contacted her workplace for three days running,” Rappaport said. “Mr. Jackson, do you want us to find your wife? Because you’re acting mighty strange, if you do.”

“Look, check me out. I’ve never been arrested, never done anything. I’m not a drug addict or alcoholic. I’m just a man whose wife left him.”

“After a violent fight.”

“I never said we were violent.”

“How long did this fight go on? You have these fights often?”

“It wasn’t a fight! It was just-” He stopped, his mouth open, then said, “Look, is this a missing persons case?”

“Like I said, we’re doing a welfare check.”

“An informal welfare check because her father’s a cop. I understand.” Informal because this isn’t your case yet, Ray thought.

“You could make it a missing persons case. The father, he knows she’s an adult; it’s been a few days, he’s worried, but we can’t open a case based on that. But if you come down to the Topanga station and say your wife has disappeared, we’ll find her for you.”

“I’m not sure I want to do that. She said she was leaving me and she left. She doesn’t want to talk to me right now; that’s clear.”

“You want her back?” Officer Buzas said. Ray didn’t like the way he leaned against the door frame, looking like he didn’t believe a word Ray was saying.

“I love her, if that’s what you want to know,” Ray said. “I hope when she comes back, that we will be able to work through our problems. I’m afraid to track her down and drag her back when that’s not what she wants right now. I’m not sure what to do.”

“You don’t want us even to check on her welfare?”

“I didn’t say that. Look, I just don’t feel I can help right now, but I will definitely ask for your help if she is gone much longer.”

“Deputy Hubbel doesn’t believe his daughter would leave of her own free will and not contact her mother even once.”

“It’s only been five days, detectives.” Ray felt very tired. He wanted to be cooperative, but what could he tell them? That they had been fighting over Martin? Wouldn’t that make them even more suspicious?

Suddenly he felt the full enormity of his situation. It was like getting knocked down into a dark well, nobody else there, just him, the deep cold water, and slick, black walls he could never climb. These men weren’t here to conduct a little question-and-answer session. They suspected him of hurting his wife.

“We’d like to come inside and look around the place. You don’t have anything to hide, right? And it might help us locate Leigh.”

“No,” Ray said.

The younger cop seemed about to knock against Ray with a shoulder and go in, but Detective Rappaport put a hand on his arm.

“You have no idea where your wife might have gone?” he asked. He was driving Ray crazy with these repeated questions but Ray didn’t dare send them away. He could hear the radio static and the flat-sounding dispatcher’s voice on the loud radio inside their vehicle, and the red light seemed like a little sun that must be attracting the interest of his neighbors on the right.

Without thinking, Ray answered the first thing that came to mind, so innocent-sounding. “She didn’t have many close friends. Maybe my mother’s?” As soon as he said these words, Ray realized his blunder. He had needlessly involved Esmé. “Earlier in the day, Leigh had mentioned speaking with my mother on the phone, so when she left, and we both had had some time to cool off, I thought maybe she had just gone there. I went to my mother’s house just in case she had gone over there.” Lies got so deep so fast.

“Your wife wasn’t there?”

“She hadn’t gone there after all. I stayed-ate something-and when I came home I went to bed. Leigh didn’t come home and she hasn’t come home since.”

When they asked, he gave them Esmé’s address, saying he would call them later with her phone number. He didn’t have it on him. They could probably find out all this information in five minutes, even though her number was unlisted. Why not appear to cooperate while obstructing? He needed to slow them down a bit. He needed to speak to Esmé first.

No doubt they realized that.

“You don’t know your own mother’s phone number?”

“Not offhand.” He didn’t believe himself, either. “Look. Put it on the record. I didn’t hurt my wife, period,” Ray said. “I was bitterly disappointed in how things were going with our marriage, okay? I admit that. Now, I have to go. Good night.” Ray went into his house and shut the door. It took all his strength to do that, and every moment he expected a hand to come out to smack the door open.

Ray observed the detectives on his monitor. They talked to each other. Finally they got into their loud bright police car and drove away. He sank down to the floor and didn’t move for a minute. He spent the next several minutes berating himself, profanely and out loud.

Then he called Esmé. “Mom, two police detectives just left here.”

“What? Why?”

“Jim Hubbel asked them to check on Leigh.”

“Oh, no. The police. This is terrible, Ray. She still hasn’t gone in to work?”