Valentine

A hungover Corrine finds her husband’s pickup truck gone from her garage. In addition, D.A. has gone missing. The commotion brings Mary Rose from across the street. They discover a napkin from the strip joint on the garage floor with the words “Penwell” and “gas station” and “Jesse Belden.” The two surmise that the strange man and the girl have gone off together. Mary Rose asserts that the man who left with D.A. is Dale Strickland. The thought fills her with “rage and purpose” (249). She retrieves her rifle, gets into her sedan, and heads to Penwell. Corrine follows in her Lincoln, certain that her neighbor is confused and hence dangerous: “Hers is the voice of someone whose mind is made up” (252). Certainty, she knows, is “poison” (252). When the two reach Penwell, they pull up to the gas station (the only one) and spot Potter’s pickup truck parked next to another truck.

They see D.A. and Jesse walking together along the railroad tracks. Mary Rose leaps from her car, her rifle pointing at Jesse. “Let her go, Strickland,” (258), she demands. Jesse, terrified and flashing back to Vietnam, falls to his knees. Mary Rose fires off a shot but misses.