The Wife He Buried Alive novel · Chapter 32 of 32

Chapter 32: The Empty Grave

The stone came down on the first Monday of the new year.

It was snowing lightly, the dry kind that did not stick.

The cemetery was empty except for a flatbed truck and three men in canvas coats.

I stood at the edge of the path in my old raincoat, with Milo's mittened hand in mine.

Winston stood on my other side with his hands in his pockets.

He had asked the cemetery, in writing, for permission.

He had paid the fee himself and signed his own name on the form.

Nobody had asked him to.

The stone was gray granite, and the letters on it were deep.

LINNEA GARRICK. BELOVED WIFE. TAKEN FROM US IN APRIL.

I had read it a hundred times in my head over four and a half years.

I had never read it in daylight, from the front.

"It's got your name," Milo said.

"It does."

"Why does it have your name?"

"Because people thought I'd gone away, sweetheart."

"Where?"

"Into the river."

He thought about that.

Then he looked at the river on the other side of the fence, gray and wide under the snow.

"You're not in there."

"No."

"You're here."

"I'm here."

He nodded, as if that settled it, and went back to watching the men.

They worked a strap under the stone and ran the winch.

The granite came up out of the ground slowly.

The dirt under it was dark and wet and small.

There was nothing in it.

There never had been.

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