threats to her. The property was split fairly evenly and Libby kept the house. Nothing showed up in that year to indicate that Trent was upset about any of the terms of the divorce. He was often on the road, continuing to work for the same trucking company. It seemed as if he took more assignments farther away than in the past, but that was understandable.
Maybe he just wanted to be by himself for a while and think things through. Or, maybe he didn’t want to be close enough to be reminded of the life he had had while married to Libby.
At any rate, Claire reasoned, there were no police reports logged by the ex-wife after the divorce, not even a hint that he might be trying to contact her.
When interviewed, her family members didn’t have much to say about the divorce. At first they had been concerned about Libby’s emotional state, but they soon realized that she was adapting and seemed to enjoy living on her own.
If pressed, they might have been too embarrassed to admit that they didn’t have very good signing skills, and therefore, they really didn’t know how she felt about her now ex-husband and the divorce.
As for who might have wanted to harm her, no one knew Libby well enough to even venture a guess. She was a private person; she didn’t share her fears or dreams with others.
Maybe she decided to go off and find a better life…but that’s only speculation on my part.
Being an isolated person with few friends and no neighbors close by, eyebrows were raised when she married Trent in the first place, but no one was willing to admit that they had not taken the time to get to know this beautiful young woman better.
* * * * *
They met at the local high school where they both had signed up for an adult education computer class. He noticed the interpreter the first night of class and was immediately fascinated by the interaction and communication between the two of them. He had a deaf childhood friend in his neighborhood when he was growing up and had learned minimal sign language for when they played together, but he had not used it in a long time.
Trent frowned when he remembered how his friend’s mother decided she didn’t want her son playing with him anymore. She thought I wasn’t a good ‘influence’ on him. Trent shook his head. He never would tell me why his Mom didn’t like me.
Increasingly interested, he turned his attention back to Libby and her interpreter. In the next few weeks, he watched unobtrusively before deciding to go up and introduce himself one night after class.
Libby had been watching him too and was impressed with his basic signing skills and touched by his willingness to communicate directly with her instead of depending on the interpreter, when he finally did introduce himself.
Not bad looking, a little older than me, but that’s okay, she thought.
Trent was of medium build, about five feet, eleven inches tall, and he had kept his weight under control, unlike a lot of truckers. His dark brown hair helped bring out the light flecks of gold in his brown eyes, offering a pleasing contrast, and he had a nice smile, even though others might have remarked on the cruel twist it sometimes provided.
But Libby only saw the good side of Trent, and soon the two of them were going out for coffee after class, and it wasn’t long before they were dating. He did not sign well enough to get into any deep conversations with her, but she found herself attracted to him and eventually she fell in love.
In retrospect friends and family might have questioned whether this relationship could last, but Libby was lonesome and stubborn. She wanted to marry Trent and settle down. She didn’t know him that well, but in her mind that was fine.
They eloped to Las Vegas, and after they came back, Libby and Trent decided to buy the little house in the country she had been renting, and they both returned to their normal lives.
Libby went back to work at Glenco, a plastics manufacturing company located close by in the small town of Frederick. She held onto her dream of transferring from the factory to the office, but hadn’t accomplished that feat even when she disappeared.
Trent went back to driving a truck, the only job he had ever known.
Life seemed normal for the newly-married couple, but no one really knew what went on inside that house.
No one had any idea there was trouble in the marriage until it was too late. The divorce attorneys used the standard argument, “irreconcilable differences”, and neither party discussed it much beyond that.
After the divorce was final, Libby became more of a loner and family members mistakenly thought she just needed time to come to grips with everything. If they had asked her, they might have been surprised, because Libby had known almost from the beginning that the marriage was in trouble.
She had heard that sometimes hearing men married deaf women so they could be possessive, be the ‘boss’ of the family. She didn’t really see that in Trent at first because he tried so hard; he was in love with her and thrilled that she felt the same about him.
But, as time went by, Libby saw the other side of Trent Newman. She saw in him the desire to control every aspect of her life, including what she wore, whom she had as friends, where she went, and how long she stayed out.
Finally it got so bad that Libby just stopped seeing other people and came straight home from work, especially when Trent was there.
Friends and family members were worried but finally just accepted it. They thought she wanted to be with her husband.
Little did they know that she was too proud to admit her marriage was a mistake. She tried to hide her disappointment from others, but she couldn’t hide it for long. Finally, she asked for the divorce.
He reluctantly agreed, but only after months of arguing, attempted persuading, verbal abuse, veiled threats, and false accusations.
When she went through with it, Trent accepted the fact, or at least that is what other people thought. He even had Libby fooled into believing that he had come to terms with the divorce.
That’s why no one could have suspected him of having anything to do with her disappearance. He had moved on.
But had he? Claire wondered about that and always questioned if the divorce had anything to do with what happened to Libby. Revenge? Was it motivation to harm her? Did it affect him more than others realized?
She had seen it before, many times. A couple divorced; one of them held a grudge; someone got hurt and someone was responsible for it. Claire shook her head and tried to concentrate on her writing but couldn’t get one thought out of her mind, the thought that Trent Newman knew exactly what had happened to his ex-wife.
Chapter Four
Morning sunlight streamed in the bedroom window causing Claire to open her eyes slowly and look around, still not believing that she could sleep as long as she wanted, let alone until daylight.
Most of the time when she was working, Claire was up before dawn, preparing for the day, if she was lucky. If she wasn’t lucky, she would receive a phone call in the middle of the night requesting her presence at an accident site, crime scene, or if she was truly unlucky, at a homicide.
Today it took her a while to make sense of the surroundings and to come to the realization that she was indeed retired and no longer a slave to the morning routine she had become so accustomed to while working.
Ring! Ring! The telephone blared out a sound so loud as to disrupt any idea she might have had about going back to sleep.
She rolled over, picked up the receiver and answered rather drowsily, “Hello.”
“Claire, it’s George. Glad I caught you before you left the house to do whatever you retired people do.”
“Very funny, George. If you couldn’t tell by