A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

cars are parked in the street outside his house, watching him. He
thinks we’re harassing him, baiting him.
I speak up. “You don’t understand. This has nothing to do with
your wife, Mr. Tebow. Our friend, our next-door neighbor, didn’t come
home last night. Neither she nor her little girl. Her husband is worried
sick. His little girl, Delilah, is only six years old. You, more than
anyone, can understand what he’s going through. We’re just trying to
help find them. We’ve been to every house for three blocks, asking if
anyone has seen them. Meredith Dickey,” I say, reaching into the
back pocket of my jeans for my phone, so I can show him the
picture. We’re a few blocks from where we live. Jason Tebow
wouldn’t know who she is.
But he does. The recognition is evident right away. He falls a step
back, turns slowly to me and asks, “Did you say Meredith?”
I take a breath. “You know Meredith?”
He pauses. As he does, his anger wanes. His tone softens,
becoming civil, less vitriolic. “I know Meredith,” he says.
“How?” I ask.
“She was Shelby’s doula,” he says.
I stiffen. My stomach churns.
“She was?” I ask, my mouth like cotton. It’s gone suddenly dry at
the realization that Meredith and Shelby knew one another. I try and
swallow but the saliva gets stuck in my throat. Meredith and Shelby
had a connection. Now they’re both gone. Is that a coincidence? Or
is that something more?
“How long had Shelby known Meredith?” Bea asks.
Jason shrugs. “Not too long. A few months.”
“They were friends?”
“Not really. Shelby liked her, sure,” he tells us. “But it was a
business arrangement. Shelby was worried about giving birth. This
was her first, and she doesn’t have a high threshold for pain.”
“So you hired a doula?” I ask, and he nods. “Why Meredith?”
He shrugs. He doesn’t know how Shelby came upon Meredith.
“How old is your baby?” I ask.
“Six weeks. Grace, ’cause that was Shelby’s middle name. Shelby
Grace,” he says. His use of his wife’s name in the past tense isn’t
lost on me. “This one here is Grace Eloise.”