A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

“That’s lovely,” I say.
Bea asks if Shelby and Meredith kept in touch after Grace was
born. “Some,” Jason says, shrugging. From what we know, Meredith
remained close to many of her clients even after they’d given birth.
They’d call with questions on breastfeeding, diaper rash. Meredith
humored them because she’s a selfless person, though contractually
she wasn’t required to do anything after the baby was born.
“Were you at the birth?” asks Bea.
“Yeah,” Jason says. “It was a fucking nightmare.”
“A nightmare how?” I ask.
“It just was,” he says, turning reticent. “I can’t talk about it.” His
eyes drop to the baby in his arms, and only then does he see the
spilled milk, does he notice that the baby is fussing. He inserts the
nipple back into the baby’s mouth and the baby settles. Her
squirming limbs become inert. When Jason looks back up at us, his
eyes are wet.
He asks about Meredith and Delilah. “How long have they been
gone?”
“Her husband saw her yesterday morning. That was the last time,”
Bea says.
“Shame,” says Jason. From his tone, I can’t tell if he’s being
sincere. I find myself watching him. I wonder if he’s the kind of man
capable of hurting his wife. And if he is, is he the kind of man
capable of hurting Meredith and Delilah? But why would he?
What kind of person hurts a child?
There are holes in his story about the night Shelby disappeared.
There are accounts from friends and neighbors that Jason and
Shelby fought often, that Shelby was seen with bruises on her arms
and legs. Jason’s excuse was that Shelby was on medication that
made her easily bruise. It seemed he had an excuse for everything.
Why had she gone out running so late that night? She’d just been
given permission to exercise and was trying to shed the baby weight.
According to Jason, Shelby thought that she was fat; after the baby
was asleep was the only time she could run. The way he said it
came off as misogynistic. I told her not to go, he said then. It’s not
my fault that she’s gone. In essence, what he meant by that, was
that it was Shelby’s fault. He tried to retract that later, in a press