Chapter 13: Haunted by Absence

Joe Barnes disappeared without a trace—alive or dead, no one knew. Even if Dan Harper wanted to tear him to pieces, it was useless.

Dan Harper’s hatred had nowhere to go. All he could do was clutch his surviving son and weep, telling everyone, over and over, about his last moments with his wife, just like the grieving widows from old American stories.

He told it with such depth and detail, again and again, that everyone who heard it was left heartbroken.

Even five years later, when I sat across from Dan Harper in the interview room, I could still recall his deep, sorrowful telling from back then, and from those fragments, I could almost piece together a heart-wrenching TV drama.

Dan’s pain was the kind that leaks into the woodwork and never quite fades, the kind they write folk songs about but can’t ever truly name.