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.As far as I’m concerned, he’s just some recluse from up north.”“But it’s possible—”“I just said anything’s possible.He’s probably afraid, Penelope.He saw something, maybe he did something—he sees his life coming apart and takes off.”She found that her father’s inherent reasonableness helped to calm her.“I used to think he was an escaped convict.”“On Andy McNally’s turf?” Her father gave a short, incredulous laugh.“That’d be the day.Whatever else he might be, Bubba Johns isn’t a violent man.That much I know.”“So do I.I guess.I don’t know sometimes—I’ve been wrong about so much.I never should have made up the story about the dump.”“Did you do it for Bubba,” her father asked, adding pointedly, “or for Harriet?”“Both.And now I think I’ve only made things worse for them.” She smiled at her father.“I’ll bet when you grounded me you never thought I’d get mixed up in something like this.”“Damned straight I didn’t.You holding up?”She nodded.“Yesterday was pretty awful, but today should be better.I need to see this through.You know Brandon Sinclair’s on his way to town?”“I heard.”“Do you remember much about him?”“Yeah.He was just a little kid when Colt disappeared.Their father tried to protect him from the scandal, even the mourning, I expect.Willard was a good man, but he was rigid.He thought if emotions weren’t displayed, they weren’t felt.” His eyes met hers.“I have that tendency myself.”“But you’re not rigid,” Penelope said, struck by his almost apologetic tone.“It’s not as if you don’t expect other people to express their emotions.”“Fat lot of good it’d do me if I did.” But his strange mood hadn’t lifted, and he added, “I blow my top from time to time.”She smiled.“Daily, if necessary.”“Penelope—” He paused, seeming to war with himself over what to say, how much.“I was fifteen when Frannie and Colt disappeared—I didn’t understand much of what was going on myself.I might have run away from home, too, if I had Willard for a father.Like I’ve said, he and your grandfather got along.I guess Willard was a different man when he was in the country, but I can remember him—” Another pause, his discomfort almost palpable.“Willard would push Colt into doing things when the poor kid would rather sit on the beach and read a book.”“Colt? I thought he was a big adventurer.”“That’s mostly myth, from what I saw—not that we were friends.In my opinion, Frannie was more the natural adventurer.She was a born daredevil.She was innocent and in over her head with the Sinclairs in a lot of ways, but not in sheer recklessness.”“I never knew that’s what you thought.Why haven’t you said anything before now?”He gave her a small smile.“Didn’t want to end up on some damned tape recording in the town library.Penelope, this was none of my business forty-five years ago.Maybe it’s none of yours now.”“What about Harriet?”“Harriet’s Harriet.” He moved out of the hangar, whatever he’d been doing with the Beechcraft finished or gone out of his mind.“She doesn’t want to know the truth, and you won’t be doing her any favors by digging it up for her.”Penelope gaped at him, stunned.“Pop—Jesus, Pop, do you know something?”He spun around.“Of course not.Where’d you get that idea?”“All of a sudden you’re like a worm in hot ashes—”“That’s because I’ve got work to do.Unlike some people, I don’t come and go around here as I please.Now, here’s one thing I know—if Harriet was a Sinclair, she wouldn’t have been left on a church doorstep.”Penelope narrowed her eyes on him, still suspicious.“You were fifteen.Your uncle found her.Teenagers often know and sense stuff that the adults miss—”“Not in the 1950s they didn’t.Are you going to get some work done today or stand here jabbering?”She started for a huge push broom, but turned abruptly to her father.He was staring at the sky as if it were about to rain or he had a plane coming in, which he didn’t.He was simply pulling himself together in the best way he knew how.Penelope hesitated, doubting she was making any sense.But she couldn’t stop herself.“Pop—the fax I received.Was it you?”He pivoted toward her, his expression grim but in control.“You think I’d send an anonymous message to my own daughter?”“To deter me.To keep me from doing something stupid.”“If I thought it’d work, I might have done it.I haven’t liked the way you’ve dived headfirst into this mess.But I know you, Penelope.I know damned well a halfhearted warning like that would just stiffen your neck.If I wanted to discourage you from something, I’d find a better way.”“Like grounding me.”“A lot of good it did.”“Are you mad at me for asking?”He shook his head.“In fact, it’s reassuring.If you can suspect your own father, maybe you can suspect everyone else.Keep your eyes open, kid.”“I will.”He headed to the office in the next building
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