Brenda Novak - In Close

At last, a ray of sunshine for her soul. “Really?” She was almost afraid to believe it.

“Of course. I understand the…loss of your mother has been hard on you. I just… I wish you could let it go so you could be happy. That’s all.”

Why was she the only one who couldn’t? That drove her almost as crazy as everything else about her mother’s disappearance. “Don’t you want to know what happened? Where she went? Don’t you ever wonder?”

He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. “Of course I do. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t. You know I hired a private eye right after she went missing, even offered a sizable reward, but it was all for nothing. We can’t let tragedy destroy our lives. Sometimes these things happen and there are no answers. At some point, you have to cut away the bad and focus on the good, forget the past and move toward the future.”

He’d done that. So had Leanne. She was the only one clinging to Alana’s memory. Was she being loyal? Or was she ruining her life?

“But what if there are answers out there?” she asked. “What if we could find them if we pursued them hard enough?”

“We could put all our time, energy and resources into this and still come up empty-handed and brokenhearted.”

He had Roni to help him look toward the future. Her stepfather was happy in his marriage, maybe even happier than he’d been with her mother. How much did that figure into his attitude?

Would she be so set on pursuing this if David hadn’t died?

Probably not. She’d felt less driven when she’d had him as an incentive to live and love again, to forget.

But he was gone, and the burning passion was back. It’d been building recently, returning to levels she hadn’t experienced since the years right after it happened. Which was why she had to ask Tug what she’d asked Leanne. “Do you know about Leanne coming home sick from school the day Mom went missing, Dad?”

She sensed surprise, but when he answered, he spoke in an even, measured tone. “No. Who told you she came home sick?”

“It’s in the school’s attendance log.”

A brief pause suggested he was scrambling for what to say next, and that upset her. She wanted to trust him. She did trust him. So why did she get the impression that he was trying to dodge this question?

“Wow, you really are chasing this thing again, aren’t you,” he finally said.

Draping her arm over her eyes, she sank back onto her pillow. “I have to, Dad. For whatever reason—for a lot of reasons—I can’t let it go.”

He didn’t respond right away, but when he did she could tell that something had changed. “Fine. You do what you have to, honey. And I’ll support you in it.”

Claire threw the covers aside and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. “You mean that?”

“Of course I do.”

Those four simple words subdued the sinking feeling that had settled in when she woke up. He wouldn’t relent if he’d killed Alana. He’d keep fighting to stop her. His past reluctance had troubled her all these years, so being able to move forward with his blessing meant a lot. “Why the change of heart?”

“What happened last night scares me. I lost your mother. I don’t want to lose you.”

When Claire’s chest constricted, she knew his feelings toward the investigation had been a bigger problem for her than she’d ever wanted to admit. “Leanne said it was my fault for going there in the first place.”

“You should be able to go to your mother’s studio without feeling you might get hurt. Maybe it was a freak encounter, or an attempted robbery. I got off the phone with the sheriff a second ago. He said there’s nothing to indicate it’s more than that, since whoever it was just shoved you and ran off. But…the fact that it occurred at Alana’s studio has him worried, and me, too.”

“You think it might be related to the past?”

“Everyone does, although there’s no proof. You didn’t get a look at the guy?”

“No.”

“Concentrate, honey. Can you remember anything about him? His height? His weight? Maybe some detail about his clothes or his smell?”

She wished she could, but it’d happened too fast. “No, nothing.”

“What about his car?”

“I didn’t realize he had a car, Dad. I didn’t see anyone behind me on the road, didn’t hear a vehicle approach. He must’ve followed at a distance and parked too far away.”

“The sheriff said Isaac Morgan came to your rescue.”

Again, Isaac’s passionate kiss, his hands on her body and his erection pressing against her legs flashed through her mind. Just when the memories of their nights together had grown tired and dim, she’d gone and created a fresh one. “Yes.”

“How do you know he didn’t shove you to begin with?”

“Because he’d have no reason to do that. And it’s not who he is.”

“He never liked that you ended up with David.”

He could’ve stopped it if he’d cared enough. “Believe me, that was no skin off his nose.”

“But he watches you. I’ve seen him do it.”

Her father had never mentioned this before. “What are you talking about? When does Isaac watch me?”

“Whenever. He can’t keep his eyes off you. At the bar. At the café. At the grocery store. Anywhere you both happen to be.”

That was because of their history. She watched him, too. She could feel his presence before she even saw him. “Trust me on this. It wasn’t Isaac. What we had didn’t mean anything to him. You know how he is with women. Anyway, the attack on me might’ve turned into more than just a shove if he hadn’t come running.” How else would he have gotten that terrible gash in his chest?

“Maybe, maybe not. But it’s awfully convenient that he was right there.”

“He lives close by.”

“Not close enough to hear anything. And…Claire?”

“Yes?”

He seemed to be struggling with what he wanted to say next.

“Dad?”

He sighed. “It’s so hard to know what to reveal and what not to reveal.”

Claire gripped the phone tighter. “There’s something you haven’t told me?”

“It’s not directly connected to Alana going missing. I’m sure of that. But…I’ve often debated whether it would make things easier on you to know. And now that you’ve asked… I don’t want this eating away at you, sending you down the wrong path.”

“Tell me.”

“You asked about Leanne being out of school for three hours on the day your mother went missing.”

A hard knot formed in Claire’s stomach. His manner worried her. “Yes?”

“That did happen.”

Leanne had just denied it. Initially, he’d denied it, too. “Then why’d you say—”

“The question took me off guard,” he broke in. “I’m so used to protecting her, so used to minimizing the damage caused by that day, it’s become instinctive to lie about it.”

Claire swallowed hard. “I don’t understand. There must be a reason you’d say she was out of school and keep saying it.”

“Yes. And if you’re going to pursue this, you need to know what it is.”

Whatever “it” was sounded pretty ominous. She took a shaky breath. “I’m listening.”

“It wasn’t your mother who was…involved in some way with Joe Kenyon.”

“Who was it?” Claire could barely make herself heard, but she must’ve spoken loudly enough because he responded with the name she’d suddenly guessed he was going to say.

“Leanne.”

“That can’t be true,” she said. “Leanne was only thirteen at the time. If…if Joe was molesting her, he should’ve been punished. Why would you lie to keep what he did a secret?”

“Because he didn’t molest her. What happened wasn’t his fault.”