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.”I walked away and tried to still the tears that were now pouring from my eyes.He didn’t know.He couldn’t know she was dead.I believed against all reason that she remained alive.She was out there somewhere.She had to be, because that is all I had lived for this last year.I had promised my daughter I’d find her.And I will, somehow, I told myself again.I knew I was all out of leads, but something had to turn up.It always did.Eleanor joined me at the car, and I was so distraught that I asked her to drive.With any luck, a truck would kill us on the way home.But it didn’t happen, and I just sat in the car when we got to Eleanor’s house.El asked, “Do you want to talk about it, Aggie?”I shook my head.It hurt too much to think about, let alone speak about.I still couldn’t believe Andrew would be that harsh.Obviously, William meant more to Andrew than what we shared.I willed myself to quit thinking about Sophia lying dead somewhere, but how could I not entertain the notion? It was hopeless.Instead of mulling it over further, I gazed at Eleanor as she sat next to me like a trusty sidekick.I gave my anger five more minutes and then joined Eleanor inside.Chapter Twenty-FourAs I walked through the open door Eleanor held, I finally spoke.“Okay, I suppose you think I’m acting like a child for sitting in the car so long.”Eleanor shrugged.“Since you don’t want to talk about it, not much I can say.”I trounced through Eleanor’s house and whipped open the patio door and whirled around.“Andrew seems to think my granddaughter is dead.”Eleanor stood back, looking puzzled.“He said that?”I slumped into a chair on the deck.I saw Eleanor out the corner of my eye, but I ignored her.I felt depressed and pissed at Andrew for making me see things I just wasn’t willing to accept, but I had to talk to someone.“Sophia is out there somewhere, El, possibly with Jennifer.Will I ever find either of them?”“I don’t rightly know, but you can’t beat yourself up.We’ll uncover the truth somehow.” Eleanor slid the patio door back open and moved back inside.After a long moment, she returned with two dishes of ice cream.Eleanor pushed a dish of ice cream covered with hot fudge, whipped cream, and nuts toward me.I ate without looking at her.I stared at the lake instead, watching the sun go down.It cast a finger of orange, pointing to a shadow on the beach.It looked like a young woman, but when I raced down to the lake, she was gone.When I found no one, at first, I questioned my sanity, but as soon as I discarded that foolish notion, I said to the trees, “I saw a woman.I know I did.I can’t give up hope.”I walked along the shore, hoping to catch a glimpse of the young woman I’d seen, but it looked like she was long gone.Maybe I had imagined it.The sunset had that effect on me sometimes.Eleanor waited on the deck and looked worried.As I strolled up the ramp to the deck, I explained, “I thought I saw a young woman down there, El.”“Maybe the sun is playing tricks with your eyes.”“No.” I shook my head.“I’m sure I saw someone down there.I even walked up the beach.”“Aggie, you’re upset.There’s no telling what you thought you saw.It just wasn’t real.”“You didn’t see her! If you had, you wouldn’t be arguing with me.I know what I saw.”I was pissed again, this time at Eleanor.I knew I had seen someone standing down there, but where had she gone? All the other cabins looked empty, but I wondered.What if Jennifer and Sophia were being held against their will?I thought of calling Trooper Sales, but walked through El’s house and out the front door, making my way toward the cabins nearby instead.I pounded on all the doors.Five cabins and not one door opened.I realized only then that Eleanor had followed me.I frowned when Eleanor looked at me with concern.That was supposed to be my job.“I guess nobody’s home,” Eleanor said.I let out a sad, long sigh.“I guess not.”“That, or they don’t want to open their door to some half-baked old crone who looks like she just flew in on a broom.”I jerked my head up and glared at her.“Seriously, you should look at yourself in the mirror,” Eleanor said.“And maybe you should follow your own advice! You have lipstick on your cheek.”Eleanor wiped it off with the back of her hand and followed me back to her house.She waited for me to enter first.I had a sneaking suspicion she didn’t trust me.Once settled in at my place on an overstuffed sofa, Eleanor said, “I’m making you a cup of tea, Aggie.”I sat mulling over what to do next, and drank the tea down in a few swigs as Eleanor always made it on the lukewarm side.“What kind of tea is this? It tastes kind of bitter.”“Oh, does it?” Eleanor asked.She spared me her glaring eyes, looking everywhere but at me.I knew what she’d done, and I’d kill her if I could get up from the sofa [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]