open it,” she told him quietly, not looking up. “I can’t take my eyes off of it, but I can’t open it.”
He guessed at once who had sent the gift, and how very long ago. “It’s from your father.”
She nodded. “My mother saved it.” She gestured toward the postcards and birthday cards littering the table. “All of this, and I never knew.”
“He must have missed you very much.”
“He said he did,” she said in a soft, disbelieving voice. She set the package on the table and reached for a postcard. “See here, he says he loves me, that he wishes I were with him.”
Harlan Patrick noted that the card was from Dallas. Laurie chose another one, from California.
“He said it here, too,” she told him. “He was at the beach.” She met Harlan Patrick’s gaze with tear-swollen eyes. “Did you know I’d never been to the beach, not until my first concert stop in Los Angeles? That was the first time I saw the ocean. He could have been right there, and I would never have known it.”
“Are other things postmarked from Los Angeles?”
Startled, she stared at him. “I don’t know. I only read the messages.”
He held out his hand. “Let me see.” He watched her closely. “That is if you’re interested in finding him.”
“You know I am,” she said vehemently. “I have to.”
“Then I’ll help.”
Her eyes brightened for the first time. “You will?”
“Of course I will. We’ll find him together, Laurie. That’s a promise.”
“And you always keep your promises.”
“If I can.”
“No,” she said, suddenly angry. “Always, Harlan Patrick. You have to say it.”
Startled by her burst of fury, he could only guess at the cause. “Your mom’s been telling you that promises don’t mean much, hasn’t she?”
She sighed wearily. “Pretty much.”
“Mine do.” He glanced at the package on the table. “Why don’t you open that now, darlin’?”
“No,” she said, tucking the tiny package into her pocket. “I think I’ll save it and open it when we find him.”
Harlan Patrick knew then that his whole future rested on finding Laurie’s father and putting the past to rest once and for all. The sooner he could make that happen, the better. Fortunately he had a cousin who was a sheriff. Justin ought to be able to get the ball rolling before the day was out.
But if Justin ran into a dead end, there were private investigators. Hell, he’d go chasing after the man himself, if that’s what it took.
Anxious to get started, he stood up and dropped a quick kiss on Laurie’s forehead. “You get your things together, sweetheart. We’ll take off for Ohio in a couple of hours. Meantime I have some things I need to do.”
“What things?”
“Odds and ends,” he said evasively, refusing to get her hopes up until he’d had a talk with Justin about just how difficult this search was likely to be. “Be ready when I get back, okay?”
“Sure,” she said distractedly, already lost in another of her father’s letters.
“Maybe I’ll turn the packing over to Val,” he murmured as he left the room. Laurie’s mind clearly wasn’t likely to be on anything except her daddy for some time to come.
A few minutes later he sat in Justin’s office and pleaded his case.
“You want me to track down Laurie’s father?” Justin repeated.
“As a favor to me. She needs to put an end to all the wondering.”
“Any idea where I might start this search?”
“California. The last cards and letters he sent came from a little town just north of Los Angeles.”
“And when was that?”
“About ten, maybe fifteen years ago, judging by the postmarks. I don’t think there was anything more recent than that. I suppose he just gave up when he never heard back from her.”
“Do you honestly think he’s been staying put all this time?”
“Maybe not, but it’s a starting point. Surely a bright law-enforcement officer such as yourself can be clever enough to follow his trail after that.”
“Flattery won’t help.”
“Bribery, then? Blackmail?”
Justin regarded him with indignation. “You’d resort to that, wouldn’t you?”
Harlan Patrick grinned. “Oh, yeah, and who knows all your sins better than me?”
Justin didn’t flinch at the threat. In fact, he seemed to be considering it thoughtfully. “Okay, then. Let’s concentrate on the bribery for a second.”
His straight-arrow cousin was open to bribery, actually soliciting it? Harlan Patrick couldn’t wait to hear what he had in mind. “Okay. What’ll it take?”
“Patsy and I want to build a new house on that land granddaddy intends to leave me out at White Pines.”