“But you said yourself there’s no way your father and sister got lost out there.” Kate put the towel neatly on the stack, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Hawk. “If they’re dead, something awful happened to them. We could have that unknown hanging over us, which would almost be worse.”
“I don’t know, Mama. I’ve already wondered about it a thousand times. If they’re dead, I would rather know and get the grief out of my system than let it eat me up for the rest of my life.”
Kate started to reach for another towel and then paused instead. “I suppose I would too. But it would be hard to accept that they’re dead.”
“Would you rather think Daddy ran off and took Riley Jo?”
“He didn’t,” Kate said. “He wouldn’t do that to us.”
“Something happened out there, Mama. Maybe a bear got them. Or wild hogs.”
“I doubt just bones will tell how they died. So we’d still be left wondering. I’m not sure just knowing they’re dead would bring closure.”
“It would for me,” Hawk said. “At least some. Maybe Abby and Grandpa will stop trying to cram their beliefs down our throats.”
Kate pushed aside the stack of towels and turned to Hawk. “Don’t be too hard on them for wanting to believe that God answers prayer. I used to believe it with all my heart. I’m just worried your grandfather and Abby are going to bottom out when they realize it’s a myth.”
“At least then Abby would stop embarrassing herself by trying to find that girl she took a picture of. How many times is she going to pull this before she starts living in reality?”
“I’ve got a call in to Dixie to get her an appointment.” Kate looked over Hawk’s shoulder and spotted the old family photo she couldn’t bring herself to remove from the fridge. “But Abby may have to face reality when the pathology results are in.”
Abby studied the sixth sketch Jay had made using the facial features she chose that best fit the man she had seen with Ella.
“That’s close,” Abby said. “The eyebrows are still wrong. His were even fuller than that.”
Jay glanced at his watch. “Why don’t we take a break? There’s still time for me to sketch a few more possibilities before I have to leave for work.”
Abby sat next to him on the blanket. “I don’t know if we’re going to get any closer to what he looked like than this last one. The beard is perfect.”
Abby’s cell phone rang, and she felt tension tighten her neck. Was Mama calling to tell her that the sheriff had found something else? She glanced at the screen and saw only Caller Unknown. “Hello.”
“I warned you not to tell nobody that I told you to back off lookin’ for the girl.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.” Abby mouthed the words, It’s him, as she put the phone on speaker.
“You’re lyin’. I know you blabbed to that Oldham kid. He ain’t gonna tell nobody about the girl, and he knows why. But I’m warnin’ you, stop askin’ about her, or I’ll make sure you go missin’—permanently.”
Abby was rendered mute in the dead air that followed, her heart nearly pounding out of her chest. She stared at Jay, who looked as if he’d just seen a ghost.
Finally Jay began to pack up his art portfolio. “That was not Mason Craddock or any of his clones. That guy sounded middle-aged. Are you sure it was the same man who called you before?”
“I’m sure,” Abby said. “I guess I was so positive it was Mason having a good laugh at my expense that I just assumed he disguised his voice. I wonder why the caller thinks I ‘blabbed to that Oldham kid’? I don’t know anyone by that name. Why are you putting your things away?”
“Because”—Jay stuffed the last colored pencil into the portfolio and zipped it—“he made it clear what’s going to happen if you don’t back off.”
“But what is it he doesn’t want me to find out? I know it’s a long shot, but it’s possible that Ella could be Riley Jo. I have to know for sure.”
“Count me out,” Jay said. “Some of these mountain folks can be dangerous. Paranoid. Who knows what kind of word’s been spread because you were asking around about Ella.”
“But I don’t have anyone else. My family’s turned me off. I’d go to the sheriff, but he wouldn’t take me seriously either.”