three men by the window and asked, “Is one of them Mr. Winston?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. The gentleman with his back to us. He can tell you more about hiking the west peak. Adam lives right at its base.” Before Ty could say another word, she called out, “Adam! This young man’s looking for you.”
The man turned, and Ty’s heart skipped across his chest like a pebble skimming a pond. Winston looked exactly like the image in the silver frame on Gail Withers’s desk—the photograph she’d tried to hide from him. Curiosity and intelligence blazed in his eyes. Ty had stared at those same dark eyes in half a dozen other photographs of Adam when he was younger; there was no mistaking them.
Taking his coffee with him, Ty started across the room toward the men. “Good morning,” he said as he paused beside them. Addressing Adam directly, he asked, “Are you Mr. Winston?”
“That’s me.” Adam smiled. “Something I can do for you?”
Ty nodded to a table across the room. “Can we talk?”
Adam shrugged. “Sure.” He followed Ty to the empty table and they sat across from each other. Squinting, Adam scrubbed a hand across his beard and asked, “Have we met?”
Ty placed his coffee on the table and took a breath. “No, but you knew my mom a long time ago. My name is Ty Collier. My mother is Jillian Collier. When you knew her, her last name was Steadman.”
All the color drained from Adam Winston’s face. “What’s this about?”
“I need your help with something. I know about your work.”
“I’m a carpenter—”
“Your former work,” Ty interrupted. Winston looked defensive. Nervous. Afraid. “My mother always wondered what happened to you. She loved your daughter very much. When I was growing up, Mom talked about her all the time.” Smiling, Ty added, “I was always a little jealous.”
“Leave my daughter out of this,” Adam hissed, pushing away from the table so abruptly the chair legs scraped against the hardwood floor. “Why would Jillian want to find me after all these years?”
Ty hadn’t expected such an angry reaction. Determined not to lose Adam now that he’d found him, he said, “My mother doesn’t know I’ve been looking for you. She never talked to me about your work until recently when I read several articles you wrote and mentioned them to her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“My brother needs your help. He’s only thirteen and—” Ty broke off as a wave of emotion swept over him. After taking a moment to compose himself, he said quietly, “I made a promise to my brother, and you’re the only person I know that might be able to help me keep it.” Bracing his forearms on the table, he leaned in, adding, “I had to find you, Mr. Winston.” Adam flinched at the emphasis of his surname, but Ty refused to let him off the hook. “I’ve read everything about you I could get my hands on, and I know what you’re capable of doing.”
“You don’t know anything,” Adam said between clenched teeth.
The man’s stubborn refusal to admit the truth stirred anger in Ty. Struggling to maintain a calm tone, he said, “Let me tell you what I know.”
“I don’t have time for this nonsense,” said Adam.
“Hear me out or convince me I’m wrong. I found Ian Beckett and—”
“You’ve talked to Beckett?” Adam shot up from his chair. Across the room, his friends stopped talking and glanced over. Ty was glad Winston’s back was to them so they couldn’t see his agitated face.
Hoping to appease the men, Ty smiled at Adam and murmured, “Calm down. Listen, I—”
“You and Beckett stay away from my family,” Adam growled, panic simmering in his dark brown eyes. “Do you hear me? Leave us alone.” He turned and walked back to his table of friends. The men exchanged a few words that Ty couldn’t hear, then Winston left the coffee shop.
“Everything okay?” Paula called out from the counter.
“Yeah,” Ty lied. He drained his coffee, then made his way to the door.
“Adam said you’re looking for work,” one of Winston’s friends said as Ty passed their table. “You might try Sal over at the lumberyard north of town.”
“Thanks,” Ty said, then opening the door, he stepped out again into Silver Lake’s startling silence.
1
Lily
I started keeping secrets when I was four years old. Back then, I only had two.
Secret number one was that I sucked my thumb before bedtime while watching the sun melt into the earth outside my window. My