LITMIR.BIZ

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update on this story on the hour.”

      Molly snapped the radio off. She had to admit that Thomas was right. The best course of action would be to go back and tell the police she’d been abducted. That way she’d be able to access funds and help Thomas.

      “You see why you should go back to Jefferson?” he asked.

      She nodded and looked at him standing in the doorway of the vehicle. “I don’t think you killed my sister.”

      Relief swept across his features. “Do you mean that?”

      “Yes. I’ll go back to town and get some money and ask some questions, then I’ll meet you. We’ll figure a way to get a car for you.”

      “I can’t believe you’re going to help me.”

      “It’s not just about you. The person who killed Anna is still out there, and my niece is missing. If we find the real killer, he’ll be able to tell us where Kate is.”

      Thomas put his hand on her arm. Molly felt a warm flush move through her body as she stared into his hazel eyes. How long had it been since she’d been moved by a touch? She didn’t even want to think about it.

      “I’m going to make you a promise, Molly Harper,” Thomas said, his voice soft but steely. “We’re going to find Kate and bring her home to you. No matter what we have to do to find her.”

      “Meow!” Familiar jumped into Molly’s lap and put his paw on top of Thomas’s hand.

      KNEELING IN FRONT of the fireplace, Thomas added another log to the fire. He felt Molly’s gaze on him and wondered what she was thinking.

      Sparks flew up the chimney from the new log, and he thought how fleeting so many things in life were. Only a week ago Anna Goodman had sat on his leather sofa holding little Kate in her lap. Anna had been crying, but she hadn’t been hurt. Deep in her eyes had been resolve to leave Darwin and build a new life. If he thought about it hard enough, he could hear her voice, the unexpected strength she’d found. And he could so clearly remember his pride in her, and his relief that she was finally going to do something to protect herself and her baby.

      Now she was dead.

      When the sheriff’s deputies had shaken him awake in his sleeping bag, he’d been puzzled but unconcerned.

      “What’s going on?” he’d asked as he’d gotten out of the bag and reached for the coffee to brew a fresh pot. The deputy had snapped the cuffs on his wrist and read him his rights. They’d searched through his things looking for evidence of some crime they wouldn’t even define for him. When they’d found nothing they’d shoved him into a car and driven him to the station.

      The entire ride Thomas had been confused, but under the assumption that he could clear matters up. There had surely been a mistake.

      When he’d heard that Anna had been murdered—shot in his home—he’d been too stunned to think clearly. In the eyes of the investigating deputy, Thomas had looked guilty.

      The arraignment and grand jury indictment had followed swiftly. The small town of Jefferson didn’t see a lot of murders. The wheels of justice were set in motion almost before he could find a lawyer to defend him. Bradley Alain had put a halt on the railroad job that was in progress, but Thomas was still charged with a crime he didn’t commit.

      “Thomas, are you okay?”

      Molly’s question brought him back to the present, and he felt an unexpected rush of pleasure as he rose and turned to face her. The firelight flickered over her classic features, catching in the lengths of her hair. The black cat lay across her lap, enjoying the strokes she applied so liberally.

      “I was just trying to figure out how all of this happened. Most of my life has been calm and orderly. Get up at five, eat breakfast, saddle my horse and ride out. Come home at supper, eat, wash up, play some cards with the guys or go into town. At McGivens, it was work eight hours, go home. Same thing, day in and day out.”

      “Now it’s much different.”

      “That’s an understatement. I’m a fugitive from the law, accused of a crime I didn’t commit. I have a hostage and her black cat detective.” He shook his head. “Have we stumbled into the Twilight Zone?”

      “I feel the same way.”

      A wistful look crossed her face, and Thomas felt a pang. As awful as his life was at the moment, he hadn’t lost family. “We’ll find Kate,” he said again.

      Molly smiled. “We will.” She stopped petting the cat.

      “It won’t bring Anna back, I know. But she’d finally decided to leave Darwin. She was getting stronger. I think Kate was the best thing that ever happened to her.”

      Molly looked up, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. “Anna was always in hot water somewhere. In high school she was constantly in trouble. When she got out, she didn’t want to go to college, but she couldn’t hold a job. When she finally went to university, every week it was a crisis with one class or another.” She bit her bottom lip. “I got tired of her woes, tired of trying to bail her out so she could make the same mistake again and again. I abandoned her.”

      Thomas sat beside her. In his adult solitary life, he’d been careful never to assume emotional responsibility for anyone other than himself. But he understood guilt, and he knew that was what Molly felt. Survivor’s guilt.

      “Molly, you and I both know that no one can force another person to confront their problems and grow up. If you’d continued to hold Anna’s hand, she may never have begun to change.”

      “If I’d held her hand a little more, she might be alive to change.”

      He picked up her hand, noting the long, slender fingers. “I’m just a software designer, so I don’t have any deep answers. I will tell you what Anna said the last time I saw her.” The night she was killed. He didn’t say it, but they both knew it.

      “Tell me she was happy.” Molly blinked back the tears.

      “I can, without lying.” Thomas squeezed her cool fingers. “When Anna showed up with Kate, I was worried. I was afraid Darwin was thumping on her again, but he wasn’t. In fact, Anna had come to visit because she had good news. She said she was leaving the software company, that she’d found a better job, one where she could work at home and stay with Kate more.” He could see he’d caught Molly’s interest.

      “What kind of job?”

      “She said it was a secret until it was a done deal. With the new salary, she said she could afford to divorce Darwin and still take care of Kate.”

      “She stood up to him? Do you think that made him kill her?”

      Thomas hesitated. “From what I knew of Darwin, material things were very important to him. At first I was worried, too, but Anna said she’d told him she didn’t want anything. No furniture, no alimony. She just said she’d leave with nothing.”

      “That was smart, but it’s hard to believe Darwin was agreeable to this.”

      Thomas still held Molly’s hand. It had grown warmer in his grasp, and he rubbed the top of it with his thumb. “Anna said that Darwin was surprised, but he was rational. She told me she’d been thinking, and she’d decided that she could relocate. She was the happiest I’d ever seen her, like she’d just gotten the best news in the world.”

      Molly nodded. “Anna could have done anything she wanted to do. She just never believed in herself.”

      Thomas leaned closer. “She said you always believed in her and encouraged her, and now she was going to prove that you were right. She was going to change her life.”

      Molly choked back a sob. “I would have helped her. I would have done anything for her and Kate.”

      “She knew that, but she also knew she needed to do it on her own. She saw a completely different

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