Breaker's Reef (14 page)

Cade just shook his head. “I couldn’t believe it. Who would have ever dreamed?”

“So when are you going to try again?”

“When things blow over, I guess. I just want it to be memorable, you know? Something we can tell our grandkids.”

Jonathan glanced back up at the door, making sure Morgan hadn’t come out. “You sure Blair doesn’t suspect?”

“Positive. She has no idea.”

“You know, the
way
you do it is not as important as just doing it.”

“But she deserves romance. A knight in shining armor, sweeping her off her feet. I want her to feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”

“She will, buddy. Trust me, she will. Just ask her. You’ve got the ring. Put it on her finger.”

Cade blew out a heavy sigh. “When the time is right. But I promise. I won’t take much longer.”

I
have a sister and you never told me?” Sadie felt as if the floor had just opened beneath her, threatening to swallow her whole. “How could you keep a thing like that from me?”

Sheila sat down on the edge of Sadie’s bed and looked up at her through her tears. “What good would it have done? She wasn’t a part of our lives. I didn’t know where she was. I didn’t even know her name.”

Sadie gaped at her mother, searching for a way to tell her how she felt—that her past, her identity, seemed unbalanced now. Her mother had withheld vital information about who she was and who had come before her. She had a sister. Someone who could have shared the burdens, lightened the load, made her less lonely …

She leaned back against her bedroom wall and just stared at Sheila. Her mother had been crying when she came into the room and closed the door, and she was still upset. Sadie was torn between comforting her and railing at her.

“She’s only a year older than me?” Sadie’s question came out hollow.

“That’s right, baby.”

The bitter taste of her mother’s deceit twisted her face. “I always wanted a sister, Mom. I would love to have known. Even a half sister …”

Sheila shook her head. “Oh, no. Not half, baby. Whole. You have the same daddy.”

Sadie didn’t know why that made it even worse, but she straightened now and took a step toward her mother. “I can’t believe you kept this quiet!”

“What was the point in telling you? The records were sealed. There was no way for you to find her. At least, that’s what I thought until this.” She wiped her face and drew in a deep breath. “Baby, you have to understand. I gave her up because I was fifteen and pregnant, and Mick was no help. He was a musician, in and out of town, and the last thing he wanted was a commitment.”

“But you stayed with him and had another baby?”

“Not really. I met him when he was in town doing a gig at this club I wasn’t even old enough to get into. He happened to come back a few months after I gave her up, and like a loyal groupie, I did it all again. You know I’ve always been stupid with men. But when I got pregnant with you, I decided I wouldn’t give you up. I might have to raise you alone, but at least I’d know where you were.”

What kind of man was her father to take advantage of a kid, not once, but twice? There’d been times in her life when she’d longed to meet him, but when she’d learned of his early death from a drug overdose, those dreams had died.

Now she knew she was better off.

She slid down the wall and sat on the floor, trying to imagine the different paths she and her sister had taken. She looked down at the picture, amazed at how they resembled each other. They wore their hair the same, and looked the same size. Yet Amelia looked more polished, more privileged. Had she gotten parents like Morgan and Jonathan? Had they doted on her and
protected her? Had they read her to sleep at night, tucked her into bed, wakened her with kisses?

She’d dreamed of all that as a child. “Mom, if they find her, do you want a relationship with her?”

Sheila didn’t hesitate. “Well, of course I would. I’ve always wondered about her. I knew I’d done the right thing, that she would get a good home, but I felt so guilty and so mad at myself. I hope they took good care of her. I hope she didn’t run off looking for me to get away from them.” She took the picture back. “What if she’s dead, Sadie? What if something happened to her because she came to look for me?”

“She can’t be dead,” Sadie whispered. “She just
can’t
be. They’ll find her soon.”

“I have to go talk to them.” Sheila got up and went to the mirror, began wiping the mascara out from under her eyes.

“Talk to who?”

“The parents. I have questions for them.” Sheila turned back to Sadie. “Baby, please don’t be mad at me. I’m sorry I kept it from you, but this is a crisis, and I need you now.”

Sadie wanted to cling to her anger, nurse it for a while. It was righteous anger, and her mother deserved it. But her tears were real, and her remorse seemed genuine.

Sadie accepted her mother’s hug. “I’ll go with you. I’ll see if Morgan will let us use the car.”

S
adie thought the Frankfurt Inn looked like a German chalet, transplanted from the mountains to the ocean. The marquee out front welcomed the Georgia Nurse’s Association and the Caliburt wedding party.

They had called ahead to see if the Roarkes could see them now. Though it was 11:00 p.m., the couple had seemed anxious to see them.

Sheila pulled into a space next to a car with Alabama plates, but she didn’t get out. Instead, she looked in the rearview mirror, straightened her hair, and dabbed some lip gloss on her lips. “Can’t
imagine what they already think of me, knowing I’ve been to prison and all. I want to look respectable.”

“You look fine, Mom.”

Sadie followed her mother out of the car and they went inside. They were both trembling as they got onto the elevator to ride to the fourth floor.

L
ana Roarke was waiting at the door when they got off. The pain in her eyes was even more intense than that in Sheila’s. “Oh, my! You look just like her. Your eyes, your hair …”

Sadie stood back, letting the couple look her mother over.

Sheila put her arm around Sadie’s shoulders and drew her forward. “This is Sadie, my other daughter. She was born a year after Amelia.”

They invited them in, and Sadie followed her mother to a couch by the window. The air was tense, and she felt awkward. Clearly, Sheila did too. There was a legal pad on the bed, with pages full of scrawled notes torn off. Stacks of posters with the girls’ pictures and a plea to call with information sat all over the room—on the dresser, the desk, in a chair, on the floor. Maybe they’d let her take a stack.

Bob Roarke moved one of the stacks off of a chair and sat down to face them. “Sheila, have you had any contact with our daughter at all?”

“The police asked me that. I told them I hadn’t. I wish I had, though. All these years …” Her voice broke off, and tears rushed to her eyes again. “This is all my fault. She came here looking for me, and now look what’s happened.”

Sadie looked down at her feet, wishing for something to say to ease the awkwardness. “Those posters … do you think we could take some? We could put them up …”

“Yes, of course.” Lana sprang up and got Sadie a stack. “This picture was taken on her last birthday. We took her and Jamie down to Florida. It was a good time. Kinko’s got them printed fast tonight.”

Sheila cleared her throat. “You seem like such nice people. Why would she have run off looking for me?”

Lana slid her hands into her pockets and turned her sad eyes to Sheila. “She was curious about you. I think it had a lot to do with her being an only child. She always wondered if she had siblings. What her mother looked like. And she wondered why she was given up. She romanticized you, Sheila. We told her from the time she was little that she was adopted. We wanted her to know that we chose her, that we considered her a special gift from God. But instead, I think it made her feel more lonely as she got older.”

“What about her friend?” Sadie asked.

“Jamie’s been her best friend for years. They brought her car.” Bob paced across the room as he spoke. “Jamie’s parents hadn’t been that involved in her life since she went to college. They didn’t even know she was missing.”

“They must be in shock.”

“We all are.” Bob went to the window. “If Amelia was all right, I know she would have called us by now. She wouldn’t keep hiding out, knowing her friend was murdered.”

“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Sadie said. “Maybe they got into a fight or something, and split up.”

“Maybe,” Lana said. “I’ve thought of that. They didn’t always get along.”

“Someone’s seen them.” Sadie was doing her best to sound definite. “Someone knows where they were. They’ll come forward. They have to.”

Sheila stood. “The man they arrested for the first girl’s murder … I worked for him a couple of times last week. I’ve been thinking. It’s far-fetched, but what if they somehow found out where I worked? Went there to find me and ran into him?”

The wheels in Sadie’s mind started turning …

Could that, indeed, have happened? There were a few people who knew where Sheila was working. Everyone at Hanover House knew. Others in town had known through word of mouth. There was no reason for secrecy.

If Amelia had gone to Marcus Gibson’s, then he might have had something to do with her disappearance … and Jamie’s murder. Dread shivered through her, and her mind wandered away from the conversation. She started making a plan.

Tomorrow morning she would enlist Blair’s help. Together, they could find her.

S
heila retreated to her room as soon as they got back to Hanover House. Sadie hoped she would get some sleep. Sadie tried, but rest was far from her mind. Instead, she lay in bed, praying for her sister. When morning light softened the shadows in her room, she got up and got ready to search for Amelia.

She took the stack of posters and some tacks and walked to the newspaper office, stopping at every pole to put up a sign. When she finally reached the office, she found Blair on the phone with her friend at the Chatham County morgue, trying to get information about Jamie’s cause of death. Sadie sat down in her office, listening and trying to glean what she could about what might have happened to the girl. But there was no new information.

When Blair hung up, she leaned on her desk and looked into Sadie’s eyes. “I guess your mom told you.”

She nodded. “Yeah, she did. Did Cade tell you?”

“Yes. Are you all right?”

She didn’t want to cry right here in front of Blair. It would just slow them down. “Can we work on this story, Blair? With your help, I know we can find Amelia, maybe in time to save her.”

“That’s just what I was thinking. I already have some ideas, honey. We can work on it after church.”

“I can’t go to church today,” Sadie said. “I’m too distracted, and time could be running out for Amelia. Mom and I met Amelia’s parents last night. And it occurred to us that Amelia and Jamie might have found out where Mom worked. Maybe they went to Marcus Gibson’s instead of Hanover House. We could go and ask him—”

“Whoa, wait a minute.” Blair shook her head. “No way we’re doing that. Cade is interviewing Gibson. Let’s leave that to him.”

Sadie’s hopes deflated. “Then what’s your idea?”

“I was thinking we need to put ourselves in Amelia’s shoes. If she and her friend made it to Cape Refuge, where would they have gone first?”

Sadie thought for a moment. “Hanover House?”

“If they knew she lived there. But her parents didn’t think she did. They thought she only knew that Sheila lived in Cape Refuge. So first they’d have to ask questions, find out where she was. Who would they ask?”

Sadie closed her eyes and tried to think like Amelia might. “Well, they’d come into town over the Tybee bridge. The first thing they’d see would be that Texaco station and its convenience store.”

“Right. They might have gone in there and asked.”

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“Let’s go,” Blair said.

They hurried out to the car, and Blair drove across town. Sadie looked out the window, struggling not to cry. Her sister had been here somewhere on this island, looking for her mother. Something horrible had happened to her and her friend. Had she wound up dead, like Jamie, and just hadn’t yet been found? Was she lodged in another cave, tethered to a stone wall, and floating in the salt water?

Or was she alive somewhere, held hostage by a madman?
Lord, let me find her alive.

In moments they’d made their way around the island, to the line of businesses Amelia and Jamie might have seen coming into Cape Refuge. They pulled into the Texaco station at the intersection, a block down from the bridge.

They got out of the car, and Blair looked at Sadie as they went inside. “You ask the clerks, and I’ll talk to the customers.”

Sadie headed to the cash register. The clerk was talking on the phone and ringing up the customer in front of her, taking her time as if a girl’s life didn’t depend on her speed. She thought of moving up to the counter, and explaining her dilemma: “
Excuse me, but my sister could be dying while you take your time ringing up a Mountain Dew and Snickers bar.
” Instead, she stood there, waiting her turn. Sweat broke out on her lip and trickled down her temples as the minutes passed.

Blair worked the busy store, showing pictures of the girls to the customers, asking if anyone had seen them. Sadie strained to hear what they were saying, but finally, the clerk finished with the customer. Sadie handed her a poster. “I’m Sadie Caruso with the
Cape Refuge Journal.
We’re looking for two girls who might have come in here in the last few days. One of them is the girl who was found murdered yesterday.”

Fascinated, the woman took the picture and stared down at it. “Which one was killed?”

Sadie pointed to Jamie. “This one. Did you see either one of them in here?”

“I ain’t seen ‘em. Pretty girls too. I think I’d remember.”

“Could you show it to the employees on other shifts? Maybe they saw her.”