Gone (4 page)

Clare heard a meow and opened her eyes. Tilly, the cat that belonged to Clare’s elderly neighbor, leaped onto the balcony railing that ran the length of both apartments. Her green eyes glowed in the darkness.

Deftly, the cat crossed the narrow railing, a path she was well acquainted with, stopping where Clare’s arms rested.

“Can’t sleep either, I see,” Clare said softly.

Tilly rubbed against Clare’s wrist.

The cat was very loved by her owner, and spent much of her day on the elderly lady’s lap. Tilly liked to be held. Clare obliged and lifted her into her arms. The cat’s tawny coat smelled of her owner’s floral perfume.

As she cradled the feline, Clare pressed her forehead against Tilly’s soft fur. Katie would not turn her away. That was not how their reunion would play out.

Tomorrow she would meet with her sister and they would be a family again.

* * * * *

Clare checked the map of South Carolina she’d brought with her, then took the next exit. After a considerable drive that had her questioning if she’d taken a wrong turn, despite the map, she came to a sign that read:
Welcome to Farley.

She tossed the map of the state on the passenger seat. On it, Farley was a dot she’d needed a magnifying glass to see. None of the roads within the town were depicted. She’d obtained a diagram of Farley’s streets through the Bureau’s database and retrieved it from the glove box now.

The town of Farley was in Blane County, a rural area that was primarily agricultural. Clare drove past farmland and fields where cotton and soybeans grew tall. The road went on and on. She needed to find out just where she was and searched for a street sign she could look for on the map, but there wasn’t one. A white clapboard colonial house came into view. It stood against the blinding yellow backdrop of the sun. Clare squinted at the sign on the front lawn:
Connie’s Inn.

A patch of yellow flowers grew around a flag pole in front. Yellow Jessamine, South Carolina’s state flower, according to the wooden plaque staked into the dirt. A card table with four chairs around it and two half-filled glasses of what looked like lemonade were centered together on the white verandah. Someone there should be able to tell her what road she was on. Clare turned onto the driveway, turned off the ignition, and stepped out onto a pink flagstone walkway.

After being in the air-conditioned car, the heat outside hit her like a blast from a furnace. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the glare reflecting off the upper story windows and made her way up the three steps to the porch.

Welcome to Connie’s. Come in
was painted in yellow on the glass door. Clare rang the bell then, following the instructions, went inside.

Cinnamon scented the air inside the house. Clare strolled over gleaming wood floors, passed a living room where a floral print sofa backed against an ivory wall. Someone had left knitting on the arm of the couch. The atmosphere was homey. There was no one in the room now though, and Clare continued down the hall.

“Hello,” she called out.

Soft music played somewhere in the back of the house. A country tune that Clare didn’t recognize.

No one answered her call. She was about to call out again when she heard footsteps and creaking wood. She turned in the direction of the sound as a woman appeared at the top of the stairs.

She appeared to be around seventy and was small and spare. Her gray hair was pulled back in a tight bun that emphasized prominent features. Her gnarled hand gripped a three-pronged cane.

Leaning heavily on the cane and the banister, the woman began a slow descent of the blue carpeted steps. When she was halfway down, she stopped. Her eyes widened on Clare and she gasped. The woman’s face went deathly pale.

“Are you all right?” Clare asked.

The woman looked about to faint. Clare rushed to the stairs.

“I never thought you’d have the nerve to show your face back here.” The woman said in a low, guttural voice.

“What?”

The woman’s face flushed sunburn red. “How dare you come back here?”

“I’ve never been—”

“The last thing my son needs is to see you again.”

“I don’t know you,” Clare said, “or your son.”

The woman’s pale eyes narrowed. “You can bet he’s wished he never knew you.”

Okay, this was getting odd. “My name is Clare. Clare Marshall. You’ve made an error and mistaken me for someone else.”

“An error?” The old woman tilted her head and regarded Clare down the long length of her nose. “Fancy talk. Guess you’re getting yourself some of that college you was always wanting.” Her gaze lowered to Clare’s silk blouse and pleated walking shorts, then lifted to Clare’s face. “Fixed yourself up real classy. That why you come back? To show my boy how you’re doing better without him? Figured he might finally be getting over you and you just couldn’t let him do that.”

Clare crossed her arms. “Look. I stopped here to get my bearings. Clearly, that was a mistake.” One that she intended to correct immediately. So much for Southern hospitality. She turned to leave.

“That’s right. Go on. Get out. Go back to where you come from, and stay there!”

The woman was shouting now. As far as Clare was concerned, she couldn’t leave the inn fast enough. A door at the end of the hall opened. Clare glanced toward it. Another woman, bearing a basket of wet towels on her hip, entered the hall.

Clare took the newcomer’s measure. Mid-thirties. A couple of inches shorter than Clare’s own five-foot-eight. Dark hair was pulled back from her round face in a tight ponytail. She had a solid, sturdy build that suggested a lifetime of hard work.

“What’s going on in here, Mama?” The new woman was puffing slightly. Perspiration beaded on her forehead. “I could hear you shouting from the base—” The woman’s gaze went to Clare and she stopped speaking.

“She’s what happened Connie-girl,” the elderly woman said. Her lips pulled back, baring her teeth. “She’s back.”

Connie’s lips quivered briefly. “That’s not her, Mama.” Her mouth tightened. She set the basket on the floor at her feet. “She looks like her, but it ain’t her.”

The statement was uttered in a harsh tone. The younger woman was as hostile as the older, Clare observed. Was everyone in this town a nut?

If she drove long enough, she’d come to a street with a sign on it. She’d knock on every door in Farley if she had to to find Katie. Clare turned her back on the two women.

The old woman shouted. “You keep going, and this time, Beth Linney, don’t you never come back!”

Beth Linney.
Elizabeth
Linney. Clare’s heart pounded and she whirled to face the women again.

Addressing the elder of the two, Clare asked. “You know Elizabeth Linney?”

It was Connie who responded. “Mama’s a little confused.” She crossed her arms. “Don’t pay her no mind.”

Clare eyed the old woman. “You called me Beth Linney. Elizabeth Linney. I’m Clare Marshall. Elizabeth Linney is my sister.”

Connie shook her head hard. Two red spots colored her cheeks. “Beth don’t have no sister.”

“I won’t go into the details of it with you, but yes, she does.” Clare squared her shoulders in defense of the statement. “Now. How do you know my sister?”

Connie’s gaze sharpened on Clare. “Sister, huh? Well, well, I wouldn’t have figured Hank Linney for stepping out on his missus, but there you go.” Connie propped a hand on her hip. “Well, sis, Beth was married to my baby brother till one week ago when she up and left him. Run off with a trucker that delivers fruits and vegetables to Dawson Foods.”

Clare’s throat tightened. She ignored the other woman’s incorrect assumption about Katie’s parentage. “Are you telling me that Katie—ah—Beth isn’t in Farley?” Clare’s voice came out thin.

Connie curled her lips in a sneer. She lowered her eyelids, looking at Clare as if she were something she’d scraped off the bottom of her shoe. “You heard me. Beth is long gone.”

Chapter Four
 

Katie . . . gone for one week. No.
No.
But even as Clare shook her head in denial, she saw the truth in Connie’s eyes and felt as if the earth shifted beneath her.

“Now you got what you come for,” Connie said. “Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out.”

Clare ignored Connie’s comment. “Where?” Her voice cracked and she forced some strength into it. “Where did she go?”

Connie’s features pulled taut and her eyes glittered with malice. “To hell, I hope.”

Connie’s hatred for Katie aroused a fierce protectiveness in Clare. Her cheeks warmed with anger. She welcomed it and focused on it rather than the feeling of despair that threatened to overwhelm her. Teeth gritted, she said. “Never mind, I’ll get my answers elsewhere.”

“There’s no answer to get. She’s gone. You go, too. Get out of Farley like your slut of a sister!”

Clare let the screen door slam behind her. After the dim interior of the house, the bright sun was near-blinding, and she shielded her eyes with the back of one hand while she fumbled in her purse for the car keys. Getting out of Farley was what she was not going to do. She hadn’t come this far to give up.
She would never give up
.

In her car, she started the engine then backed out of Connie’s drive and set off down the street. A white cat streaked in front of the bumper. Clare stomped on the brake and the car screeched to a halt. She suppressed a shriek of her own. Her fingers were clamped around the steering wheel and her stomach was tight. Clare realized she was trembling. Not the fault of the near-mishap with the feline. She was still reeling from learning that she’d missed Katie. Again.

In all the years she’d been searching for her sister, there’d been a few times when she’d thought she was close to finding her, only to have the lead fizzle. None, though, had been as close as this time.

Because she’d been so close, she’d gone beyond the vague hope of someday being with Katie again to an expectation that a reunion with her sister was imminent. She’d just fallen hard from a great height. The disappointment felt like the weight of an elephant crushing her. She pressed her forehead hard to the vinyl-wrapped steering wheel.

The pain would paralyze her if she allowed it. She forced herself to raise her head. This was just another glitch. She would find Katie. She told herself that after each false lead. It was do that, or go quietly insane. This time though, it was not a false lead she was pursuing. She had an identity for Katie that she could use to find her.