“Okay.”
“One of the journal entries mentioned that she wanted to run away with you, far from this town.”
A sad smile crossed his friend’s features. “She kept trying to talk me into it.”
“Why did she want to run away so badly?”
He let out a long sigh. “It’s complicated. But she just wasn’t happy. She felt like there was more to life than what was here in Hertford. She’d never get out of her dad’s shadow. The two of them didn’t always see eye to eye.”
“Do you think it’s a possibility that she planned all of this herself in order to get away?”
Brody shook his head and left no room for question. “Absolutely not. She wouldn’t have left Charity.”
“She would have stayed around her domineering father just to remain near her best friend?”
“She always wanted to be Charity’s protector. It’s not that she felt sorry for her; I mean, they were best friends in every sense of the word. They were practically inseparable. She just knew that if she left, Charity would have no one.”
“How about the two of you? Were you serious?” Joshua asked.
“I was probably more serious than Andrea was. I mean, she was in high school and I was in college. But there was no one else like her.”
“This is going to sound strange, Brody,” Joshua started, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “But there have been a couple of sightings around town of a woman who looks like Andrea.”
Brody stiffened. “No . . .”
Joshua nodded. “I saw her myself. I have to say that the resemblance is uncanny.”
“If someone took her, I always assumed they’d taken her far away. The idea that she could still be in this area, living under our noses the whole time—”
“And possibly be free,” Joshua added.
Brody shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s unnerving. Why wouldn’t she find someone, get help, run away?”
“I have no idea. Every stone I turn just seems to raise more questions.”
“I’ll pray that you get some answers. I’d love to have some too. I have to admit that my life has felt like it’s been in a holding pattern since she disappeared. Every girl I date, I feel like I’m cheating on Andrea. Crazy, isn’t it?”
“Not really.”
“If there’s anything I can do, let me know.”
“I’ll do that.”
CHAPTER 25
“Please, come to church with us,” Daleigh said the next morning. “I promise, no one there bites. And, if they do, I’ll bite them back for you.”
Charity couldn’t help but smile. But the smile quickly faded. “Are you sure you want to be associated with someone like me?”
She meant the words. Being around the supposed wrong people could wreck a person’s reputation.
“Oh, honey. I don’t think anyone’s going to think a thing. And if they do, it’s their loss. I’m not afraid of criticism. I’m a musician. I get plenty of positive, but I also get my share of the negative.”
Charity nodded resolutely. “Okay, then. I’ll go.”
“I know just the dress for you,” Daleigh said. She returned a moment later with a white sundress. “This will look gorgeous with your hair.”
The dress was beautiful. Simple, below the knees, sleeveless. “Are you sure?”
“More than sure. Go on and put it on. I’ll meet you outside in twenty. Does that work?”
Charity nodded and hurried to get ready. It felt good to clean up, to have a reason to fix her hair and wear nice clothes. She’d never been prissy, but every once in a while a girl enjoyed feeling like a girl. Since she’d arrived here in Hertford, she’d mostly felt like both a nervous wreck and a walking mess.
Daleigh let out a whistle when she saw Charity step onto the porch. “Just like I thought. It looks great on you.”
Charity smiled. “Thank you.”
“Now, come on. Ryan’s picking us up.”
They slid into Ryan’s truck and made casual chitchat on the way to church. It was less than a five-minute drive, but jitters had claimed Charity by the time they arrived. She kept breathing deeply at the thought of running into former classmates, teachers, and even people she didn’t know but who knew her.
It seemed like an awkward situation in the making. She should have never agreed to this.
Once the truck was parked, she climbed out, straightened her dress, and held her head high.
Victim no more, she told herself.
She was the only person who could make herself feel this way. She was the only one who could make herself rise above it, as well.
Walking beside Daleigh and Ryan, she stepped into the church.
To her relief, no one stopped and stared. Daleigh introduced her to several people, none of whom she recognized. They all smiled politely and shook her hand.
Still, it was a relief when she was able to scoot down a pew and the church service began.
No more talking.
Halfway through “Praise the Name of Jesus,” someone slid in beside her. She looked up and saw Joshua.
Her heart skipped a few beats. She attempted a smile, but wasn’t sure if she succeeded or not. Joshua’s bright smile in return was enough to satisfy her, though.
As they sat back down and the sermon began, she had the hardest time staying focused. Between wondering if people were plotting ways to get her to leave and the way Joshua’s leg brushed up against her, she was seriously lacking focus.
“Anyone want some barbecue?” Joshua asked when church ended.
“You know I’m always game,” Daleigh said. She turned to Charity. “You have to come to. It’s our Sunday tradition.”
Charity shrugged, secretly delighted to spend more time with Joshua. “Sure thing.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were seated at a long table with a checkered tablecloth and a plastic basket full of condiments in the middle. It appeared they’d gotten here right in time and beaten some of the after-church rush.
As Charity inhaled the scent of roasted pork and fried chicken, her stomach grumbled.
“This smells delicious,” Charity started after placing her order. “Speaking of which, Joshua introduced me to the seafood at the Dancing Mackerel yesterday.”
“The Dancing Mackerel?” Daleigh asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s in Nags Head,” Joshua said. “The place isn’t much to look at, but it has some good food.”
Charity cleared her throat, unable to keep the conversation as light as she’d like. “We saw Mr. Johansson while we were down there. Was he ever your teacher in high school, Ryan? Or did he come after you left?”
“I think he came a few years after I graduated,” Ryan said. “Is he a suspect?”
Charity shrugged. “Not necessarily. He was just awfully personal with a couple of his students, and he was the last person Andrea and I spoke with before she was abducted.”
“So is he a suspect?” Daleigh asked, taking a sip of tea.
“I can’t officially give any statements on the case,” Joshua said. “I’m just revisiting some key players from the past. You never know when someone might share something that offers a new clue. I’m a fresh set of eyes in this investigation. The original people involved weren’t objective.”
“You mean Ron Whitaker?” Ryan snorted. “I wouldn’t think so.”
Joshua leaned closer. “You’ve been in this town longer than I have. Do you know Buddy Griffin?”
“I think everyone does.”
“What’s your impression of him?”
“He’s a strange one,” Ryan said. “My gut tells me he’s harmless. He’s kind of a drama king and a recluse at the same time. But I’ve never seen him as being dangerous. In your line of work, I’m sure you’d tell me that anyone can be dangerous, though. Right?”
“You’d be surprised at the capacity for evil people have inside them. It’s just a matter of how much you feed those negative emotions. E
ventually they grow and grow until they can’t be contained any longer.”
Charity shivered at his words.
Whatever that evil was—whoever it was coming from—Charity sensed it was growing.
And that thought was enough to make her want to run.
***
Joshua offered to drive Charity back. The two of them being together just seemed natural. He’d even begun to forget some of his fears about trusting again as he realized that Charity wasn’t anything like Justina. Charity cared about people other than herself.
Still, he had to remind himself that Charity would soon be leaving.
As they were sitting in Joshua’s truck, Charity turned to him. “I found something strange in Daleigh’s house last night, Joshua.”
He bristled in anticipation.
She pulled something from her purse. “It was this picture.”
Joshua glanced at it. The photo was of Charity and Andrea. They were covered in mud and had big goofy smiles on their faces. The chilling part was the words on the back. You’re the only one who can help.
“This was in the house when you returned?” he clarified.
Charity nodded. “It was on the table.”
“Was there any sign of forced entry?”
“There was a window open.”
“You should have called me.”
“What would you have done? Besides, Daleigh came home a few minutes later, so I wasn’t alone. The note wasn’t exactly threatening. It was just eerie.”
A surge of protectiveness rose in him.
“I’m going back to the house to read Andrea’s journals again. I brought them home with me so I could study them more. Would you like to come?”
Charity smiled softly. “Sure.”
“I thought you should know that I paid a visit to Brody Joyner last night.”
Her head swung toward him. “Why?”
“One of Andrea’s journal entries mentioned that she was trying to talk Brody into running away with her.”
“Andrea would have never run away. Besides, why would she have wanted to?”
“People have mentioned she was disappointed with her dad. Maybe she found out something that was a major blow to her image of her father.”
She crossed her arms, and her voice turned sad. “She never mentioned anything to me. Why didn’t she do it?”
“I suppose she considered everything she was leaving behind.”
Charity was silent a moment. “What did Brody say?”
“He confirmed that Andrea had brought up the subject.”
“You don’t think he’s involved in this somehow, do you?”
“No, I don’t. I’m just trying to examine every possibility.”
“So far, there’s been Ron Whitaker, Ron’s sons, Austin Johansson, and Buddy Griffin. Somehow, I can’t quite believe any of them would be a part of this. Did they all make mistakes? Yes. Are they all imperfect? Absolutely. But I can’t see them taking it this far.”
“I used to work in the missing persons unit back in Atlanta, Charity. I’ve seen people commit horrendous crimes for reasons that seemed asinine and unfathomable. The extent of what people will do when they believe a lie is astounding.”
“When they believe a lie?”
He nodded. “It starts with just a seed of an idea. Maybe they think their life would be perfect if only they had a certain person in it, or if they obtained a particular amount of money, or if someone who wronged them suffered. At first, the idea might seem outrageous. But over time, it starts to make more sense. Too many things begin to hinge on them achieving their ideal. It then becomes a truth.”
“Kind of like sin. Isn’t that what the pastor talked about this morning?”
“Exactly. He compared it to cooking a frog. At first the water just feels warm, like a hot tub. Before long, that water is boiling and those frogs are dead.”
They pulled up to his house. As they started toward the door, he reached over and grabbed Charity’s hand. It felt good to hold her hand in his. He sensed that Charity needed to take it slow. That was good because he also needed to take baby steps. Rushing into relationships seemed to always end in disaster, and there were so many uncertainties between them.
She sat on the couch, looking lovely in the white dress she wore. Instead of grabbing a journal, she picked up a picture of him with Rider. “Tell me about your son.”
Joshua sat beside her and stared at the picture. “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. He’s four, he loves trucks, and he talks nonstop.”
“Do you get to see him very often?”
“I have custody every other weekend. More in the summer and on holidays. He’s on vacation with his mom and stepdad right now.”
“You miss him?”
“Every day. Life wasn’t supposed to turn out like this for him.”
“What happened?”
He squeezed his lips together a moment. “I was working. A lot. I’d applied for the FBI and been accepted to their academy. But in the process, I lost my family. I suppose I should have seen the warning signs, but I didn’t. I came home one day, and my wife and son were gone. She’d moved in with her new boyfriend.”
“That had to be hard.”
“More than you could imagine. If I could go back and do it over again, I would. But life doesn’t work that way.”
“Do you still love her?”
He thought about it a moment before shaking his head. “No, she’s remarried. We actually only knew each other two months before we tied the knot. It was truly a whirlwind relationship. Three months after we were married, we found out she was pregnant. Everything happened quickly.”
“I don’t see you as the type to jump into a commitment like that.”
“I’m not usually. I haven’t always been the person I am today, though.”
“I have a hard time seeing that.”
“When Justina left me, I turned my life around. I started going to church and got my priorities straight. I actually decided not to follow through with the FBI Academy and decided to do everything I could to be a good father to Rider. I begged Justina to give me a second chance, but it was too late. She got remarried. A year later, I found out Justina and her new husband were moving to this area. Now here I am.”
“Isn’t that the important thing? That we see our mistakes and turn our lives around?”
“I suppose it is. For all of us.” He leveled his gaze at her, hoping she’d apply her own advice.
Charity swallowed deeply and rubbed her throat. She got the message loud and clear. “Maybe we should start looking at those journals.”
CHAPTER 26
As Charity sat beside Joshua on the couch, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Joshua had told her. She just couldn’t imagine Joshua not being the man he was today. The person she knew was honorable, committed, and trustworthy. Those attributes were what she liked about him.
He wasn’t putting on a front for her, was he?
Bradley had been so career oriented. At first, Charity admired him for it. But then it became apparent that his career was more important than their relationship. In fact, he saw their relationship as a means of getting ahead in his career. Every conversation revolved around her past and ignited some kind of hunger in his gaze.
She should have known. He hadn’t become interested in her until she opened up about her past. Then he almost seemed obsessed.
When he started prying into her background without mentioning it to her, that had been the final straw. She didn’t want to be a case study; she wanted to be his girlfriend. She’d ended things.
Charity blinked several times, determined to focus her thoughts. She needed to concentrate right now on Andrea’s journals. Her entries showed a different side of Andrea than she remembered. Apparently her friend had always tried to be strong for Charity, while at home she’d been unhappy.
A lot of teenagers rebelled against their parents during their teen years and thought their lives wer
e terrible. Charity had seen it enough times in her line of work. But Charity wondered if Andrea’s angst went beyond that.
“What are you thinking?” Joshua asked, pulling her from her thoughts.
Charity looked up at him and frowned. “I guess I’m thinking that sometimes you think you know someone, only to find out you don’t. I thought Andrea and I shared everything, but it’s becoming exceedingly obvious that we didn’t.”
“She was probably trying to look out for you.”
“Maybe. What could her father have done to disappoint her so much? Everything is so vague.”
“I’ve been surprised at how much she mentions her mom and dad fighting,” Joshua said. “Originally, I was thinking maybe Ron had covered up a crime. But what’s the number one reason couples fight?”
“Unfaithfulness,” Charity muttered.
Joshua nodded. “What if Ron wasn’t a very faithful husband?”
“Do you think that has anything to do with her disappearance?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore. But I just might give Chief Owens a call again. Maybe he knows something and doesn’t even realize it.”
***
First thing in the morning, as soon as he got to the station, Joshua called the town’s former police chief. The man answered on the first ring.
“Chief Owens, it’s Officer Haven from the Hertford—”
“I remember you. What do you want?”
“I’m looking into Ron Whitaker’s background, and I had a question for you.”
“You really think he has something to do with his daughter’s abduction?” Chief Owens asked.
Joshua slowly pushed out a breath as he contemplated his words. “I’m just exploring every possibility. I found some information that seems to indicate Ron Whitaker wasn’t faithful to his wife. Do you know anything about that?”
“I stay out of my friends’ affairs—and that’s just an expression, not a concession.”
“I’m not asking you as Ron’s friend. I’m asking you as the former police chief.”
The man remained silent a moment. “You didn’t hear any of this from me. Understand?”
Gone by Dark (Carolina Moon Book 2) Page 15