The Truth About Comfort Cove

“You’re sure you’re flying in?”

“Yeah. I already made my reservation.” She’d done that just before going to see Sloan Wakerby that evening.

She’d been thinking about Ramsey then, too.

“What time do you get in?”

“Ten o’clock Saturday morning. The wedding’s at four.”

“I’ll pick you up.”

Lucy grinned. A big grin that stayed there. “Then you pretty much have to drive me to the wedding because I won’t have a rental car.” It didn’t occur to her to prevaricate. Not until she’d already spoken.

“It’s my fault you got the invitation at all. I can’t leave you to go alone.”

She guessed that meant they were going together. It shouldn’t be a big deal. Tomorrow it wouldn’t be.

And with that resolved, she was determined to get back on track. “You know what’s bothered me all along about Jack Colton?”

“Other than the fact that he was there that morning?”

“He admitted, when you questioned him this summer, that he saw Claire outside her house.”

“Right.”

“Her disappearance was big news.”

“Right.”

“While Comfort Cove is bigger than Aurora, it’s not all that big now. I’m guessing, twenty-five years ago, it was quite a bit smaller.”

“It was.”

“So don’t you think Jack would have heard about a child missing from a street he did business on? Don’t you think, when he heard when the abduction happened, that he’d have called the police and told them that he’d seen the little girl in her yard that morning? Or when he heard that Frank Whittier was a suspect, he’d have called to tell the police what he told you this summer? That he’d seen Frank get into his car alone?”

“I asked him that question last time I spoke with him. He didn’t call because he figured that as soon as he did, he’d be a suspect. He was a young kid on his own. With no money. He couldn’t afford to lose his job. Couldn’t afford to be brought in for questioning. Couldn’t afford a lawyer. Short answer is, he was afraid.”

“So he let Frank Whittier hang?”

“He said that he watched the news enough to know that Frank Whittier wasn’t charged and that was good enough for him. He didn’t realize the hell Frank’s life became because of the ongoing suspicions against him. He did say that he’d been feeling guilty for years about not coming forward, but thought that to do so so late would only raise more suspicions about his possible involvement. And he’s right on that score. I am suspicious.”

“Basically, he turned a blind eye to save his own ass,” Lucy summed up drily.

“You know as well as I do that folks do it all the time. Colton said that he was afraid that if he came forward, the real kidnappers would come after him and it wasn’t like he had any information that would actually help the police find Claire Sanderson. He saw her in her front yard and she was fine. And when he drove by again, she was gone. He didn’t see anyone in the area and has no idea what happened to her.”

“Do you believe him?”

“You got time to make a run to Cincinnati to check him out?”

“You bet.” She’d make time.

For Emma. For Claire Sanderson and Allie and all of the other children who’d been ripped away from the families who loved them.

And for Ramsey Miller.

CHAPTER EIGHT

R amsey was out all day Thursday and Friday, pursuing leads. Late Friday afternoon, he rode the elevator with Bill up to their desks.