A Son's Tale

Oh, God, no. The blood drained out of her face. It felt as though it drained out of her body. She shivered. And was afraid she was going to be sick on her father’s plush beige carpet.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“TELL ME.”

Morgan faced her father, feeling thankful for once that the man had enough money to move mountains and enough distrust to have the people she and Sammie associated with investigated.

“Frank is the prime suspect in the disappearance of a little girl, Morgan.”

Her heart pounding, she asked, “Where?” But she knew. God in heaven, she knew. And she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life. “It was in Comfort Cove, Massachusetts, wasn’t it?”

The abduction that Cal knew about, the two-year-old little girl. He’d said that he and his father lived in the town. That they didn’t know the child well.

“Who was she?”

“Her name was Claire Sanderson. She was two years old. Frank Whittier was engaged to the girl’s mother, Rose. Cal and Frank lived with Rose and her two little girls, Emma and Claire.”

“You said he’s the prime suspect. They didn’t ever prove that he did it?”

“No, which is why he’s free to prey on my grandson.”

George had no evidence that Frank had hurt Sammie.

“Caleb Whittier stayed all night the evening that Sammie went missing because he needed to make certain that his father wasn’t involved. Or if he was, so that he’d know what the police knew. He’d know how to protect his father. That’s why, as soon as it was determined that Sammie ran away, he took off. Didn’t you find it odd that he didn’t hang around at least long enough to meet the boy he’d spent the night worrying over?”

She had found that odd.

“I suppose Mom agrees with you?” Not that she would admit if she didn’t.

“Yes.” Her father didn’t gloat. She’d give him that.

“Think about it, Morgan. The man is their only suspect. I don’t know all of the details of the case, but according to the papers back then, the child was seen in Frank’s car after she’d gone missing. And when the police searched his car later, her teddy bear was stuffed under the front seat. He was the last person to have seen her. And even with teams scouring the area and everyone being interviewed, there was never a second suspect. Are you willing to risk your son’s life with a man whom a school system considered unsafe to be around their children?”

Morgan knew Frank. And Cal. She couldn’t believe either one of them would hurt a child.

But she didn’t always see the bad in people, did she?

And Cal had lied to her about that little girl. He’d told her he and his father barely knew the child who’d gone missing in his hometown.

Could she afford not to believe her father’s evidence? Had she put her son in the hands of a child abductor?

Morgan’s entire emotional being shut down.

“Call your team, Daddy. Sammie’s at school and then Frank is taking him to basketball tryouts. I’ll call Julie and have her take Sammie there instead. And I’ll let Frank know I’m taking care of the tryouts. I don’t want to alarm Sammie at this point. And he’s not going to miss those tryouts. I’ll take off work for the rest of the day, but I don’t want Sammie suspecting that there’s something going on. Please tell your men to watch him like a hawk until I get there to pick him up. And then I’m bringing him home to live. You’re right. He’s better off there.”

She just couldn’t take the chance that George was wrong. He seldom was when it came to getting the facts.

“If that man’s done anything to Sammie… If he’s touched him…”

“I sure as hell hope he hasn’t. There’s nothing in my report to indicate that they were anywhere but the basketball court outside. Until yesterday when he took Sammie to a junior high school.”

Sammie showed no signs of having been improperly touched. To the contrary, he was happier and seemed healthier than she’d ever seen him.

And he’d been seeing a counselor. If he’d been in danger with Frank, Sammie hadn’t known about it.

So maybe she was right, and Frank had been wrongly accused.

But she couldn’t take that chance. The bottom line was, at the moment, she didn’t trust her own judgment any more than her father did.