Stolen in the Night by Patricia MacDonald Read Free Book Online

pleasant fellow.”
    Jake shrugged. “He’s just been driven around the twist by that crazy wife of his.
     I swear, I would’ve strangled that woman by now.”
    “Jake, please,” said Tess.
    Jake frowned. “Oh, come on, Tess. It’s just a figure of speech. And besides, it happens
     to be true.” He shook his head. “Edith Abbott spent a fortune on attorneys trying
     to clear her precious Lazarus, and they don’t have a dime to spare. Nelson knows as
     well as we do that it was money down the drain.”
    Tess shivered, despite the warmth of the fire. “God, I will be so glad when all of
     this is over tomorrow,” she said.
    Jake nodded grimly. “Me, too. For once and for all,” he said.

CHAPTER 4
    F eeling the chill, Tess fumbled for the quilt that had slipped off the bed during her
     restless night. She opened her eyes and instantly was jarred fully awake by the realization
     of what lay ahead of her today. It was not that she was worried about what the test
     results on the evidence would be—far from it. She had seen Lazarus Abbott take her
     sister. There was never a doubt in her mind. She was just a little concerned that
     she would not be able to maintain her composure in the face of all those newspeople’s
     questions about Phoebe’s murder. Tess could think about Phoebe now, after the passage
     of twenty years, with some equanimity, but there was a good chance that her voice
     would crack and her eyes would well up if she actually had to answer questions about
     her sister’s death.
    Tess’s gaze traveled past the soothing flowers and vines on the gray-blue bedroom
     wallpaper and out the window to the bare trees’ branches. Beyond the trees the brown
     fields, bordered by rock walls and covered with the white lace of early frost, stretched
     out, spiked with evergreens, to the horizon and the granite peaks of the White Mountain
     National Park. The day was beautiful, the sky blue, the clouds puffy, just as it had
     been on the last day of her sister’s life. Deceptive, Tess thought, and for a moment
     she saw again, in her mind’s eye, Phoebe’s gentle face, forever thirteen in her memory.
    With a sigh, Tess turned over in the narrow bed and looked across the room. The other
     bed was a tumult of sheets and blankets and Erny was already gone. Probably helping
     Dawn with breakfast. Tess smiled at the thought of him. He had needed her desperately
     when his grandmother had died and left him all alone in the world. But Tess had needed
     him, too. It had not been easy all these years to keep doubt and depression at bay.
     Her childhood had been severed in two by Phoebe’s murder. Before that time, all she
     could remember was happiness. And after, even the happiest days had a melancholy shadow.
     Sometimes she thought that she and Erny had been brought together by fate to save
     each other from those shadows.
    Tess looked at the clock. She had to get up and get ready. For a moment more she lay
     there, avoiding the inevitable. She turned her gaze back to the window and was jolted
     by the sight of a gaunt man in a gray parka, standing on the nearby path that cut
     through the knee-deep brown grass of the field, staring in at her. Their eyes met
     and he held hers with his gaze until Tess averted her eyes.
    For a moment Tess remained under the covers, her heart pounding, unnerved by the stranger’s
     intruding gaze. Then her anger flared. She jumped up and pulled down the shade with
     a snap. It was probably one of those goddamn reporters, she thought. Couldn’t they
     at least have the decency to stay out in front of the house? She made the bed, washed
     her face, and got dressed in a good pair of pants, a cashmere turtleneck, and her
     hacking jacket. When she pulled back the edge of the shade and peeked out, the man
     was gone.
    She walked over to the bureau with its framed mirror, a vase of winter pansies, and
     her comb, brush, earrings, and makeup. She brushed her thick brunette hair back,