A Deceptive Homecoming by Anna Loan-Wilsey Read Free Book Online Page A

tombstone. Approaching me were two men who, except for the color of their hair, from a distance looked like twins, both tall, broad-shouldered, and wearing identical navy blue uniforms and caps. Their uniforms seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place them. With the deportment of policemen, despite looking more like train conductors, they made their unhurried way toward me. They stopped often to circumnavigate the larger mausoleums, or to glance behind every large obelisk and headstone. If they had seen me, they gave no impression of doing so. But why would they be coming for me? Why was I hiding?
    â€œIt’s your jitters again,” I chided myself. “What’s wrong with you?”
    I snatched up my hat and pinned it back on while I watched their progress. When they were a few yards away, I stood up from my hiding place.
    â€œAaahhh!” one of the men shouted, both leaping back a few steps.
    â€œOh, madam,” the man with the ginger hair said, his hand over his heart, “you certainly gave us a fright!”
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” the other one asked. Both the first man and I looked askance at this ridiculous question. I glanced around me at the tombstones and mausoleums.
    â€œObviously she’s visiting someone’s grave,” the ginger-haired man said.
    â€œI’m sorry. That came out wrong. What I meant is that you should take care being here, especially alone.”
    â€œAnd why should I take care?”
    There were always those who say that ghosts haunt graveyards at night but even if I believed in such nonsense, it wasn’t even midday as yet. The only shadows here were caused by the speckling of light on the stones as the sun shone down through the trees. I’d actually found it very calming and comforting to be among the silent stones warmed by the late-summer sunlight. At least I had until they arrived.
    Then why had I hid at the slightest of noises?
    â€œBecause there’s an unpredictable, dangerous man about,” the ginger-haired man said, as if hearing my thought.
    â€œIs that whom you were searching for among the graves?”
    â€œYes, it would be easy to hide in a place like this.”
    Could this be whom I’d sensed watching me? It would explain the unease I felt. Or after all I’ve been through lately I could just be getting jumpy.
    No, that isn’t it, I thought. Maybe the man they’re searching for was here.
    â€œWho is this man?”
    â€œA patient from the asylum who escaped a few days ago,” the fair-haired one said. “We’ve got men all over town searching for him.”
    â€œThe State Lunatic Asylum?” I realized now why their uniforms seemed familiar. The two nodded their heads.
    â€œI’d keep your wits about you, if I were you.”
    â€œI’d recommend not going about alone, especially in a deserted place like this,” the other added. But I was barely listening to what they said.
    The State Lunatic Asylum, I repeated in my head, a shiver running down my spine. I hadn’t heard that name for many years now. The palms of my hands felt damp upon hearing it. And I’d prefer never hearing it again. I shook off the dread, fought the nausea slowly rising in my throat to hear the orderly say, “He’s a pale-skinned man, five feet ten inches tall with broad shoulders, weighing one hundred eighty pounds.”
    But he couldn’t possibly be talking about my father, I thought.
    â€œExcuse me. Did you say the man was in his fifties, with mostly gray wavy hair, broad shoulders, and very prominent cheekbones?”
    â€œYes, he also wears a mustache and beard and has brown eyes. If you see him, don’t approach him. Please contact the asylum or notify the police.”
    I nodded my head absently as the two men continued their search of the cemetery grounds. The events of the funeral and interment returned to my thoughts again. I had found a semblance of peace