Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry Read Free Book Online

serving of gossip with every bag of groceries.”
    She couldn’t stop a smile. “Some things never change.”
    “Did you get the latest popular opinion on who I am and why I’m here?”
    She was surprised that he spoke so easily about it. “Opinion is divided. You’re either a famous author hiding from a deranged fan or a bank robber sitting on his loot until it cools off. That one came from Etta Snyder’s ten-year-old son. Her teenage daughter considers you a tragic figure recovering from a terrible loss.”
    She felt a sudden qualm. What if any of them proved true?
    But he didn’t seem affected. “I’ll let you guess which it is.” They walked past the Village Soda Shop and Longstreet’s Antiques, their steps matching. “Did you get the whole scoop from Bendick? I saw him come in.”
    She stiffened. Her family troubles weren’t his affair. Didn’t he understand that?
    His eyebrows lifted. “Okay. Right. I’m interfering.”
    She fought with herself for a moment. Interfering.Aggravating. But he already knew, so who was she kidding by refusing to answer him?
    “Uncle Nick confirmed what you said.” She bit off the words, resenting the fact that he’d known what she should have.
    “Sorry. I wish I’d been wrong.” His voice had just the right degree of sympathy.
    Some of her resentment ebbed away. This wasn’t his fault. “I can’t grasp it. When I was small, I thought my grandfather was the wisest, kindest man in the world.”
    Her opinion about the kindness had changed when Grandfather let them go without a word, writing them out of his life except for the college funds he’d provided. Surely he could have mended the quarrel with Mom if he’d really cared about them. But even so, she’d never doubted his business acumen.
    “You can still have good memories of him.” His tone warmed.
    She could only nod, her throat choking up. She would like to remember Grandfather as she’d once seen him, without thinking about how he’d let her and her sisters down. Or how he’d apparently failed Grams.
    “Why didn’t my grandmother tell me? I would have helped.”
    She could feel his gaze on her face. “Maybe it doesn’t matter why. Now that you know, you’ll do the right thing.”
    He sounded like an echo of Uncle Nick, except that they didn’t agree about what that right thing was.
    “Uncle Nick told me he’s been worried about Grams. He said there have been problems with antique thieves.That prowler you mentioned—” She came to a stop, frowning at him.
    He stopped, too, leaning an elbow on top of the stone wall that surrounded the church across the street from Grams’s house. “Could be connected, I suppose.”
    “Nick said they hit isolated farmhouses. Grams’s place is right on the edge of the village.”
    “It’s also big, concealed by plenty of trees and outbuildings, and for the most part has had only one elderly woman in residence. There aren’t any houses to the east, and in the back, the farms are too far away for troublemakers to be spotted.” His frown deepened as he looked across the road toward the house.
    She shivered a little at the thought. He was right—the mansion was isolated in spite of the fact that it fronted on the main road. Crossings Road, where Rachel had been injured, snaked along one side, leading toward distant farms and making it easy for someone to approach from the back. “Surely no one would try to break into the house.”
    “They wouldn’t have to. The outbuildings are crammed to the roof with stuff. Furniture, mostly. And that’s not including the attics of the house itself. No one knows what’s there.”
    “You mean there’s no inventory?”
    His lips twisted in a wry smile. “I’m sure you’d have a tidy inventory, with the approximate value listed for every item.”
    “Of course I would.” Her voice was tart. He didn’t need to act as if efficiency were a sin. “For insurance purposes, if nothing else.”
    “That’s how your mind