Letter From Home by Carolyn Hart Read Free Book Online Page B

imitation leather chair. “How would you know?” He tapped the cigarette on the ashtray. “You went to bed.”
    Barb’s eyes were stricken. “I wasn’t asleep. I heard Mama come in. She slammed doors and paced back and forth. I heard her go in her room and run out again. There wasn’t any other sound. If Daddy was there, he would have said something.” Her voice was definite. “There was a knock at the front door. I heard Mama go answer and she cried out something like, ‘You’ve got a nerve.’ Somebody came in.” Barb pressed her hands against her cheeks. “There was a voice, but I couldn’t hear the words. It was like somebody wanted Mama to be quiet. You know how people make a shushing noise? Then Mama yelled.” Barb’s face flattened in sick memory. “She was calling for help and I ran away.”
    â€œRight thing to do, Miss Barb.” He cleared his throat. “You got scared and came here for help, asked Miss Gretchen to come with you. You say you didn’t hear your daddy’s voice?”
    â€œOh, I would have known if Daddy had been there.” She sounded almost buoyant. “Did you ever know my daddy to whisper?”
    â€œThat’s true what the child says.” Grandmother clapped her plump hands together, nodded eagerly.
    â€œNo, Clyde’s not much to whisper. Well . . .” The chief stubbed out the cigarette, pushed to his feet. “I guess that pretty much covers everything.” He reached down a long arm to grab his hat.
    Barb stood. “Chief, will you find Daddy? It’s going to be awful when he finds out what’s happened to Mama.”
    Gretchen got up, too. She realized she was more tired than she’d ever been. Her head ached, her body felt heavy. Through the screen, the night was turning gray. The sun would be up pretty soon and she and Grandmother would go to the café. They had to go whether or not they’d slept. Then she’d go to the Gazette . Mr. Dennis would want to know all about her and Barb finding Mrs. Tatum. But Mr. Cooley would write the story. And she’d bet he’d tell all about seeing Barb’s mom at the Blue Light tonight. Gretchen thought he better not fool around with the chief. Mr. Cooley better tell him everything he knew. She wished she could hear them talk, but she’d hear all about it at the Gazette .
    Chief Fraser moved slowly, lumbering like a bear across the floor, his boot heels thumping. He stopped at the front door, looked back, his big slab of a face drawn in a frown. “One more thing, Miss Barb.” He spoke quietly enough, but there was an edge to his deep voice.
    Gretchen blinked. Her eyes felt scratchy and bleary, but she saw Barb stiffen.
    â€œHow come”—Chief Fraser’s thick gray-black brows bunched over his eyes—“the door to your room is locked?”
    Barb’s eyes widened and her mouth hung slack.
    The silence in the room pulsed with the chief’s suspicion and Grandmother’s puzzled consideration and Barb’s shock.
    Gretchen frowned. Most people never even locked up their houses at night. Why would Barb lock the door to her bedroom? Why didn’t Barb answer?
    It was Grandmother who spoke. “Why, Chief Fraser,” she said, her voice holding almost a tsk-tsk tone, “a girl all alone in her house late at night. That was it, wasn’t it, Barb? You locked your door because your mama and papa weren’t home.”
    â€œYes.” Barb bent, picked up the sheet, draped it around her shoulders though it wasn’t cold and pulled it across her front. “I didn’t like being by myself. I just turned the lock and went to bed.”
    The chief frowned. “When you got up, was it because you heard your mama come home?”
    â€œNo. I heard Mama come in and I knew she was still upset and so I lay there real still.” Tears brimmed from her eyes. “She