The Secret Hour by Luanne Rice Read Free Book Online

Brainer barked. Maggie squealed.
      “He’s home! There’s his briefcase—Daddy!”
      “Maggie,” he yelled.
      Running down the stairs, he felt his daughter fly straight against his body. She clamped on in a death-defying hug, as if she were out to win the Olympics of hugging. Usually he had to pry her off, but right now John held on even tighter than she did. Brainer tried to bump between them, getting nowhere.
      “We didn’t expect you home so soon,” Kate Harris said.
      John raised his eyes, looked at her over Maggie’s head. Kate was smiling. Or at least, she was trying to. Her mouth turned up, dimpling her smooth, freckled cheeks. But her river-stone eyes looked so sad, as if no smile had really touched them in a long, long time. John wasn’t in the mood for smile analysis, so he dropped the thoughts and gently eased his daughter away.
      “Why isn’t Maggie in school?” he asked.
      “She wouldn’t go,” Kate Harris said.
      “She goes anyway,” John said. “You’re supposed to know that.”
      “I am?”
      “You’re the adult.”
      “Hmmm,” she said, as if giving that some thought. “Yes, you’re right.”
      “Where were you?” he asked.
        “We wanted to take our—Maggie’s—mind off worrying about you,” she said in that faint southern accent.
      “I was worried,” Maggie confirmed.
      “Mags, will you give me a minute here? Go out to the sunporch. I’ll be right there, okay?”
      “Dad, don’t be mad,” Maggie said, looking stricken. John had seen her look stricken so many times in the last two years, it activated an automatic guilt mechanism in his brain. He did what he always did—promised her something to make her feel better.
      “I’ll play checkers with you,” he said, regardless of the work he had waiting for him at the office. “Go set up the board.”
      “I will,” she said, backing away, “but don’t be mad at Kate.”
      “Don’t you worry,” John said. “Go set up the checkerboard.”
      They watched Maggie walk down the hall; her shirt, stained and too big, was now also quite wet. But her chopped hair was neatly brushed.
      “You heard her,” Kate said, perfectly dressed and impeccably groomed—all except for the cuffs of her gray pants, which John noticed, were also sopping wet. “Don’t be mad at me.”
      “She’s a kid,” John said. “She doesn’t know what’s going on. Where the hell were you? Do you know how crazy I was? I was just about to call the police—I thought you’d taken her…”
      Kate’s expression changed. From calm, almost playful, she went straight to looking shocked.
      “God, I’m sorry.”
      “You must have realized!”
      “Honestly, I thought we’d be home long before you. We just ran down the street to the car wash—”
      “You washed your goddamn car ?” he asked, blood pressure rising, knowing that the previous winner of the Baby-sitter X Bad Judgment Award had just been knocked off her pedestal.
      “No, we—” Kate began.
      “I don’t have time for this conversation,” John said, shaking his head, holding his temple. It had swollen up and felt the size of a melon under his hand. “I have to play checkers with Maggie, then take her to the office with me—if you had any idea how much work I have to do!”
      “I know—I’d be happy to stay with her.”
      “No, thanks ,” John said.
      “Will you please listen to me for a minute? I’d like to explain—”
      “No need, Ms. Harris.”
      “Honestly, there is. It’s very important to me! I’ve waited—”
      “I don’t know what explanation you think will suffice for taking my kid without asking, without leaving a note. It’s outrageous. It’s criminal, if you want to get right down to it. The kidnapping statute is written—”
      “You think I’d kidnap Maggie! Please, just listen to me!
      Shaking his head, John jammed his hand into his pocket, came up with a few