Wrong Face in the Mirror: A Time Travel Romance (Medicine Stick Series) by Barbara Bartholomew Read Free Book Online Page A

silently down her face.
    She gave each of them a hug and whispered to them to go play in the yard. “It’ll be all right. I’ll talk to them.”
    To her surprise they accepted her reassurance, escaping gladly out the front door just as their dad began to yell at his wife, “All I asked was if you’d checked when she didn’t come home on time. Is that too much when my sister has been sick and . . .”
    “I’m home,” Hart called as cheerfully as though she hadn’t heard any of the quarrel. “And I’ve got good news.”
    The sounds from the kitchen ceased abruptly and she went on in to find Nikki taking roast and vegetables from the slow cooker while Tommy loaded the day’s quota of dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Nikki’s rounded cheeks were flushed pink and her eyes bright with anger while Tommy cast his gaze downward, avoiding her eyes.
    Hart pretended not to know she’d walked into an argument. “Sorry to be late,” she said, “but I went for a drive out by the lake and they’d just discovered a dead person there and somehow I got delayed.” She thought that would be sensational enough to derail their conversation and get their attention.
    Saying it out loud, however, made the vision of the dead girl on the sands alive once again and stirred the nausea in her middle.
    “Someone drowned?” Nikki jumped to the logical conclusion.
    Hart shook her head. “An old body found inside a building from the Medicine Stick town.”
    “Medicine Stick,” Tommy commented. “But that town’s under the lake, has been for years.”
    “Since 1947,” Nikki added. “I wrote a paper on it when I was in college.”
    “ Drowned?” Tommy questioned.
    “The sheriff was there and some other people. Nothing left but bones, but they seem to think she’d been shot.”
    “Good luck to Alistair at solving that one,” Tommy said with a snort of laughter. “Everybody involved must be dead by now. Bet he wishes all his cases were that easy.”
    “They’re bringing in the state police,” Hart added, “so I guess they’re hoping to figure out something.”
    “DNA.” Tommy nodded as though he were knowledgeable about such things.
    “You could have called,” Nikki went back to the original subject. “Then your brother wouldn’t have wasted his time worrying.”
    Hart didn’t bother explaining that she’d been too busy flipping out over what she saw at the lake to even think about Tommy’s worries. Instead she said, “But now for the good news. I’ve rented my old apartment downtown and will be moving in tonight. So Christy can have her room back.”
    They seemed more surprised at this than at the news of the murder. Nikki’s eyes widened in a look of relief while Tommy scowled at her.
    Nikki recovered first. “You don’t have to do that,” she protested unconvincingly. “We’re glad to have you here.”
    “You can’t do that!” Tommy bellowed. “You’re sick and besides you were scared down there. You told me so. It’s not even safe for you to be down there by yourself at night with not a soul around once things have closed down.”
    It was new information that she’d been scared living alone. Maybe that was why she’d married Sheriff Redhawk, for company. No, that was hardly likely. She’d supposedly been in her right mind back then.”
    “I’ll get a cat,” she said, turning around to go to the room she’d borrowed to pack what few belongings she had. She stopped at the doorway to add, “The girls ran outside as I came in. They looked as if they were upset about something so you might see if they are all right.”
    Nikki muttered a smothered exclamation and rushed past Hart to head for the front door, but Tommy after a moment’s hesitation, followed her to the bedroom.
    “Hart, you can’t do this. I absolutely positively refuse to let you move out and go live by yourself until I’m sure you’re better.”
    She braced herself for the debate.
     
    Alistair Redhawk sat in front of his