Page 20 of Twin Jeopardy

She sank into the desk chair, and Vince sat in a straight-backed wooden chair across from her. She set the letter on the desk between them and smoothed out the folds. “Could I see the postcard you received?” she asked.

He opened the backpack and handed the card to her. She smiled as she studied the cartoon on the front, then turned it over to read the message on the back. “‘Vince the Viking’?” she asked.

He grimaced. “The summer before Valerie disappeared—when we were both nine—we took a family trip to the Upper Peninsula to visit my dad’s brother, Ricky. On the way, we stopped at every tourist attraction my dad could find—windmills and arrowhead collections and little museums.” He nodded to the postcard. “And Valhalla-Land.”

Tammy’s smile vanished and her eyebrows drew together. “It would be a wild coincidence for someone who didn’t know about that trip to send this to you out of the blue.”

“I think so,” he said. “And it’s not just Valhalla-Land. After the trip, Valerie and I called each other ‘Vince the Viking’ and ‘Valerie the Viking’ for weeks afterwards. No one else would know that. I mean, my mom and dad would, if they even remember. And maybe Uncle Ricky. But they wouldn’t pretend to be Valerie.”

Tammy turned the postcard over. “This is postmarked in Junction, but it could have been mailed here in town. All our mail is routed through the Junction office. But that’s a long way from Valhalla-Land.”

“Whoever sent it must have brought it with them,” he said.

“Could you order something like this online?” Tammy asked.

“Even if you could, you would have to know its significance to me and Valerie.” He sat back, legs stretched out in front of him. “I’d forgotten all about that little pit stop on a long-ago vacation until I saw that card.”

She laid the card beside the letter on the desk and leaned over to study it more closely. “It’s signed the same way as my note—just the single V,” she said.

“I thought so too. But if it’s Valerie, why not sign her whole name?”

“Do you think your parents still have a sample of her handwriting?”

“Probably. But she was ten. A person’s handwriting changes as they get older, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know.” She sat back. “Do you think you should contact your parents? I’m sure if we go to the sheriff’s department with these notes, they’ll want to talk to your parents as well.”

Vince blew out a breath. “I don’t want to upset them, but better me than a call from a sheriff’s deputy.” He took out his phone.

His mother answered on the second ring. “Hello, Vince,” she said, cheerful. Glad to hear from him.

“Hi, Mom. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No, I’m just sitting here trying to read this book that isn’t all that interesting. It’s for my book club, and it’s supposed to be a big bestseller, but I must not be the intended audience.”

“Is Dad there?”

“No, he had a meeting. Do you want me to ask him to call you tomorrow, or can I help you with something?”

He took a deep breath. He saw no way to ease into the subject. “Have you gotten any letters from someone claiming to be Valerie?” he asked.

“You mean recently?”

“Yes.”

“No, dear. Years ago we received a couple of letters that were vague and rambling. We showed them to someone from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They told us they were almost certainly a scam. Other parents had received similar letters.”

“I didn’t know,” he said.

“You were still young. We didn’t see any reason to involve you. Why are you asking about this now?”

He glanced across the desk at Tammy. She was watching him intently. “I got a postcard from someone who sounded like they could be Valerie,” he said. “It was just signed with the letter V.”

“Oh my. I’m sure it’s because of the article in the paper. It was a good article, of course, but this kind of attention seems to bring out the worst in people. What did the postcard say?”

He picked up the card. “Do you remember that summer we went to Uncle Ricky’s place?”

“The summer you were nine. That was a fun trip.”

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