Page 9 of Twin Jeopardy

Sandor shrugged. “People are interesting.”

“If you say so.” Vince bit into his taco. He glanced over at Tammy. She was pretty, in a friendly, down-to-earth kind of way. All those soft curls. She was laughing with the guy she was with.

Cavin nudged him. “Caught you looking,” he said.

Vince focused on his food once more. “She and that guy look pretty cozy, so I’d say she isn’t available,” he said.

“That’s her brother,” Sandor said. “He’s a real estate agent over at Brown Realty. He helped us find the house we’re in.”

Vince couldn’t help himself—he had to look at the pair again. Maybe a family resemblance was there. Tammy rested a hand on the man’s forearm and smiled into his eyes. He felt a pang. What would it be like to have a lunch with a grown-up Valerie like that? To have someone besides your parents who had known you your whole life, who had seen life from a similar perspective and had the same frame of reference? He would never know.

Cavin shifted the conversation to a discussion of parts he needed to order for one of the county graders, and Vince turned his back on Tammy and her brother. Maybe he wasn’t cut out for relationships. He didn’t like getting too close to people. That was okay. Everybody was different, and he was happy enough. Most of the time.

“ASWESAYgoodbye to our friend Paul, it is with great sadness, as well as gratitude for having him in our lives. Though his physical body is gone from us, his memory endures, and we will hold him in our hearts forever.” The black-suited man from the funeral home who had agreed to lead this graveside burial looked across the open grave at the trio of mourners. “Go in peace,” he said. “And I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you.” Valerie choked out the words, then cleared her throat, pulling herself together. Paul never liked it when she cried. It was the one thing she did that ever made him angry. She turned away, not wanting to see them shovel dirt onto the coffin.

“It’s hard to believe he’s gone.”

She glanced at the speaker—Bill, who had played on the local softball team with Paul. “I guess so,” she said. Though after staring at his dead body, slumped in his favorite chair in front of the TV, she hadn’t any doubts that he had died. An asthma attack, the coroner had said.

“I mean, he was so young,” Bill continued. “Only forty-five.”

Thirty-nine, she silently corrected. But he told everyone he was older because of her. She hadn’t realized herself until she had found papers with his real age on them one day when she was sixteen. It made sense, though. No one would have believed he was her father if they knew he was only fourteen years older. Not that it was anyone’s business.

“I know there’s not any formal wake or anything, but do you want to get coffee or something?”

She stopped walking. So did Bill. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his baggy suit and hunched his shoulders the way tall people sometimes did, as if trying to look smaller. He was thin and bony, and already losing his hair despite the fact that he was still in his twenties. He wasn’t bad looking, but his cloying infatuation with her was grating. “No thank you,” she said. “I don’t feel like company.”

“Well, sure. Of course.” He took a step back. “Maybe another time.”

She walked alone to her car and drove back to the house that had been home the past fifteen years, in a drab suburb of Omaha, Nebraska. She had been happy here while Paul was alive. Happy enough. Happy as a person could be who had been abandoned by the people who were supposed to take care of her. As Paul had often reminded her, she was lucky he had come along when he did, to look after her.

But now Paul was gone. She had no one.

She was alone now. Free to do whatever she wanted. Paul had left her a little money—several thousand in cash he kept in the safe in his bedroom closet, as well as the house and ample funds in the bank accounts they shared. She would take that money and spend some time making things right.

Chapter Four

Monday night, Vince called his parents. He had been putting the conversation off since he had talked to Tammy on Friday, but it was time he let them know. Though they had moved to Junction several years before, they still subscribed to theEagle Mountain Examiner, and he didn’t want them surprised by Tammy’s request for an interview. Besides, she was waiting on him before she could finish the article.

His father answered the phone and put the call on Speaker right away. “Hello, Vince,” he said. “Your mother is right here. How are you doing?”

“I’m okay, Dad. How are you and Mom?”

“We’re fine,” his mom answered. “A little tired. We played golf today—a full eighteen holes. With Barb and Ray Ferngil. Do you remember them? Ray used to work with your dad.”

Vince had no idea who they were talking about. “You had beautiful weather for a game,” he said.

“We did,” his dad said. “I like living near a good course.”

“Did you just call to chat, or did you need something?” his mom asked. “Not that we don’t love to hear from you, but you don’t usually call on a Monday night.”

“A reporter here in Eagle Mountain is doing a series of articles on the local search and rescue organization,” he said. “One of the articles is going to be about the search for Valerie. I just wanted to warn you so it didn’t come as a shock.”

“Oh.” One short, sad exhalation from his mom that made his chest tighten. He hoped she wasn’t going to start crying. She hadn’t done that in a long time, but it always unsettled him.

“Did this reporter talk to you about it?” his dad asked. “Is that how you know?”

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