Page 81 of The Women of Oak Ridge
A chill swept through me. Like a frigid wind that suddenly blew through the room, only the window was closed and no drafts came from beneath the door.
“If Sissy isn’t in Georgia, where is she?”
The question echoed in the small space.
My heart drummed as I reread the brief note. Sissy’s mama sounded nice. She used words likedearestandmy Sissy. Sissy had always spoken well of her family. It was obvious the woman had not seen Sissy since she’d come to Tennessee last summer.
I exhaled a shaky breath.
None of this made sense. The gifts. The letter. Sissy’s disappearance.
My gaze once again landed on the headboard and the loose screw.
Had Clive tried to get Sissy to join him in his traitorous activities? I felt certain he’d told her things he shouldn’t have about the secret mission taking place in Oak Ridge. The same things he’d told me. What if Sissy had refused? With her brother overseas fighting Hitler, I couldn’t see her willingly betraying him. Could Clive have threatened her and forced her to leave Oak Ridge? Was she even now holed up somewhere, frightened the authorities would arrest her for knowing things she shouldn’t?
That scenario, however, didn’t add up. Even if she’d left town involuntarily, she would have taken her things with her. She wouldhave told me goodbye. She would have written to her mother with a new address.
I thought back to the morning she left on the outing to Knoxville with Clive. I’d been busy with laundry, dreading the chore. She was putting the finishing touches on her makeup, but she didn’t look happy. What was it she’d said?
I closed my eyes, trying to remember.
I’m not sure I can trust him,she’d whispered that day.
What had she meant? Was she talking about Clive being a spy or something else? She’d confessed she was having doubts about Clive, going so far as to admit she wasn’t sure she loved him. He’d frightened her when she’d accidentally discovered the stolen documents—no doubt some of the same documents I now had hidden behind her headboard.
We were interrupted after her confession. Prudence Thorpe had poked her head into our room to let Sissy know Clive was downstairs. The nosey redhead had seemed surprised to find Sissy decked out in her nice clothes, being that Clive looked like he was dressed for a walk in the woods according to Prudence.
Another memory forced its way to the forefront.
When Clive drove me to the river and revealed secrets I didn’t want to know, he’d talked about the day Sissy disappeared. At the time, I’d been more worried for my own safety and hadn’t paid attention to everything he said. But now his words bobbed to the surface like one of the marker buoys Pa used when he’d take me and Harris fishing, warning us of hazards.
We were supposed to go to Knoxville that day, but Sissy said she wanted to talk. We came here instead. She said she was confused about our relationship and wasn’t certain we should continue seeing each other. When I asked why, she said she couldn’t trust me.I distinctly remembered him giving a humorless laugh, followed by,That was the wrong thing to say.
My pulse raced as pieces to the puzzle slowly began to connect, creating a hideous picture.
Clive took Sissy to the river that day. She’d told him she couldn’t trust him and had ended their relationship.
Then she’d vanished.
Frantic, my gaze tore around the room, taking in the clues that were right in front of me.
Christmas gifts from her family. Her clothes still hanging in the closet. Her cosmetics in their case. I jumped up and opened the drawer where I’d hidden Sissy’s badge. Her sweet face looked back at me. Clive said she threw the badge at him in anger.She didn’t need it anymore,he’d claimed.
“Oh, Sissy,” I whispered, my voice strangled. “What’s become of you?”
A cold sweat covered my body as I paced the room. I wrung my hands to keep them from shaking as I went over every piece of evidence, again and again. From the conversation I had with Sissy before she left that day, to the bizarre exchange I had with Clive at the river. I relived each moment of how he’d forced me to hide the stolen documents. His confession to spying for Russia. The fire. The threats.
All of it—every wretched detail—pointed to a truth I’d been too blind to see until now.
Images of the wide Clinch River filled my mind’s eye. The secluded area past the new plant where Clive and Sissy spent time was far away from prying eyes. No one would have been around to witness anything that happened. Clive was the last person to see Sissy. The only one who truly knew what happened.
I dropped to my knees as a terrible awareness forced breath from my lungs. I gasped for air as hateful words spun through my mind.
Is Sissy dead? Did Clive kill her?
