Acts of Mercy Read Online Free PDF Page B

nodded, then met her questioning eyes from across the room, and felt compelled to tell the truth. “Well, actually, I had a donut I picked up when I got my coffee at that convenience place across the street from the motel.”
    She appeared to look him over, as if to assess him somehow. “Sit down and I’ll make you some eggs.”
    “Oh, no. Don’t bother. You don’t have to …” He protested, but there was that stare again. Trula pointed to the kitchen table, a farmhouse-style affair of planked oak with a banquette that wrapped around two sides to form an
L
.
    Sam sat. He was still sitting when Mallory came through the back door.
    “We’re having eggs this morning,” Trula told her without turning around.
    “What kind?” Mallory placed her handbag on the table and smiled at Sam.
    “Brown organic ones.” Trula’s sarcasm was unveiled.
    “I know that.” Mallory rolled her eyes and turned to Sam. She stage-whispered, “That’s all Trula buys. There should be a sign over the front door: Abandon hope of ever eating junk food again, all ye who enter here.”
    “Very funny,” Trula muttered.
    “Junk food is not food.” A small dark-skinned girl of perhaps four or five appeared in the kitchen doorway. “It will make you fat and give you headaches and make your teeth soft.”
    “You tell them, Chloe.” Trula smiled broadly as the girl skipped into the kitchen. “Child is smarter than most of the adults I know.”
    “Chloe, this is Sam,” Mallory said. “He’s going to work with us starting today.”
    “Hello, Sam.” The child approached the table solemnly, as if she, too, were sizing him up.
    “Hello, Chloe,” he returned the greeting, and wondered who she belonged to.
    “Do you eat junk food?” She climbed onto a chair opposite him and studied him with large brown eyes.
    “Sometimes.” He nodded and tried to look contrite.
    “Trula won’t let you have bad food here. She only makes good things to eat and makes everyone eat it,even if it’s something you don’t like,” Chloe confided and Mallory choked back a laugh.
    “What did I make you eat that you didn’t like?” Trula turned to ask.
    “Chard,” Chloe answered without hesitation, “and Brussels sprouts.”
    “Chloe is Emme Caldwell’s daughter,” Mallory explained. “When Emme has to go out of town, Trula keeps her company.”
    “Chloe keeps
me
company,” Trula corrected. “She’s my sous chef and number one baking apprentice.”
    Chloe nodded and thanked Trula for the glass of milk the woman placed before her. She took a sip, then told Sam, “Me and my mommy are going to live in the house out back ’cause we can’t find one we like. Trula’s having people clean it while Mommy’s away. She went with Robert and Susanna to help look for Robert’s missing baby. Someone stoled him.”
    Trula looked over Chloe’s head to Sam to explain. “There’s a carriage house on the grounds that has been unoccupied for who knows how long—at least since Robert’s owned the property—but it’s still in pretty good shape. We decided to spruce it up a bit so that Emme and Chloe could live closer to Emme’s work, and so that when Emme isn’t here, Chloe can stay with me. I’m hoping that it will be in move-in condition by the time they get back from this trip. That motel stay was too long for a child.”
    “And I couldn’t have my kitty there,” Chloe added.
    “Where is Foxy this morning?” Mallory asked.
    “I let her out earlier,” Trula replied. “Chloe, do you want to go see if you can find Foxy while I finish making breakfast?”
    “Uh-huh.” Chloe jumped off the chair and sprinted out the back door.
    Trula closed the door behind her, then turned to Sam and said, “You’ll hear this soon enough, I suppose, so I might as well tell you right up front. Emme adopted Chloe as a newborn from a woman who was in prison for selling narcotics and who was killed there shortly after Chloe was born. Chloe’s father