Hush My Mouth Read Online Free PDF Page A

reason,” I said, wincing at the thought of a grandmother hedging her bets, gambling on her granddaughter’s life.
    “That’s what I tried to tell her, though I really stretched to come up with a more charitable explanation than hers. She just wouldn’t move past it. And she pored over the scrapbook.”
    “She brought the scrapbook with her?”
    “I think so. I looked for it, when I was getting these photographs. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I had teased her about having memorized it.”
    She frowned, maybe regretting she hadn’t been more understanding, simply because it had been such a big deal to her sister.
    “I want you to help me find Neanna,” Fran said, making clear both her involvement and her expectation of success. “As quickly as possible. I suppose you have a fee agreement for me to sign?”
    I got up from my chair, surprised at how stiff I was, probably more from the tension of absorbing Fran’s story than from just sitting.
    Over the few months since I’d set up practice in Dacus, I’d gotten better at being businesslike without office staff to handle the details for me. I had fee-agreement forms neatly filed in the bottom drawer of my grandfather’s massive oak desk, but I still hated talking about money with clients.
    On the form, I circled the hourly fee—one that usually made people in Dacus blink. Fran didn’t.
    “Do you want a check now? You’ll have expenses, if you hire an investigator.”
    “That can wait.” I immediately regretted waving off her checkbook. Cash flow might be a problem this month, and I loathed dipping into savings to float my rejuvenated law practice. At the same time, I wanted to make sure Edna and I could deliver.
    “As a next step, I need the name of the fellow who hitched a ride with Neanna.”
    “Skipper Hinson. That’s all I know. Here’s my cell phone number.” She’d written it on the bottom of the signed agreement. “Or you can reach me at the bed-and-breakfast. I’ve forgotten the name. Off Coffee Road north of town.”
    Liberty Lodge. I knew the place. Good Sunday brunch there. “I’ll keep you posted.”
    “I’ll do the same for you,” she said as she stood and smoothed out her slacks.
    I had a warning twinge. She didn’t need to be wandering around town asking her own questions. I wasn’t used to clients hiring me, then working their own cases, but her level gaze said trying to talk her out of it would have the opposite effect. She’d driven from her Jekyll Island vacation cottage to find her sister. In her place, I wouldn’t sit idly twiddling my thumbs, either.
    “Why don’t you call the hospitals again?” I suggested. Best to focus her efforts. “Try Greenville and Anderson, as well. And the Highway Patrol. Then give me a call.”
    She nodded.
    “We’ll find your sister,” I said.
    Everything she’d told me said we needed to hurry.

Midday Monday
    My sense of urgency over finding Neanna didn’t have anything with which to vie for attention. My calendar was clear except for a final divorce-decree hearing scheduled for first thing in the afternoon. Simple enough, and I’d already overprepared for that, so I could turn my attention to Neanna.
    I hunched at my desk absentmindedly tracing my pen over the words where I’d taken notes. Which path to follow first? How about the easiest?
    I spun my chair around, got the phone off the credenza behind me, and dialed Rudy Mellin. Chief Deputy Rudy Mellin. Fran said she’d checked the likely places, but maybe she hadn’t checked with the right person.
    He answered his office phone on the second ring.
    “Rudy, have you by any chance arrested anybody namedNeanna Lyles? Or found any amnesiacs wandering around? Anybody unidentified end up in the Camden County Hospital this weekend? About thirty. A very pale, very thin blonde.”
    Rudy gulped something. Probably coffee. He didn’t switch to Diet Pepsi until the afternoon.
    “Heaven help us all. You’ve turned psychic on