Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 04 - Jupiter Returns Read Online Free PDF

out of the car and a woman came out and stood on the front porch with her arms folded. She looked like she had worked hard all of her life and was one solid muscle.
    Her hair was platinum blonde and was cut in a spike. She had on black shorts and a man’s white dress shirt. She had steel blue eyes and was barefoot.
    She folded her arms across her flat chest and said, “Just keep on going. You’ve robbed us for the last time. We have nothing else for you to take.”
    Tracy and Huck looked at me and I realized she thought I was the other one. When we continued toward the steps, she pulled a small handgun out of her shorts pocket.
    She started screaming obscenities and a man came out on the porch rubbing his eyes like he had been asleep.
    “Nadine, honey what’s going on?” He looked at least fifteen years older than she. His hair was gray and thin and he was very thin but tall. He was trembling.
    Before he could say anymore, Tracy pulled out her badge and handed it to the man.
    “If you’re the FBI, why don’ t you arrest her?” Nadine asked, motioning towards me.
    I reached in my purse and then realized the other woman impersonating me had my ID.
    “My name is Judith McCain, Ms. Limick. Your daughter stole my wallet and has been impersonating me. She has my husband.”
    She looked from one of us to the other and the n put her gun back into her pocket. “Well you might as well come on in. Honey, if she has your husband, then God help him.”
    She led us into a small living room. Everything in it was brown and looked old. She saw me looking around and said, “Christina sold everything. This was what was left. Our wells have dried up and she stole everything we had. Even took the car.”
    We all sat down and she looked closely at me , “You look much better than Christina.”
    “Do you have any idea where she could have gone, Ms. Limick?”
    “You can call me Nadine, everyone else does. No I don’t. She has been a problem child since she could walk and talk, always having to have her own way. Puberty seemed to hit her harder than it did me or anyone else I know. She became even more restless than before and started stealing from us and running away.
    “She has been in and out of more treatment programs for behavioral problems and for alcohol and drug abuse than I can remember. We have spent thousands and thousands of dollars trying to get her straightened out, but nothing has worked. She only went to the eighth grade. We couldn’t keep her in school.”
    The man, who introduced himself as Kenneth, spoke up. “We had been trying to have a baby for a long time but we couldn’t. I bought Christina. I know it was wrong but we were desperate. We were told that the mother was a teenager who didn’t want her. It wasn’t until Christina was sixteen, and we saw your story in the papers, that we realized we had bought one of the McCain triplets.
    “We tried to ke ep the information away from Christina but she found the newspaper in the garbage. She confronted us and we had to tell her she was adopted. That’s when she got so out of control we were both afraid of her. We started sleeping with our bedroom door locked and Nadine started carrying a gun.
    “Christina started coming and going when she pleased and we didn’t try to get her into any treatment anymore. She got to where she would have her friends come here with her in a truck and load up with whatever she thought she could sell.
    “About a week ago, a woman came here , with Christina, who called herself Jupiter. I don’t know where she met her but she packed Christina up in her car and they left. We haven’t seen her since.”
    So, we had hit a dead end, or so I thought until Tracy asked her, “Are there any local friends or boyfriends who we can talk to?”
    “Well, there’s Rudy,” Nadine said. “He was crazy about Christina. He has kept in touch with her.” She got up and went into the kitchen and came back with a slip of paper.
    “This is his