Stolen in the Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

along together. Tess could see bruises on the woman’s thin forearms as her
     sleeves rode up. “You sure you’re okay?”
    “Fine,” said the woman grimly. “Quite a commotion here today, isn’t it?” She clearly
     wanted to change the subject.
    “No kidding,” said Tess.
    “The governor’s arriving. My husband and I are meeting him. He’s staying with us,”
     the woman said proudly.
    “Really?” said Tess.
    The woman nodded. “He and my husband went to college together. My husband publishes
     a newspaper.” They had made their way out of the restroom and a strikingly handsome
     man with soft black hair that flopped across his forehead rushed up to them.
    “Sally,” he cried. “What happened?” The man was dressed casually and had wide, intense,
     gray eyes, the pupils ringed in black.
    “I’m fine. I had a little episode, but this lady helped me,” said Sally.
    “Oh, thank you so much,” he said, slipping his arm around his wife in place of Tess’s
     arm. “I’m very grateful to you.”
    “Don’t mention it,” said Tess.
    “Mom,” Erny cried, rushing across the concourse with a bottle of Gatorade and a comic
     book.
    Tess could tell that the publisher was about to introduce himself and his wife and
     ask her about Erny. The last thing Tess wanted was to mention her own name. A newspaperman
     who was meeting the governor was sure to recognize it right away and be full of questions,
     and that was something Tess definitely preferred to avoid. “Come on,” she said to
     Erny. “We’d better scoot.” She gave the man and his wife a friendly smile and started
     to nudge Erny to gather up his bag.
    All of a sudden Tess heard someone calling her name. She looked up and immediately
     caught sight of her sister-in-law Julie, a heavyset woman with glasses, her blonde
     hair cut short in a no-nonsense style. Over her nurse’s uniform Julie wore a bulky
     sweater of variegated colors that she had most likely knitted herself, Tess thought.
     Knitting and church were Julie’s primary interests now that her daughter was grown
     and out of the house. Julie’s round face broke into a sweet smile and she waved enthusiastically.
    Tess waved back. Though only in her late thirties, her sister-in-law looked much older.
     She had been a teenager when Jake first met her during their family’s ill-fated camping
     trip to Stone Hill. Back then, Julie was a teenage beauty with long, wavy blonde hair
     and a curvaceous figure. She and Jake had fallen in love with adolescent intensity,
     quickly and completely. During the days after Phoebe’s disappearance, and then later,
     during the trial, Julie had stayed glued to Jake’s side. Tess could still remember
     spying on the teenage lovers, sitting nearly on top of each other in the corner of
     the living room at the Stone Hill Inn where the DeGraffs were given rooms for a pittance
     throughout the whole ordeal. A year later, when Jake was finished with high school,
     he moved up to Stone Hill to be with Julie, and they married shortly thereafter. Their
     one child, Kelli, was now in the army and Jake had a house-painting business in Stone
     Hill.
    Julie opened her arms wide and embraced Tess and then Erny. “Look at you!” she exclaimed
     as she gazed admiringly at Erny. “You are really getting big.”
    Erny shrugged, but smiled. His aunt was always kind to him.
    “Do you have any other luggage?” she asked.
    “No. We’re good to go,” said Tess.
    “Well, okay,” said Julie. “I’m parked out here.” Then she noticed the publisher, who
     was insisting that his wife sit down and rest. “Chan!” she exclaimed.
    The man seemed mystified by the sight of Julie calling his name. He frowned slightly,
     combing his unruly hair back off his forehead with his fingers. Then suddenly recognition
     dawned in his pale, gray eyes. “Julie. Hi. I haven’t seen you in…”
    “A long time,” Julie said. She looked pointedly at the petite woman on his