Stolen in the Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

to him, he goes ballistic and tells me to mind my own business.”
    “Jake,” Tess shook her head.
    “I tell you, Tess, he has the worst reputation around this town.”
    Tess knew that Julie was probably right, but she didn’t want to become embroiled in
     a discussion of her brother’s marriage and his shortcomings. She groped for a change
     of subject. “They seem like nice people,” she said, nodding toward the newspaper publisher
     and his wife, who were slowly crossing over to the arrival gates.
    “Chan? Oh yeah. Gosh, I’ve known Chan since he moved here in junior high.” Julie shook
     her head and assumed the sort of grave expression she wore when she was about to convey
     tragic gossip. “He lost both his parents in one year. He had to come and live with
     his grandmother.”
    Tess glanced at Erny, hoping he wasn’t listening, hoping Julie’s mention of the publisher’s
     sad childhood wouldn’t remind him of his own similar fate. But Erny, like most children,
     was not terribly interested in the grown-ups’ conversation.
    “He was quite the talk of the town when he arrived, I’ll tell you. He turned every
     head. Every girl at school had a crush on him. I even dated him for a while,” Julie
     announced proudly.
    “Really?” said Tess. She could easily imagine how Chan Morris’s handsome face and
     large gray eyes had set teenage hearts aflutter.
    Julie nodded. “My father had high hopes, I can tell you that. He was picturing me
     as Mrs. Channing Morris, living large in that big house on the Whitman farm.” Julie
     sighed. “But no such luck,” Julie said.
    It annoyed Tess to hear Julie obviously rueing the fact that she had ended up with
     Jake for a husband instead. Her brother had his faults, but he had worked hard and
     been a good father to Kelli, as far as Tess could tell. And judging from the fact
     that Channing Morris had failed to even recognize Julie at first, it was plain that
     the publisher felt no similar regrets. “His wife is really lovely,” Tess said.
    “Oh yeah. She seems sweet. But it’s sad. She’s got a muscle-wasting disease. Did you
     see how she was leaning on Chan? When she’s by herself she has to use a cane or a
     wheelchair. Everyone knows about her at the hospital. Apparently there’s not much
     they can do for her.”
    “That is sad,” said Tess.
    “It’s a tragedy. For both of them. I mean, to look at them you would think they had
     the world on a string.” Julie shook her head
    “It’s true,” Tess murmured. “You never know.”
    Tess put an arm around Erny’s narrow shoulders and together they followed Julie, who
     was extracting her car keys from her purse as she chattered on about the publisher
     and his wife. Tess’s thoughts returned to her own family’s sorrows and to the grim
     mission of her visit here. Oblivious to the fact that she had lost her audience, Julie
     was still gossiping as she led the way to the automatic doors and out into the airport
     parking lot.
     
    The Stone Hill Inn was a traditional New England white clapboard-sided house with
     dark green shutters. The front door was flanked by a pair of benches facing one another,
     shaped like church pews and painted the same green as the shutters. Behind the benches
     were a pair of white trellises. In summer they were covered with climbing pink roses,
     but now there were only brown vines crisscrossing the white wooden grids. The inn
     sat at the end of a quiet road, surrounded by brown fields with gray stone fences.
     A few trees, still wearing the last blaze of autumn, ringed the edge of the fields.
     Dawn opened the door as they came up the walk and rushed out to greet them, shivering
     in her thin cardigan, her yellow Lab, Leo, beside her.
    “Mom, hi,” said Tess, embracing her. “It’s so good to see you.”
    “Oh, you look wonderful,” said Dawn, releasing Tess and holding her at arm’s length.
     “And you…” she said, turning to Erny.
    Erny had fallen to