Sunshine and the Shadowmaster Read Online Free PDF

the coffeemaker gurgled and sputtered as it finished filling the pot. Heather waited—for the coffee to be ready and for Lucas to give her the go-ahead to make the call.
    But apparently, Lucas wasn’t quite ready yet to accept what had to be done. When he spoke, it wasn’t about Mark at all.
    â€œThe walnut tree looks the same,” he said of the old tree in the middle of the back lawn. He turned his hooded gaze on her. “Did you know I built a fort in that tree, years ago?”
    Heather nodded. “Don’t you remember? It was still there when Jason Lee and I came along. We played in it, too.”
    â€œYou and Jason Lee.” He gave a low chuckle. She could hear affection in that chuckle—and she could hear pain. “Joined at the hip from the first day of kindergarten, right?”
    She smiled a little herself, feeling close to this strange man at that moment, connected to him through their mutual love for another man who was with them no more. “We were best friends. Always.”
    â€œMy brother was a happy kid.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAnd a happy man.”
    Heather tasted tears at the back of her throat. She swallowed them, then carefully said, “I need to call my boss and tell her I’ll be late this morning. And then after that, we really should report Mark missing.”
    Lucas just looked at her.
    She held up her hands, palms out. “I don’t know who else to call, Lucas.”
    Lucas’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. He turned back to the window and his contemplation of the old walnut tree. “Yeah. I know. Call your boss. And then your uncle. Go ahead.”

Chapter Three
    L ily Tibbits yelled for a few minutes when she learned her head waitress was going to be late. But Heather wasn’t bothered. She worked hard for Lily—and Lily always yelled when things didn’t go her way. Heather waited until Lily had to stop for a breath and then promised to be in as soon as she could.
    Heather hung up and called her uncle Jack. He said he’d be right over.
    While they waited for Jack, Heather offered Lucas some breakfast. He said he wasn’t hungry. And she realized she didn’t have much of an appetite, either. So she excused herself to go to her room, where she swiftly changed into the jeans, white shirt and tennis shoes she always wore to work.
    The doorbell rang just as Heather finished tying her shoes.
    â€œHey, Sunshine,” Uncle Jack said when she let him in. Uncle Jack always called her Sunshine. It was the name people had started calling her when she began working part-time at Lily’s seven years before, when she was only sixteen. Now she responded to it as readily as she did to Heather.
    â€œUncle Jack.” She gave him a quick, fond hug. Then she stood back and grabbed his arm. “Come on. Mark’s father is in the kitchen.”
    They found Lucas sitting at the table staring into his empty coffee cup. He glanced up when Heather led Jack in. The two men exchanged a long look.
    Then Jack stuck out his hand. “Lucas, right?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI’m Jack Roper.”
    Lucas stood and the two men shook hands.
    * * *
    â€œOur biggest problem,” Jack said when Heather and Lucas had described the events leading up to Mark’s disappearance, “is that if Mark doesn’t want to be found, he’s going to be working against us all the way. It’s one thing to bring out the search and rescue crew when the missing person is lost on a mountain somewhere, praying for rescue—and it’s another thing altogether to hunt down a runaway. Also, since Mark has hitchhiked on his own before, it’s fully possible that he’s taken to the road again. He could be in another state by now.”
    Still, Jack promised that everything that could be done would be done. He questioned Lucas and Heather in depth and even read the letters that Mark had sent Heather, though in them he