The Hiding Place Read Online Free PDF

tone in her voice and didn’t like it. But she couldn’t help it. She’d be lying to herself and anyone else if she said she wasn’t thrilled to see him, if she said she didn’t think, from time to time, about the possibility of Michael Bower coming back to Dove Point for good.
    “There’s another reason I’m back,” Michael said. He turned to face her. “Do you know what it is?”
    “Your dad?”
    Michael frowned. “No, not him.” He shook his head.“Twenty-five years, Janet. I know the date. I saw the paper today. Twenty-five years.”
    “I didn’t know if you’d remember,” she said.
    “Of course. I was there.”
    “I know,” she said. “It’s just—we’ve never really talked about it, you and I. But there’s a reporter coming over to interview me after work today. They’re doing another story.”
    “How are you doing with all of this, Janet?” he asked. “I thought you might need the support. You shouldn’t have to go through it alone, you know.”
    “You should come to the house today,” Janet said. “The reporter asked me if I was in touch with you. We can do the interview together.”
    Michael looked away again, but this time he glanced behind her. She turned to follow his gaze and saw Madeline coming out of the back of the building, her hand raised to shield her eyes from the sun.
    “There you are,” Madeline said. “I thought you’d run off. The provost’s office is on the phone. They need you.”
    “Okay. Just a minute.”
    “I think they have a question about the budget.”
    Before Madeline went back in, she cast a last, long look at Michael, and Janet knew she’d have more questions to answer about the man in the parking lot.
    “I have to go,” Janet said. “But come to the interview. Really. You must be thinking about this a lot. We can talk about it.”
    “You must think about it a lot, too,” Michael said. He stared at her, studying her face. “What do you remember from that day, Janet?”
    For a long moment, Janet stared at him. Her mouth was dry, and the sounds of the passing cars amplified, like rushing wind.Before she could say anything else, Madeline stuck her head out the door and called her name again.
    “You’ll come today, right?” Janet asked. “Two o’clock.”
    “We’ll talk,” Michael said.
    Janet looked back once before she entered the building, but he was already gone.

Chapter Six
    As the nearly empty bus brought the two of them back near their homes, Ashleigh thought about the size of Dove Point, Ohio. Not really big enough to be called a city, and yet not really small enough to be called a town. According to her ninth-grade civics class, about fifty thousand people lived there. Most of them worked at the university or the medical center complex or the handful of factories that dotted the perimeter of Dove Point like beads on a bracelet.
    Had she really come that close to the guy from the porch? Had she almost found the needle in the haystack?
    Kevin stretched across from her. His long legs spilled off the end of the seat, partially blocking the aisle, and she could tell by the way he chewed his thumbnail that he was anxious.
    “They won’t fire you for being late once,” she said.
    “I know. I really wasn’t thinking about that.” He straightened up and scooted over to the seat on the aisle, making sure he wouldn’t have to raise his voice to be heard. One old woman rode at the front, her little rolling grocery cart close by her side as if it contained gold. “What are you going to do now?” he asked. “I mean, you didn’t really prove that’s the dude who came to your house in the middle of the night.”
    She didn’t hesitate. “It’s him,” she said.
    “Really?”
    “Really. It’s him.”
    They stopped at a light, the engine rumbling in idle. The air-conditioning worked hard to keep them cool, and Ashleigh pinched the fabric of her T-shirt between two fingers and tugged it back and forth, adding to the breeze.
    “Do