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ONE
The warning shriek of a siren accompanied a blur of Missouri roadside shrubs and the flash of red-blue-red in Sarah Russell’s rearview mirror. She dabbed at her wet face with the cuff of her sleeve. Another blast of sound and flash of lights near her back bumper told her she was busted. “Oh, sure,” she muttered. “Don’t go after the real speeders. Pick on me.”
All she needed right now, atop everything else, was public humiliation—it would be bad enough when the whole Russell family found out she’d lost Emma after having custody for only three weeks. And she hadn’t been speeding. True, squealing tire rubber on the road was never a good idea, and she should have known better than to attempt highway traffic while fighting tears that flowed faster than her speedometer, but still…
With a wet sniffle, she pulled to the shoulder of Highway 60. A few more seconds and she’d have been out of the Sikeston city limits and on her way toward Jolly Mill.
She closed her eyes and focused on breathing deeply. The word murder reverberated through her mind in time with her heartbeat. Impossible. Couldn’t be! But what if it was true? Innocent, trusting sixteen-year-old Emma was headed toward disaster in more ways than one.
Sarah fumbled in her purse for a tissue and was blowing her nose when a uniformed figure stepped from the cruiser behind her. She lowered the window, winced at the squeak she’d never had repaired and looked up—into the face of her cousin, John Fred Russell.
“Oh, John.” She nearly burst into fresh tears at the sight of the man who’d been like a brother since her family moved here. Among all the Russell cousins, John was her favorite. A person couldn’t spit on the sidewalk in this town without the whole Russell clan hearing about it, but John had kept silent for years about her most devastating secret. He was a true man.
