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Kristy regarded the list thoughtfully. "Not Pete Moore. He hasn't been inside a church in years."
Rachel leaned back against the sink and cradled the mug in both hands. "The person who took it might not have done it for religious reasons. He could very well have wanted it as a curiosity piece."
In the end, Kristy entirely eliminated six names and said the other four were highly unlikely, but Rachel refused to be discouraged. "I'll start with those, but if I don't discover anything, I'm talking to the rest."
The boy rushed into the kitchen. "I'm clean! Can we go, Kristy? Are they going to have a real pig there?"
As Rachel went over to check Edward's hands, Gabe picked up the coffee mug she'd abandoned and walked out onto the back porch. A few minutes later, he heard Kristy's car drive away.
Quiet once again settled over Heartache Mountain. He and Rachel would have the cottage to themselves for the rest of the afternoon. Heat rushed through his veins. God bless Kristy Brown.
He shut his eyes for a moment, ashamed of how much he wanted Rachel, because he didn't love her. He couldn't. That part of him no longer worked. But he loved being with her. She calmed something inside him.
The screen door banged behind him. He turned toward her, only to feel his anticipation fade as he saw the determined look in her eyes.
"Let's go, Gabe. We're going to find that Bible right now."
He got ready to argue, but then gave up. What was the use? Rachel's mind was made up.
Chapter Fifteen
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"Another waste of time," Gabe said as he closed the door of his truck.
The interior was hot, and the seat belt burned Rachel's fingers as she snapped it together over the skirt of the dress she'd been reserving for a special occasion, a square-neck yellow cotton printed with black-and-orange monarch butterflies. "We only have one more name to go."
"Let's eat instead. I could use a hamburger."
"I swear you have a tapeworm. We just ate an hour ago."
"I'm hungry again. Besides, checking up on Rick Nagel's going to be an even bigger waste of time than this was. The fact that he cheated off Kristy's geography test when she was in fifth grade doesn't mean he should be a suspect."
"I trust Kristy's instincts."
Gravel crunched beneath the tires as Gabe backed out of Warren Roy's short driveway. Rachel watched him flip on the air conditioner. At the same time, he gave her a look that combined both tolerance and irritation. He thought she was on a wild-goose chase, and he was probably right. The blank expressions on the faces of the first two men they'd visited had convinced her neither one had any idea what she was talking about. Still, the Bible had to be somewhere.
Something had been nagging at her ever since she'd first seen the list, and once again, she took out the paper to study the names. Bill Keck… Frank Keegan… Phil Dennis… Kirk DeMerchant… She hadn't known any of them.
Dennis. Her gaze shot back up the list. "Phil Dennis? Is he related to Carol?"
"Her brother-in-law. Why?"
She jabbed her finger at the paper. "He was there that night."
"Then you're out of luck. I heard he moved out west a couple of years ago, so if he took your Bible, it's long gone."
"Not if he gave it to Carol."
"Why would he do that?"
"She was loyal to Dwayne. She still believes in him, and that Bible would mean a lot to her. Maybe her brother-in-law knew that and took it."
"Or maybe not."
"You could be a little more encouraging, you know."
"This is as encouraging as I get."
