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“Where’s the key?” Cade asked.
“Probably on the kitchen counter.”
“I’ll go get it.” Footsteps echoed as he ran down the steps. A few minutes later, he came back and she heard the lock turning. She twisted the knob and waved him and Betsy inside.
“What’s going on?” Cade asked.
Betsy looked up at the window. “Why you got that stuff on the window?”
“My dad did it. He said it’s too dangerous to go outside, but I think he’s lost his mind.” She looked down at the iPad Cade held. “What’s that for?”
“There’s a prisoner on the loose,” Cade said. “He killed a bunch of women and may be headed to the lake.”
Lorna Bea’s breath sharpened. Maybe her father wasn’t totally crazy.
“There’s something else,” Cade said. “Those bones under the shed were a woman’s. They said she had a little girl and they’re looking for her.”
“That’s awful,” Lorna Bea gasped.
“It gets creepier,” Cade said. “On the news, it showed a picture of the escaped prisoner. And another man they’re looking for.
Betsy nodded. “Mama said I wasn’t supposed to see it, but I looked anyway.”
Cade angled the iPad toward Lorna Bea. “This is him ten years ago. His name is Frank. But he kind of looks like your dad.”
Lorna Bea’s heart thundered in her chest. The photo was old and grainy. The guy in the picture was a lot younger than her father, had shaggy hair to his shoulders, pale skin and glasses. He was also skinny while her father was heavier.
“Thatcan’tbe him,” Lorna Bea said. “I don’t think my father went to college.”
Cade shoved the tablet under his arm. “Are you sure?”
Lorna Bea shrugged. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
Cade fidgeted. “Where’s he now?”
“I don’t know, but if he comes back and finds y’all here, he’ll have a fit.”
“He’s gonna lock you up again?” Betsy asked wide-eyed.
Lorna Bea nodded miserably although the wheels were turning in her head.
It didn’t make sense. Neither did moving all the time. But they did that at least every year.
She snapped her fingers and jumped off the bed. “Nana keeps some old pictures in a photo album,” she said. “Let me see if I can find them.”
She motioned for them to be quiet and follow her, and they tiptoed down the steps. Nana was asleep in her bedroom, so they dashed past her, then Lorna Bea snagged the photo album from the bookshelf and they ran back up the stairs.
In her room, she plopped on the bed with Cade and Betsy and opened the album. Inside were dozens of pictures of her when she was younger, mostly on her birthday and Christmas. She and Nana baking cookies. Decorating the tree. Opening presents.
She flipped further back in search of a picture of her father when he was younger. But several of the pages were empty, the pictures torn out.
And there were no photos of her daddy.
Her thoughts gathered like the gray storm clouds she’d seen moving in. Her father was secretive. Never made friends. Said he did some consulting work for a developer. That he liked the job because it was flexible and he hated staying in one place.
But he was always looking over his shoulder. And he did keep that safe locked.
Cade’s words echoed in her ears. The name of the man the police were looking for was Frank.
