Not by Sight A Novel

CHAPTER 13

Abby hiked down a grassy incline on the east side of Sure Foot Mountain that she and Jay had named “the slope.” She stopped at the giant oak tree that offered the only shady spot and spread a worn patchwork quilt on the ground beneath it.

She set the two sacks from Sammie’s Subs on the quilt, then sat, hugging her knees, the warm breeze tussling with her hair. She looked down at Beaver Lake—nestled in the lush, rolling Ozark hills and dazzling in the noonday sun like a treasure chest of diamonds. Over twenty-eight thousand acres of sheer beauty, this pristine expanse never ceased to stir something deep inside her.

Abby spotted a fleck of white—an osprey. She watched the magnificent bird hover in midair before dive-bombing into the choppy water and flying off with a fish wiggling in his talons. “A master fisherman,” Daddy used to say.

Daddy. She blinked away the image she had conjured up of the remains. Abby refused to believe the skull was her father’s. He was alive. So was Riley Jo. She was sure of it.

A rather large sailboat caught her attention, the yellow-and-white mast crisp and colorful against the marine blue of Beaver Lake. The vessel seemed to glide effortlessly across the water as the skipper rode the wind.

Abby loved the feeling of the wind on her face.

She closed her eyes and just let the warm breeze flow over her. She imagined the spirit of God in the wind and relished His touch.

Father, I have faith even if Mama doesn’t trust You anymore—

Abby heard a familiar whistle and turned around. Jay was making his way down the sloping hillside, carrying his art portfolio under his arm.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” he said, sounding out of breath. “Traffic in town was backed up. I guess tourist season is in full swing.”

“I haven’t been here long.”

“I got your text messages and have been following the news. When will you know if it’s your dad and sister?”

“They’re not finished searching,” Abby said. “But you know I don’t believe Daddy and Riley Jo are dead. My family’s really stressed. I can’t allow myself to think that way.”

“What a shock, though.” Jay sat cross-legged on the blanket and laid his portfolio next to him. “I’m sorry y’all have the uncertainty hanging over you. Frankly, I was surprised you didn’t cancel this.”

“It’s too important to cancel. Now let’s change the subject before I lose my appetite.”

Abby passed him his sub, said a silent prayer of thanks, then bit into her sandwich, savoring every delectable flavor. “So what did you bring?”

Jay smiled, his five o’clock shadow looking both masculine and artsy. “Voila.” He opened his portfolio and revealed a sketchpad and dozens of colored pencils. “I printed out some pages of facial features I found on one of those ‘learn to draw’ websites.” Jay held up a small stack of images. “Eyes, eyebrows, noses, mouths, chins, cheekbones. Thought it might help you to look through them.”

“Okay.” Abby bit into a Sun Chip. “I kind of remember how he looked, but maybe once you start sketching it’ll come together.”

Jay took a bite of his sandwich, his dark eyes seeming to study her.

“What?” she said.

“You have the most amazing coloring, Abby. Especially up here on the slope. Your auburn hair and blue eyes are stunning against the green. Let me paint your portrait sometime. If you like it, I’ll frame it for your mother.”

“I’m flattered you want me for a subject, but I’m uncomfortable drawing attention to myself. People are always complimenting me about my looks. I want them to see there’s more to me than that.”

“They’d have to be blind not to. You’re as pretty on the inside as you are on the outside. But there’s no shame in being pretty. Beauty is something to be captured and enjoyed. At least think about it.”

“Not today,” Abby said, hoping Jay wasn’t starting to feel attracted to her. “We’ve got work to do.”

Abby brushed the crumbs off the quilt and stuffed the trash into the sacks. “Okay, let’s get started putting a face on the man Ella was with.”

Jay stuffed the last of his sandwich into his mouth and wiped his hands. He took out his sketchpad and selected a pencil, then thumbed through a stack of papers and pulled out a sheet that pictured a variety of facial shapes.

“Look over my shoulder so we can both see,” he said. “Which one best fits the guy you saw?”

Abby knelt behind Jay and studied the faces and then closed her eyes and tried to picture the man. “It’s hard to say since he had a beard.”

“Look at the shapes and mentally put a beard on them. Which one?”

Abby pointed to the oval shape. “I’m not sure, but I think this is right.”

Jay drew a big oval on his paper. “All right, let’s build on that.” He held out another paper with eye shapes. “Pick one.”

Abby thought back to when the man came outside of Murchison’s and grabbed Ella’s arm. “His eyes were serious looking. I don’t remember the shape and color, but they seemed dark. Brown maybe.”

“That’s a start.” Jay drew the eyes and then held out a sheet with nose shapes.

“His nose was pointy.” Abby perused the choices and selected one.

Jay drew it. “Is this starting to look like the guy?”

“It’s too soon to tell. What else?”

Jay held up a sheet showing mouth shapes.

“The guy had a beard,” Abby said. “How am I supposed to know what his mouth looked like?”

“If he was scolding Ella, you must’ve seen his mouth. Think.”

“I just remember his teeth were kind of crooked.”

“Can you be more specific? Were there spaces between his teeth? Were they protruding? Were they yellowish?”

“I don’t know! I just saw him for a few seconds!” Abby sighed. “Maybe this isn’t such a great idea. I don’t know if we can do this.”

“Yes, we can,” Jay said. “We just have to work at it. What did his beard look like?”

“Reddish gray and bushy. It wasn’t very long.”

Jay drew the beard, and her heart skipped a beat. “Yes!” she said. “It’s definitely starting to look like him, but now the eyes are wrong. I think they were more intense, sort of like an eagle’s …”



Kate picked a warm towel out of the dryer and folded it, then put it neatly on top of the stack. Doing laundry was therapeutic and the one chore she had always preferred to do by herself.

“There you are.”

She turned around and saw Hawk standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the utility room.

“I have thirty minutes before my next jeep tour,” he said, “and wanted to check in and see if Sheriff Granger found anything else.”

Kate shook her head. “He called a little while ago and asked me to contact Dr. Silvers and authorize him to pull your father’s dental records. Virgil seemed to think the pathologist could make a determination within a day or two.”

Hawk exhaled. “Everything is a waiting game.”

“At least it won’t be long.”

Hawk came over and put his hands on Kate’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I almost hope it is Daddy. At least it would be closure.”

“More like the finale.” Kate turned and pulled another towel out of the dryer and began folding it.

“It’s better than feeling like this for another five years—or ten—or twenty. Or never knowing.”

“But you said yourself there’s no way your father and sister got lost out there.” Kate put the towel neatly on the stack, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Hawk. “If they’re dead, something awful happened to them. We could have that unknown hanging over us, which would almost be worse.”

“I don’t know, Mama. I’ve already wondered about it a thousand times. If they’re dead, I would rather know and get the grief out of my system than let it eat me up for the rest of my life.”

Kate started to reach for another towel and then paused instead. “I suppose I would too. But it would be hard to accept that they’re dead.”

“Would you rather think Daddy ran off and took Riley Jo?”

“He didn’t,” Kate said. “He wouldn’t do that to us.”

“Something happened out there, Mama. Maybe a bear got them. Or wild hogs.”

“I doubt just bones will tell how they died. So we’d still be left wondering. I’m not sure just knowing they’re dead would bring closure.”

“It would for me,” Hawk said. “At least some. Maybe Abby and Grandpa will stop trying to cram their beliefs down our throats.”

Kate pushed aside the stack of towels and turned to Hawk. “Don’t be too hard on them for wanting to believe that God answers prayer. I used to believe it with all my heart. I’m just worried your grandfather and Abby are going to bottom out when they realize it’s a myth.”

“At least then Abby would stop embarrassing herself by trying to find that girl she took a picture of. How many times is she going to pull this before she starts living in reality?”

“I’ve got a call in to Dixie to get her an appointment.” Kate looked over Hawk’s shoulder and spotted the old family photo she couldn’t bring herself to remove from the fridge. “But Abby may have to face reality when the pathology results are in.”



Abby studied the sixth sketch Jay had made using the facial features she chose that best fit the man she had seen with Ella.

“That’s close,” Abby said. “The eyebrows are still wrong. His were even fuller than that.”

Jay glanced at his watch. “Why don’t we take a break? There’s still time for me to sketch a few more possibilities before I have to leave for work.”

Abby sat next to him on the blanket. “I don’t know if we’re going to get any closer to what he looked like than this last one. The beard is perfect.”

Abby’s cell phone rang, and she felt tension tighten her neck. Was Mama calling to tell her that the sheriff had found something else? She glanced at the screen and saw only Caller Unknown. “Hello.”

“I warned you not to tell nobody that I told you to back off lookin’ for the girl.”

“I didn’t tell anyone.” Abby mouthed the words, It’s him, as she put the phone on speaker.

“You’re lyin’. I know you blabbed to that Oldham kid. He ain’t gonna tell nobody about the girl, and he knows why. But I’m warnin’ you, stop askin’ about her, or I’ll make sure you go missin’—permanently.”

Abby was rendered mute in the dead air that followed, her heart nearly pounding out of her chest. She stared at Jay, who looked as if he’d just seen a ghost.

Finally Jay began to pack up his art portfolio. “That was not Mason Craddock or any of his clones. That guy sounded middle-aged. Are you sure it was the same man who called you before?”

“I’m sure,” Abby said. “I guess I was so positive it was Mason having a good laugh at my expense that I just assumed he disguised his voice. I wonder why the caller thinks I ‘blabbed to that Oldham kid’? I don’t know anyone by that name. Why are you putting your things away?”

“Because”—Jay stuffed the last colored pencil into the portfolio and zipped it—“he made it clear what’s going to happen if you don’t back off.”

“But what is it he doesn’t want me to find out? I know it’s a long shot, but it’s possible that Ella could be Riley Jo. I have to know for sure.”

“Count me out,” Jay said. “Some of these mountain folks can be dangerous. Paranoid. Who knows what kind of word’s been spread because you were asking around about Ella.”

“But I don’t have anyone else. My family’s turned me off. I’d go to the sheriff, but he wouldn’t take me seriously either.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Actually, I do.” Abby took her finger and traced the star pattern on one of the quilt squares. What did she have to lose by telling Jay the whole truth? “I didn’t tell you this before because I was afraid you would think I was crying wolf.”

“Didn’t tell me what?” Jay said.

“Two times in the past three years, I saw a girl who looked like Riley Jo. Once at the county fair, and once on the lake. The sheriff had his deputies searching high and low, and it didn’t lead anywhere. They won’t do that again.”

“Guess you can’t blame them.”

“But this time is different,” Abby insisted. “The phone calls prove it.”

“All the phone calls prove is that someone threatened you.” Jay was quiet for longer than Abby was comfortable. “I think you need to drop this right now.”

“I can’t. Not without finding Ella.”

“Abby, you’re chasing a rainbow.”

“Maybe the sheriff would take me seriously since you witnessed the second call.”

Jay reached over and gently held her wrist. “Look, even if I back up your story about what the caller said, the sheriff won’t just reopen the case; he’ll have to treat it as a kidnapping and get the FBI involved. Is that what you want?”

Abby considered how obvious the FBI presence was before in the search for her father and sister. “That’s the last thing I need. If the caller’s watching me, he’ll know. And if he’s the one who has Ella, he might take her away. Then I’ll never find her.”

“Maybe you’re not supposed to.” Jay rose to his feet, his portfolio tucked under his arm. “You’re in over your head, Abby. You just got a death threat. This guy’s not kidding around.”

“Then help me find out who the Oldham kid is, since he apparently knows something. He might talk to us if I explained the situation.”

“The caller told you to back off.”

“I’ve come this far. I have to know the truth.”

“Even if you end up dead?” Jay exhaled loudly enough to make his point. “I’ve got to go to work. I’ll call you.”

“Can I at least have the last sketch you did?”

Jay shook his head. “There’s no way I’m helping you put yourself in danger.”

“I’m going to find Ella, with or without you.”

“Don’t do this, Abby. Do you want your mother to lose another daughter? I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

“Then help me.”

Jay walked past her and headed up the slope.

Abby sat on the blanket, her cell phone in her sweaty palm, and replayed the last few minutes in her mind. She had never once considered the threat to be real—until now. Jay was right. The caller was no high school kid.

A cold chill made her shudder. She got up and grabbed the quilt and the sacks, her mind spinning out of control.

“Come on …”

The male voice startled her and sent her pulse racing. She turned around, her hand over her pounding heart. “You scared me to death, Jay!”

“I’m not leaving you out here by yourself. I’ll walk you to your car.”