Maggie
Ellen resisted crumpling the note. Had Maggie’s trip to the ladies’ room been a ruse—a cover for her exit from the reception and from her sister’s and Luke’s scrutiny? Had she had the note written already when she and Ellen had talked a few minutes ago?
Had her sister engineered her exit so Ellen could be alone with Luke tonight?
Stifling her emotions—an unhealthy mix of anger, frustration and worry—she shoved the note at Luke.
He scanned it and handed it back. “Do you know where this cabin is located?”
She shook her head.
“We need to find it,” he said. “And we need someone to lay eyes on Hugh Parker.”
***
Ellen rolled down the passenger window in Luke’s rental car, breathing in the cool afternoon air. She got directions to the cabin from the professor who had given her Maggie’s note. No sign of concern. None. There was no landline at the cabin and only spotty cell coverage, she’d explained. But Ellen didn’t plan to call, anyway. She wanted to see her sister face-to-face. Eye to eye. Ask her what was going on. No excuses now not to explain. Her talk was done, and it had been a success.
It did occur to Ellen that she was overreacting in part because of Luke. His presence always super-charged her emotions. She’d gone back to the hotel with him. They’d grabbed their bags and she’d checked out. With a little luck, they’d find Maggie, and she’d prove to them nothing was going with her on other than a preoccupied, stressed-out academic needing time to herself and not quite knowing how to tell her sister and a Texas Ranger to buzz off.
And someone would find Hugh Parker nowhere near Saratoga Springs.
Then Ellen would have to find a place to spend the night, or catch a late-evening flight back to Austin—but she would cross that bridge when she got to it.
Luke surprised her by not wanting to talk about Parker, at least not right now. “Hugh Parker is your basic manipulator.” He continued another half mile, silent, one hand on the wheel, before he continued. “Tell me about your trip to the Adirondacks when you and Maggie were eighteen.”
“Luke…” Ellen breathed in more of the clean, beautiful mountain air. “What do you know?”
“What I read in the file.”
Bad guy came after estranged wife of a Texas Ranger and their twin teenage daughters. Bad guy lost. Twins survived. Texas Ranger and wife reconciled.
What else was there for Luke to know?
But Ellen thought she understood what he was getting at. “It was scary. Frightening.” Her voice sounded distant to her—almost as if she were talking about someone else. “It was winter. My mother, Maggie and I were at a cabin in the Adirondacks. My dad was on the way but we didn’t know that. This man kidnapped Maggie and me and left us out in the snow and the cold. But we always knew our parents would find us. Always.”
“Are you sure Maggie knew?”
“Yes,” Ellen said without hesitation.
“You’re a prosecutor, Ellen. Pretend you’re a witness and you’re deciding if you’re going to put yourself on the stand to help your case. Let me ask the question again. Are you sure Maggie knew you two would be all right?”
“She mostly knew. She could have had moments of doubt.”
“And you?”
“I didn’t allow doubt to enter my mind.”
“Maggie’s more…” He eased in to the right lane of the interstate. “More contemplative.”
“Contemplative, Luke?’
He glanced at her. Ellen could see he wasn’t going to let her change the subject or the mood. “Maggie looks at every angle, every possibility, every piece of evidence—whether it’s research into Jane Austen or whether it’s proof she’s not going to freeze to death tied to a rock with her twin sister. That’s one reason she’s a good academic. You don’t look at every angle, Ellen. You see the prize and go for it. That’s one reason you make a good prosecutor.”
“I have to consider every angle,” Ellen said, trying to keep any defensiveness out of her tone.
Luke shook his head. “Not like Maggie does. It’s not as natural for you as it is for her. I just listened to her presentation on Jane Austen. You tell me you’ve ever considered even one-tenth of what she talked about.”
“But that was the point.”
He drove on. Traffic was sparse and the scenery was breathtaking. “What if your experience eight years ago is haunting Maggie? What if the invitation to speak at Skidmore stirred up memories she’s buried all this time?”
“We’re not the type to bury memories. We get things out in the open.”
“Were you and Maggie together the whole time after you were kidnapped?”
Ellen nodded. “The whole time.”
“Bet not,” Luke said, matter-of-fact.
“Look, I get your point,” Ellen said. “Something could have happened to Maggie that didn’t happen to me, and she’s never told anyone.”