Gone Read Online Free Page B

than
the last time.”
    “She’s doing it right this time. She didn’t jump out at the red
light and scream at the woman to give her back her baby. She didn’t scare anyone
half to death by stalking them all over the outdoor marketplace. She followed
the car, got the license tag and came to see me to see if I could run it for
her.”
    “Joe, you’re not buying in to this, are you? I don’t think I
can stand to see you disappointed again.”
    “It’s a chance, and I can’t afford not to take it. But no, I’m
not buying in to it again. I’m waiting for the license plate to be run, then I’m
going to do a background check on the woman, just like we do any suspected
abductor. We check for arrest records, any complaints against them, friends,
relatives, church, school, neighborhood. If I can’t verify that the child is not
Joshua, then we’ll make a visit to the woman’s house and request a DNA sample.
Usually at that point, if the child is an abductee, the abductor’s story breaks
down. Those are the successful cases.”
    “And they’re what percentage of your entire caseload?” Kit
asked, her face suddenly pale and pinched.
    “I’m not getting my hopes up, Kit, I promise.” Liar. Of course he was getting his hopes up. Marcie
was almost positive she’d seen their son.
    “I have to go,” his mother said, still looking as though she’d
just heard awful news. She stepped forward and held out her arms for a hug. He
got up, bent down and hugged her, accepting her tight, warm embrace in return.
“I love you, Joe. You and Marcie. Please don’t get yourselves hurt again. When
you find out it’s not Joshua, be careful. Let Marcie down easily.”
    “I love you, too, Kit.”
    She pulled back and looked him square in the eyes. “If you need
anything— anything —you call me. Understand? And,
Joseph, it’s about time you started calling me Mom,” she admonished.
    Before he could think up an answer to that, she’d slipped out
the door.
    * * *
    T HE PAST TWO YEARS had been the happiest that Rhoda Sumner had
ever had in her life. Her little boy was beautiful and perfect. That
good-for-nothing mooch Howard, who still claimed he was going to marry her one
day when his ship came in, spent most of his days
over on Bayou Picou, fishing. Rhoda cared about Howard. He brought fish home and
cleaned them himself, and he handed over his disability check to her every
month. He was happy as a clam to have a woman, a place to live and money for
beer and bait. And he never said a word about the kid who’d showed up two years
ago. In fact, his usual practice was to pretend the kid didn’t exist.
    Although Rhoda had never been blessed with a child, she’d told
everyone that Joshy was her grandson, and she was rearing him because her
daughter couldn’t stay off drugs. She took him to Sunday school, bought him
clothes at the Walmart in Hammond, and every morning from eight o’clock until
ten, she sat him in a little antique wooden school desk she’d found and played
educational games with him. He wasn’t yet three and he already knew how to count
to twenty and identify eight colors. He could get through P singing the alphabet song and she was starting to teach him that
each letter had a shape and a sound.
    “Now which letter is this, Joshy?” she said, holding up a flash
card with a B on it.
    “Bee!” he shouted.
    “That’s right. You are such a smart boy.”
    “I a smart boy,” he replied and held up three fingers. “I’n
three.”
    “Almost. Now, what letter—?” Before she could finish her
sentence, she heard the front door slam. It was Howard. With a sniff of
irritation, she got up from the low chair where she sat in front of Joshy.
    “Oh, no!” Joshy said. “Howarr. Oh, no. He yells.”
    “I know, smart boy,” Rhoda said to him. “Let’s go into your
room. I’ll turn on the TV for you.” She walked with Joshy into his room and
turned the TV to a children’s channel. “Watch TV while I talk to