Jill Elizabeth Nelson Read Online Free Page B

turned toward Hannah. The woman brushed her scarf out of her face and back on top of her gray curls. Faded-green eyes squinted up at the intruder.
    â€œI’m sorry to disturb you.” Nicole lifted apologetic hands. “It’s Nicole Mattson. Er, you probably know me as Keller. I thought…” She hesitated. “You looked…” How did she tell the other woman she’d mistaken her for dead? “Oh, never mind. I was just passing by and stopped to check on you.”
    â€œKeller? Really?” A debutante’s giggle left Hannah’s throat. “How kind of you. Not many folks around here check on this old gal. Have a seat.” She patted the bench beside her.
    Nicole glanced toward her car, half hidden in the trees, and then back toward Hannah. The poor thing looked so hopeful for human companionship, Nicole didn’t have the heart to turn her down, even though her feet wanted to carry her back to her vehicle. She settled on the edge of the bench. A faint lilac scent drifted to her from the other woman.
    â€œTell me about yourself, Nicole Keller.” Hannah’s pudgy hand patted Nicole’s knee. “My, you’ve gotten grown up. Are you visiting your grandparents, like usual?”
    Nicole stiffened and met Hannah’s open gaze. The older woman remembered her? To Nicole’s knowledge, they’d only met once, and that was by accident years ago. “I’m staying with Grandma Jan for a while. Grandpa Frank passed away ten years ago.”
    Hannah’s face puckered like a child presented with a puzzle. “Mercy me, how could I forget something like that? Where is my head going to?”
    Nicole smiled. “It’s all right. He went peacefully in hisown bed.” Not like her father or her husband. She shook off the pinch of grief.
    Sadness drooped Hannah’s lips. “He was a good man. A very good man.”
    â€œI agree.” Nicole clasped her hands together in her lap. Frank Keller had nothing to do with the baby buried under his rose garden. Surely, everyone would know that.
    Gentle fingers brushed a sweep of hair from Nicole’s cheek. Hannah’s green eyes searched her features. “You look troubled, dear. Do you want to talk about it?”
    Nicole shrugged, words crowding to her lips. She did want to talk, to rant, to pull her hair, maybe even scream. But none of those reactions would change anything. They wouldn’t bring her dad back, or her husband, or put that poor child’s bones back into the ground where they couldn’t cast a shadow over everything that still mattered in her life.
    â€œI was just driving around thinking.”
    Hannah bobbed her head, scarf tips wagging in rhythm under her full chin. “I do the same thing when I’ve got something on my mind.”
    Nicole cast a glance toward the rear door of the house. A small canopy wrapped the portal in deep shadows. What was the police chief in there telling Simon Elling right now? How did the dead child connect with the Ellings? Hannah might know. She was going to find out about Nicole’s discovery sooner rather than later.
    She dragged her tongue across dry lips. “The contractors dug up something in my grandparents’ backyard, and I found it.”
    Hannah’s face lit. “A treasure?”
    Nicole shook her head. She tucked her feet under the bench and gripped the seat with both hands.
    â€œYou can’t leave me in suspense!” The older woman grabbed Nicole’s arm. “You simply have to tell me now!”
    â€œI know. But it’s…hard.” She swallowed. “I found a child’s bones.” She winced, more from the sound of those terrible words than from the grip that tightened around her arm. “Who would bury a baby in my grandparents’ backyard?”
    Hannah let out a little squeak and released Nicole. Her eyes, mouth and nostrils all formed round O ’s. She clasped