Threads of Steel (Bayou Cove) Read Online Free

yours.”
    “Oh, get real. I’m not leaving you.”
    “I’m okay. I promise.”
    Doug McCall stepped closer to her. “I’ll stay here with her until the police come.”
    Anna Marie was surprised the man was still with them. “I can’t expect you to do that.”
    “Why not? I can play golf any time. I know a few guys on the police force so I might know the ones coming here.”
    She looked up in his brown eyes filled with understanding. She didn’t know this man, but at the moment she could lose herself in the tenderness his eyes seemed to offer. “Thank you.”
    “What should we do?” Nancy asked. Her huge eyes told Anna Mari e how devastated her friend was.
    She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I have to talk with the police, then I need to go to the hospital. I have to see for myself if that man is really my father.”
    Doug touched her arm, then nodded toward the road. “There’re they are.” He stepped into the street and headed toward the patrol car pulling in near the hotel entrance.
    Nancy looked at the guy, then back at Anna Marie. “Who is he?”
    “Just a golfer I was supposed to play with this afternoon. Doug McCall.”
    Nancy took her hand. “Good looking guy. Come on. I’ll go with you to talk to the police. Oh, wait. I have to get Harry, Jr. out of the van. You go on. I’ll meet you.”
    Following close behind Doug, Anna Marie tried to calm herself before she came face to face with the policemen. Realization hit her. This would be one of many meetings she’d have to endure before she left this town.
    She prayed for the strength to handle what was in her future.
    She watched Doug shake hands with each of the officers as she stepped up next to them. Doug introduced them to Anna Marie.
    “Miss LaFaire , we’re sorry to have to meet you under these circumstances.” The older officer said. Probably in his forties, his eyes had the same gentle look as Mr. McCall.
    All of a sudden too choked up to speak, Anna Marie simply nodded.
    “Do you think we could go somewhere where we can talk in private?” the younger officer asked.
    “There’re several meetings rooms inside. I know we can get in one if they’re not booked,” Doug offered.
    Glad to have someone to take control, Anna Marie waited for Nancy to run across the parking lot with the baby striding her hip, then they all walked inside.
    Within minutes they were seated around a long table in a private room. Doug pulled out a chair for Nancy, then stepped back. She welcomed them with her, even Doug whom she didn’t know at all. Having him there didn’t seem any more surreal than what was happening to her now.
    When Officer Stenson pulled out a pad and placed it on the table, Anna Marie felt as though she was about to be interrogated for the death of Miss Ellie instead of answering questions about her father.
    After checking her identification and jotting down some of the information, he explained what they knew about the accident. Her father was driving a car that belonged to Timothy Barker, a construction worker along the coast.
    “It seems your father and Mr. Barker met in prison. Your father ran into Miss Ellie Harrington on Sycamore Lane. She was riding her bicycle. He hit her, then hit a telephone post and never regained consciousness. He’d been drinking. A driver only needs .08 blood-alcohol level to be considered legally intoxicated. His was 1.6.”
    The weight on her chest pressed even harder. She’d thought after all that time in prison he wouldn’t still be drinking, but what did she know? She nodded to the officer and he started the questions.
    When asked when she’d seen her father last and if she knew he’d been released, she pulled in a long breath.
    “I had no idea he was being released. It’s been more years than I’d like to admit. I was only nine when he was sent up for armed robbery. He’d had so many other smaller infractions with the law that the judge wasn’t lenient. At first my mother and I drove up to