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Rachel Alexander 09 - Without a Word

Rachel Alexander 09 - Without a Word

Titel: Rachel Alexander 09 - Without a Word Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Carol Lea Benjamin
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it all to him, everything I knew. When
    I’d finished, we sat there not talking for a while. I was thinking about what he told me, how Sally had come to him, scared, to say she was pregnant, how he’d panicked and rejected her, how she’d disappeared back then, too. Leon said she’d cut herself off from her friends, moved to another borough, changed her name. No one at Lincoln could have possibly guessed that she had married Leon, even though he’d disappeared, too. No one would have put that particular two and two together and come up with four. It was too weird to contemplate. And no one would have been able to find Sally either, no matter how hard they tried.
    Jim picked up his jacket and put it on. We brushed the sand off our feet as best we could, putting on our shoes and socks. Then, still without talking, he picked up the bag with the sandwiches and carried it to the nearest trash can. I’d never asked what he’d ordered. No matter. Neither of us was hungry now.
    When we came out from under the boardwalk, he asked me how I’d come.
    “Subway,” I told him.
    “I should’ve gone to the city to meet you,” he said. “I’ll drive you home.”
    I didn’t argue. I thought he needed to do something. I thought there’d be more questions, that he’d need some time to formulate them, time to know what it was he wanted to know. But he didn’t talk in the car. He drove silently along the Belt Parkway, through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, up along West Street until we got to the Village. I told him where I lived. He turned on all the right one-way streets until we were in front of the gate to the cottage.
    “What’s her name?” he finally asked me.
    “Madison.”
    Jim’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. He turned away, and when he turned back, he was crying again, this time silently, like his daughter.
    “Madison,” he repeated.
    I nodded.
    “If you think of anything else . . .“ He had my phone numbers, but I gave him my card anyway.
    He opened the glove compartment and took out a small pad, writing something on it and handing it to me. “It’s my work number.”
    “I understand.”
    “There’re two Jims there, so you have to ask for Jim Russell.”
    “Okay,” I told him.
    “Do you think you’ll find her?”
    I shrugged.
    “Will you call me if you do?”
    “I will.”
    I opened the car door but I didn’t get out. “Did you and Sally swim when you were down in the Keys?” I asked, visions of Madison’s room swirling in my head. “By any chance, did you go snorkeling?”
    “Yeah, we did. There was a place where you could rent snorkels, masks and fins just down the road from the motel.” I leaned over and put my arms around him, holding him tight. Part of it was gratitude, part was that there was something about him that broke my heart the way his daughter did.

CHAPTER 20

    The street lamps were already on, the light smoky and diffused. I stood on the sidewalk in front of the gate to my cottage watching Jim drive away. Then I went inside and got Dashiell, going back out with him for his nighttime walk. Barely paying attention to what was around me, I pulled out my cell phone, called Delta Airlines and made reservations to fly down to Miami late the following night. I needed to get ready, but I didn’t want to wait a moment longer than I’d have to. I wanted to take Madison’s medical records with me. And a picture of her, too, a recent one. I’d have to make arrangements for Dashiell, too. I stopped to wait for a car to pass, glancing down at Dashiell. He was looking up at me with a goofy smile on his puss. If he couldn’t be with me, I knew exactly where he’d be happiest. The question was, if I wanted Madison to trust me, how far was I willing to go to trust her? And as soon as I formed the question, I knew the answer. I took out my phone again and called Leon, asking if he and Madison would be willing to take Dashiell for a few days, starting the following evening.
    “Sure,” he said. No questions asked. Quintessential Leon.
    I was prepared to tell him about the way Dash and Madison had gotten along when she stayed over. I was going to say that if they spent some time together, it might help her open up, if no one rushed her, if we just let nature take its course. But he probably knew that already. He’d had a dog of his own, one he took everywhere. Anyway, he’d already said yes, so I didn’t need to keep selling, did I?
    “I need a couple of other things,

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