Sanctuary

wrong to take a page out of her sister’s book for once? To act on impulse, to take whatever she could get?
    God, she needed someone to talk to, someone to be with. Someone who could, even for a little while, crowd out all these self-doubts and worries.
    Why shouldn’t it be Nathan?
    She rushed out of her room before she could change her mind, and for once didn’t even bother to grab her camera. She paused impatiently when Kate called out her name.
    “I’m just heading out.” Jo stopped at the door to the office. Kate was behind a desk covered with papers and brochures.
    “Trying to get ahead of the fall reservations.” Kate pulled a pencil out from behind her ear. “We’ve got a request to have a wedding here at the inn in October. We’ve never done that kind of thing before. They want Brian to do the catering, have the ceremony and reception right here. It would be just wonderful if we could figure out how to do it.”
    “That would be nice. Kate, I’m really on my way out.”
    “Sorry.” She stuck the pencil back behind her ear and smiled distractedly. “Lost my train again. I’ve been doing that all morning. I’ve got your mail here. I was going to drop it off in your room, then the phone rang and I haven’t budged from this spot in two hours.”
    As if to punctuate the statement, the phone jingled again, and behind her the second line beeped, signaling an incoming fax. “If it’s not one thing, it’s two, I swear. There you go, honey, you got a package there.” She picked up the phone. “Sanctuary Inn, may I help you?”
    Jo heard nothing but the beehive buzz in her own ears. She stepped forward slowly, could feel the air around her thickening like water. The manila envelope felt stiff in her hand when she reached for it. Her name had been printed on it in block letters in thick black marker.
    JO ELLEN HATHAWAY SANCTUARY LOST DESIRE ISLAND, GEORGIA
    The warning in the corner stated clearly: PHOTOS. DO NOT BEND.
    Don’t open it, she told herself. Throw it in the trash. Don’t look inside. But her fingers were already tearing at the seal, ripping open the flap. She didn’t hear Kate’s exclamation of surprise as she upended the envelope, shaking the photographs out onto the floor. With a little keening sound, Jo dropped to her knees, shoving through them, pushing one after another aside in a desperate search for one. The one.
    Without hesitation, Kate hung up on the reservation she was taking and rushed around the desk. “Jo, what is it? Jo Ellen, what’s wrong? What is all this?” she demanded, holding Jo under one arm as she stared at dozens of pictures of her young cousin.
    “He’s been here. He’s been here. Here!” Jo scrambled through the photos again. There she was, walking on the beach. Asleep in the hammock, on the edge of the dune swale, setting up her tripod at the salt marsh.
    But where was the one? Where was the one?
    “It’s got to be here. It’s got to.”
    Alarmed, Kate hauled Jo up to her knees and shook her. “Stop it. Now. I want you to stop it this minute.” Because she recognized the signs, she dragged Jo over to a chair, pushed her into it, then shoved her head between her knees. “You just breathe. That’s all you do. Don’t you go fainting on me. You sit right there, you hear me? You sit right there and don’t you move.”
    She rushed into the bathroom to run a glass of water and dampen a cloth. When she dashed back in, Jo was just as she’d left her. Relieved, Kate knelt down and laid the cold cloth on the back of Jo’s neck.
    “There now, just take it easy.”
    “I’m not going to faint,” Jo said dully.
    “That’s fine news to me, I’ll tell you. Sit back now, slowly, drink a little water.” She brought the glass to Jo’s lips herself, held it there, grateful when color gradually seeped back into them. “Can you tell me what this is all about now?”
    “The photos.” Jo sat back, closed her eyes. “I didn’t get away. I didn’t get away after all.”
    “From what, honey? From who?”
    “I don’t know. I think I’m going crazy.”
    “That’s nonsense.” Kate made her voice sharp and impatient.
    “I don’t know that it is. It’s already happened once.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She kept her eyes closed. It would be easier to say it that way. “I had a breakdown a few months ago.”
    “Oh, Jo Ellen.” Kate eased down onto the arm of the chair and began to stroke Jo’s hair. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been