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.We went to the location where you found Marlena.We searched high and low, but we couldn’t find a trace of that young’un.” His worry was real.“I fear she’s dead, Frank.”Frank nodded.“I know.”“But what if she isn’t? What if they’re hurting her?”Frank examined the sheriff.Huey’s thoughts didn’t tend toward the dark side.He wasn’t a man who spent time thinking about the behavior a true deviant would display.“Is that what the volunteers were saying?” Junior, Pet, and Rufus Dean were always volunteers on searches, wreck sites, floods, whatever.The two other men were John Merritt and Ammon Sullivan, local farmers who’d taken a hot day to walk the woods and search for a lost child rather than work their fields.Huey nodded, his lips tightly compressed.“Junior thinks she’s been sold into white slavery.” He made a sound of disgust.“I’d rather she was dead.”Frank nodded again.“Sometimes death is the easiest answer.” He took a breath.“I talked to Lucas earlier about possible suspects.He gave me some names to check out.I’ve eliminated two men, but there’s one other to check.Why don’t you give Lucas a call and tell him the result of the search?”“Okay.” Huey picked up the phone and started dialing.Frank pulled out his notebook.Of the three names Lucas had given, Locklin had up and moved his business to Texas, and Orin McNeil had a rock solid alibi—he was in the hospital with kidney stones.Only Dantzler Archey remained on the list, and he was a man hard to catch up to.That fact alone whetted Frank’s appetite to find him.Darkness was falling now, and Archey would have to go to ground.Frank intended to be there when he did.12From the hospital window, Jade could see the lights of half a dozen houses along Jasmine Street.As a little girl, she’d been in three of the houses, where Ruth picked up ironing she did late at night to make a little extra money.At one house, Eula Lee Walden had given Ruth five dresses for Jade.Mrs.Walden’s daughter, Beth Ann, had outgrown the clothes.One was a beautiful yellow-and-white-checkered sundress with butterflies embroidered all over it, and a matching yellow sweater with a butterfly on each lapel so that when the sweater was buttoned up, it looked like the butterflies were kissing.It was the most beautiful dress Jade had ever seen.She loved it and wore it whenever Ruth allowed.One Sunday, when Jade was wearing the dress, she ran into Mrs.Walden and Beth Ann in town.To her surprise, Beth Ann started crying.She looked at her mother and said that Jade was prettier in the dress than she had been.Beneath the shame and embarrassment, Jade tasted joy.Washing dishes in the Longier home as Ruth’s assistant, raking leaves in the Longier yard as Jonah’s helper, Jade had never dreamed that she would have anything that a rich little white girl would want.It felt good.Jade stared at the lights of the Walden home and thought about those days.Beth Ann had grown up to marry a doctor in Jackson, Mississippi.Her picture had run in the local newspaper, her long chestnut hair shining, a string of pearls around her neck, and her veil pulled back to reveal her smile.That was ten years ago.Most of the young women Jade’s age, black or white, were married, many of them moved away.Jade had not married.In fact, had dated little.She had been bedded, because she could not halt the sexual needs of her body even though her heart was not engaged.For the most part, though, there seemed a barricade around her that most men did not care to climb.Frank Kimble was the exception, and Jade turned to examine her sister in an effort to stem the hot surge of desire that thoughts of Frank generated.She was too old to let a man make a fool of her, too old and too careful.Lust would not be her undoing.Marlena tossed on the pillow, and Jade soaked a cloth in cold water and made a compress for her sister’s forehead.Marlena’s fever was high, and Jade knew the doctor was worried.He’d been in once and talked about the possibility of a specialist from New Orleans.There was a wonder drug, penicillin, and he’d given Marlena some without ill effect.He was going to give her more.Marlena’s skin was smooth and hot, so tight it felt as if her cheeks were trying to burst.Jade touched her with the backs of her fingers, drawing them across the taut skin, whispering softly, “You have to get better, Marlena.We have to find Suzanna, and we need your help.We need you, Marlena.” And it was true.The doctor had reduced the morphine to a level that should have allowed Marlena to regain lucidity.She had not.Jade had heard the doctor whisper to the nurse that he thought Marlena was deliberately avoiding a return to consciousness.Jade rewet the cloth and reapplied it.She got hot, soapy water and washed her sister’s body, massaging her feet and legs, stimulating the muscles and the nerves.“Marlena, we need you here with us,” she said.“Frank wants to talk to you.”Frank.Not Lucas, who had never come a single time to visit his wife.The whole hospital was buzzing about it, and some of the earlier gossip had even made its way to her four-thirty hair appointment, Mrs.Hargrove, who feigned shock at Lucas’s callousness.“Maybe he’s waiting at home for the ransom call,” Jade suggested, a possibility that, because it lacked malice, had been overlooked.A nurse’s aide came to the door.She was young and dark-skinned and looked at the floor when she spoke.“There’s a phone call for Miss Dupree at the desk.”“Thank you,” Jade said, wondering why Jonah or Ruth had called her at the hospital.She felt her heart rate increase.She walked purposefully to the desk.The nurse hesitated when she handed her the telephone.Jade was too weary to care.“Hello,” she said.“It’s me, Lucas.How’s Marlena?”She was surprised
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