Read Online A Week From Sunday by Dorothy Garlock - Free Book Online Page A

only to make him angrier.
    “Where is she?” he thundered as he grabbed the woman’s arm.
    “I-I-I don’t know what . . .” she stammered through ragged breaths.
    “Don’t play stupid with me, you bitch!” As he spoke, he shook her viciously. Her large breasts jiggled as she was rocked one way and then the other. “I know damn well that you’ve got your eyes and ears glued to the goings-on in this house! Where the hell did she go?”
    “I saw . . . saw Miss Moore pack up her . . . things but I don’t know . . .” Before she could manage any more, Richard raised one hand and slapped her hard across the face. The force of the blow knocked her head into the wall and she immediately burst into tears. She sobbed and tried to cover her face with her hands. But he grabbed her wrists and forced her hands down.
    “Shut up your damn bawlin’ and look at me!” he shouted. In that moment, Richard was so angry he feared he would kill her if that was the only way to discover Adrianna’s whereabouts. Even as the thought settled over him, he was not surprised. He was tired of the battle to get what was justifiably his. He’d not allow it, especially not from
this
ignorant clod!
    “Mr. Pope . . . Mr. Pope,” she pleaded, her face red and blotchy. She tried to choke down the sobs but could not. “Miss Moore asked me to come back and clean the house today and to take what I wanted from the garden. She didn’t tell me where she was going or why, I swear it!”
    “You’re lying.”
    “I’m not! Honest, Mr. Pope! I only talked to her for a few minutes. She gave me a bag of her old clothes and paid me for today. I have worked for Miss Adrianna and Mr. Moore for a year. She gave me a key and trusted me to come and clean after she was gone.”
    “When did she leave?”
    “I don’t know, sir. But the day I was here, she put some things in the car.”
    “What things?”
    “Boxes and stuff like that.”
    “I will ask you one more time,” he said, raising his hand as if to strike her again. “Where did she go?”
    “I swear to you, sir,” she said quickly, fearful of another blow. Her eyes moved frantically across the lawyer’s face, as if she were searching for some crumb of compassion, anything that would make him believe she was telling the truth. “I don’t know where she ran off to! She didn’t make no mention!”
    “Why do you say she ran off? Maybe she just went to visit someone. Damn you! Don’t you spread the rumor around that she ran off.”
    “I won’t, sir . . . I swear I won’t.”
    Looking into the woman’s frightened eyes, Richard knew she wasn’t lying, that Adrianna wouldn’t entrust a secret to this stupid woman. He had to try a different tactic. “Then where do you
think
she went?”
    “I . . . I . . . don’t know.”
    “Come on, you fat fool!” he shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her viciously. “If she didn’t tell you her destination, you must be able to guess where she went. You’ve been here long enough to know her habits!”
    “I don’t know!” she pleaded. “She ain’t got no family around here no more. All of Mr. Moore’s brothers died years ago! You got to believe me! You just got to!”
    “Has she ever mentioned anything about the relatives on her mother’s side?” Richard continued to press. “Did she have any family that she would know of? You’d better come up with something or you’ll spend the next year in jail. I’ll swear you were stealing from this house.”
    “No! No! I never did! I swear I have never taken anything that Miss Adrianna didn’t give me.”
    “It makes no difference if you did or not, I’ll say you did, and you know my word carries a lot of weight in this town.”
    “But sir!”
    “Goddamnit! What about her mother’s brothers or sisters? I’m asking you for the last time.”
    A flicker of recognition flashed across the woman’s face and her mouth quickly opened but was abruptly shut. Whatever she knew, she