Read Online Danger in Plain Sight by Marta Perry - Free Book Online Page B

Esther and I write to each other,” she said. “In the last few letters I received, Esther was worried about something. She was eager for me to get here, so that she could ask my advice about it. But by that time…” She let that trail off. It was obvious.
“Elizabeth Amanda Morgan.” Mom was truly upset when she used all three names. “Why on earth didn’t you tell me about this?”
“Come on, Mom. When did I have a chance to? When we were rushing off to the rehearsal, or scurrying around hosting the rehearsal dinner? You’ve been so preoccupied with Trey’s wedding that there was no time for anything else. As you should be,” she added hastily. “I brought the letters with me because I wanted to hear what you thought of them, but…” She shrugged.
“You think the hit-and-run was connected to this whatever-it-was that had Esther worried.” Link could connect the dots quickly when it came to how his twin thought.
“I think so.” She darted a glance at Adam. “Adam doesn’t agree.”
“You don’t have any idea what she meant?” Marisa’s brown eyes were warm with concern.
Libby shook her head. “I asked Rebecca, Esther’s mother, if she’d noticed that Esther was upset lately, but she said no. She said…” She stopped, frowning.
“She said what?” Adam’s tone demanded an answer.
“She said Esther seemed fine, but that Isaac had been upset about something. But that can’t have been what Esther wrote to me about. She wouldn’t want my advice on handling her brother.”
“No.” Link said the word slowly. “You’re right. If she wanted your help, it would have to be something that involved the English.”
“The English and the Amish,” Mom amended. “If it was strictly an English concern, Esther wouldn’t be involved.”
“True.” Adam looked as if he’d prefer not to be discussing this at the Morgan dinner table. “I’ve been thinking about it since Libby mentioned the letters, but I’m drawing a blank.”
“Could we see the letters?” Marisa asked. “Maybe we’d pick up on…well, not anything you missed. But sometimes a different viewpoint helps in seeing something more clearly.”
Libby made an effort not to resent that. Marisa meant well. “I’ll get them.” She slid from her chair.
But getting the letters proved more difficult than she anticipated. She’d put them in the case she always carried on a plane, one that contained her laptop and any work she had with her.
It wasn’t in her room. She came back down the stairs, not looking toward the dining room to encounter any skeptical stares, and hurried into the family room, hearing the familiar squeak of the board.
It wasn’t there. Surely she’d left it next to the desk, hadn’t she, when she took the computer out?
She went back to the archway into the dining room. “It looks as if something was taken after all this afternoon. My computer case is missing.”
“Are you sure you looked everywhere?” Her mother sprang up, always ready to jump into the finding of lost objects. “Where did you last have it?”
That was the same thing she’d always asked when homework was missing.
“It had to be either in my bedroom or by the desk in the family room. It’s not at either place.” She couldn’t help giving Adam a challenging look. Maybe now he’d admit that she was right.
“Oh, dear.” Her mother sounded guilty. “You know, when I was rushing around trying to make sure the house was picked up in case anyone came back here after the wedding, it’s possible that I moved it. I don’t remember doing that, but you know what I’m like when I clean up.”
She did indeed. Mom’s clean sweeps were legendary. Things that were put away at Christmas sometimes didn’t turn up until Easter.
“I’ll have a good look around for it later,” her mother said. “If it’s here, I’ll find it. And anyway, when Esther wakes up, she’ll be able to tell us all about whatever it was.”
If, Libby thought, unable to help