Read Online THE SECRET OF CHEROKEE COVE by Paula Graves - Free Book Online Page B

arrested?”
    “Yes, but the other family didn’t want to press charges, once they had their baby back and learned about her own loss. The police made her go see a psychiatrist instead of putting her in jail. That’s the last I heard about her, one way or another. But I’ve often wondered what happened to her.”
    Impulsively, Dana pulled out her billfold and showed Doris the last picture her family had taken together. It was an impromptu shot, taken by a friend of her father’s during a camping trip near Terrebonne Bay. They were all there—her parents, she and Doyle looking as bored and embarrassed as the college students they’d been at the time, and young David, mugging for the camera and flashing devil’s horns behind Doyle’s head.
    “Beautiful family,” Doris said with a smile. “You and the younger boy look a lot like your mother. Has anyone told you that?”
    “Yes,” she said with a smile. “I’ve heard that.”
    As Dana put the photo back in her billfold, Doris released a soft sigh. “I can’t add much more to the story, but if you’re really intent on following up, I can tell you where to look.”
    Dana looked up at the older woman. “Oh?”
    “When it first happened, it was all over the local paper here in Maryville, and I bet it might have been an even bigger deal in your mama’s hometown.” Doris patted her hand. “If you want to know everything that happened, you need to get yourself to the library and look up those newspapers.”

Chapter Six
    “Good God.” Doyle looked up at his sister with a stunned expression. “I figured whatever had happened to Mom must have been pretty bad, but—”
    “I know.” Dana caught her brother’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “It was hard to hear.”
    “It’s hard to believe. Mom was the most levelheaded person I’ve ever known. For her to go off the deep end and try to steal someone else’s baby—I can’t even picture her doing anything like that.”
    “She’d just lost a child. And she was little more than a child herself.” Dana had spent the past thirty minutes alone in the waiting room just down the hall from her brother’s room, preparing herself to tell him what Doris Kingsley had revealed. She’d had trouble herself reconciling the picture the nurse had painted of her mother and her own memories of Tallie Massey, a strong-minded, kindhearted woman of good sense and honorable intentions. “I don’t know how she would have reacted in such a situation. We never knew her at that age or in those circumstances.”
    “I wish she was still here.” Doyle passed a hand over his face, his eyes dark with regrets. “I wish she could tell us what happened.”
    “Doris Kingsley thinks we should let it go. Stop trying to find answers. She said digging up bones wouldn’t make us feel any better.”
    Doyle gave her a knowing look. “She doesn’t know you.”
    “Or you.”
    Doyle looked down at his cast-encased leg. “Yeah, if I can ever get out of this damned hospital.”
    “Tomorrow,” said a voice from the doorway. Dana turned to find Laney standing there, holding a brown paper bag in one hand and a tablet-style device in the other. “I brought food and reading material.”
    Doyle went for the bag of food first, to no one’s surprise. Dana gave Laney a hug and moved so that she could have the chair beside the bed. “Tomorrow, for sure?”
    “That’s what the doctor says,” Doyle said with a grumble. “I don’t know why they want to keep me around. I’ve been trying to give them reason to kick me out, but they’re awfully patient with me.”
    “He’s been a bear.” Laney gave him a stern look. “I’m beginning to rethink this whole engagement.”
    Doyle touched her face. “Don’t do that. I’ll be good.”
    She kissed his palm. “It’ll take worse behavior than a little surliness for you to get rid of me.”
    “Oh, God, they’re at it again.” Another voice came from the doorway, this time belonging