Finding Me (11 page)

“Nothing doing.” Pop put the paper back into his pocket. “Like I said, you can meet her after she starts work.”

Right then and there, Shane silently vowed to track down this Kelli girl and find out what she was all about.

14

I
met my father’s old best friend today.” Kelli sat propped against the headboard in her hotel bed. “Seems like a nice man. Kind of rough around the edges, but he’s just the kind of person my father would like.”

“You didn’t tell him who you were, right?” Denice sounded worried in spite of the fact that she certainly knew better.

“No, of course not. I did exactly what I told you I was going to do. I went in, assessed, and left.” Kelli decided it was probably best to leave out any more specific details.

“Good girl. By the way, I’ve been doing some research, and I guess you are not completely alone in your situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“So far I’ve found two similar cases. The first happened in the late seventies. A father in Massachusetts picked up his two girls for visitation. He never returned. He didn’t try to fake their deaths or anything, but he took them away, changed everyone’s name, and started a new life. It was almost twenty years later when they finally found them—the girls were both in their twenties by then. All this time, he had been telling them that their mother died in
a car wreck. He took the Social Security number from a boy who had just died and managed to fly under the radar.”

“So when they found them, the mother was still alive?”

“Yep.”

“What happened?”

“He claimed that he had taken the girls because his ex-wife was an unfit mother. The girls loved their father and defended him wholeheartedly. In the end, it went to court and he got probation, but from what I’ve been able to find, the girls never did reunite with their mother. I’m still looking into that, though, so I’m not completely sure yet.”

“If my mother was abusive, why would my father have left my sister and brother there alone? What kind of father would do that?”

“Good question. And that brings me to the second scenario I found. A married father of five disappeared while on a business trip to San Diego. They found some of his stuff scattered in a rough part of town, so it looked as though he might have been robbed and killed, but they never found the body. Several years later they finally had him declared dead, and a life insurance policy was paid out to his children. More than sixteen years later he reappeared. Turns out, he had been living all over the place, and apparently he’d left because he was gay and wanted to start a new life. Best I can tell, for the past few years there has been a big fight going on about whether the kids have to pay back the insurance company.”

“Pay them back?”

“They paid out on a life insurance policy for a man who was still alive.”

“Wow. I’d never thought of that.” Kelli shook her head. “I wonder if there was life insurance money involved here. I guess it doesn’t matter in this case, though, since my father is dead.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t dead twenty-four years ago, if there was indeed a policy paid out back then. That’s just one more reason to keep things quiet.”

“In your second story, did the family reconcile?”

“I don’t think he’s winning any Father of the Year awards. Sounds like most of his kids are pretty angry.”

“I guess they would be.”

“I know. I’m thinking this one is more in line with your father. Maybe he just wanted to start a new life.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Kelli thought about what Denice had just said. “This just makes me all the more certain that you’re right about not telling my family who I am. Being the wife or kid who was left behind without a word could not be a healthy thing to find out, insurance money or not.”

“Exactly.” Denice paused for a minute. “So what is your next step?”

“I’ve been doing some research, too. Other than being a history teacher, and teaching music lessons on the side, the only thing I can really find out about my mother is that she is on the Women’s Ministry Team at her church. I figure showing up at church is the least obvious way to maybe get a look at her. I’m hoping I’ll get some sort of inspiration for the next step after that. I’m still trying to figure out about my brother and sister.”

“All right, then. Go forth and quietly conquer.”

“That’s my hope. Although in all honesty I have to doubt anything good will come out of my going to church. . . .”

Denice laughed. “That could be taken more than one way.”

“And pretty much any way you choose to take it, it’s still true.”

My dad was hot and cold about the whole church thing. Every now and then he
would get on a kick that we needed to start going regularly, or sometimes just that I needed to be
going regularly. Most of the time, though, he avoided the
place altogether.

I asked him once if we needed to go to church to go to heaven. He said being
in church didn’t make a person a real Christian any more than being in a garage made you a car. He said the people there just wanted our money
and they were judgmental but no better than us. I
threw these lines back at him a few years later, after an incident in high school put him back on one of his jags about me needing to attend more consistently. Somehow, when he had said those lines, they were
true and acceptable. When his teenage daughter who had been
caught ditching class said them, he came back with, “That’s what someone with a guilty conscience says.”

Looking back on it, it seems he was right.

15

A
lison Waters pulled the last of the banana bread out of the oven. Tomorrow was her group’s turn to provide snacks for the greeting area at church, so she’d been baking all morning. Now she was ready to go spend some time in her garden before her first piano student arrived.

A loud bang rumbled from the ceiling, followed by a scraping sound. Probably the neighbor’s cat stuck on the roof again. Alison opened the back door, preparing to coax the thing down if she could. Likely a can of tuna would be required before it was all over.

“Good morning.” Kenmore nodded down from a stepladder he had set up at the corner of the house.

“Kenmore, whatever are you doing?”

“Cleaning out your gutters. They say it’s going to be a rainy summer, so it’s best to be prepared.”

“You don’t have to do that, you know.” Since David’s death twenty-four years ago, Kenmore had made it a habit to randomly show up at Alison’s and do a chore or two that he considered “man work.”

“I do it ’cause I want to. Just finished cleaning out my gutters
at the house, figured I might as well come get yours while I was in the right frame of mind.”

“You are too good to me.”

“Bah.” He scooped a pile of leaves and debris into his trowel and dumped it into the large trash bag he’d hung on the side of his ladder.

“How about you come in for some ice water and banana bread when you make your way around to the door?”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Kenmore loved baked goods, and since Alison enjoyed baking, she always found a way to offer a token of thanks for his help.

Since her house was small, it was less than half an hour before Kenmore was seated at the kitchen table with her. “How are things going with the kids?”

“Fine.” She took a sip of her water. “I’m worried about Beth, though.”

“How so?” He cut another slice of banana bread and put a thick chunk of butter on it.

“Ever since they moved back to town, she’s just sort of been floundering. Most of her friends from high school don’t live here anymore, and the ones that do all have their own lives and friends and children. You know how she is—the helpful side of her personality can be a little overwhelming at times. I think, no I
know
, it makes it harder for her to make friends. By the time someone would realize that Beth really is a sweetheart, they are long gone.”

He laughed. “She’s maybe a little over the top sometimes, but who wouldn’t want a friend like that? They’ve only been back in town a few weeks, give it time.”

“I know. I just worry, that’s all.”

“Shane tells me she’s been calling him three or four times a week about finding a property to buy as a home for single mothers. You know anything about that?”

Alison sighed. “Yes. There was a nice facility where she used to volunteer up near Knoxville. I think it was good for her because it gave her a channel for some of that surplus helpfulness. Now she’s got the idea in her head that since there is nothing like that around here, and since she has an abundance of time on her hands, she should start her own place.”

“What does Rand think about that?”

“You know Rand, he gives Beth a pretty wide berth with her schemes, but he does keep telling her that there is no way they could afford to do it. And we all keep reminding her that come the fall, she’s not going to have an abundance of free time anymore.”

Kenmore grinned and shook his head. “Your third grandchild. What do you think about that?”

“Finally I’ll have one close enough that I can actually see him or her on a regular basis. It’s torture having Max and his family so far away.”

“Yes, it’s going to be nice having this one nearby.” He took another bite of bread and moaned. “This is your best yet.”

“You say that every time.”

“You get a little better every time. Improving with practice.” His eyes danced as he looked at her. His humorous side was something other people rarely understood. Most people saw him as cranky and serious. Alison was one of the few who knew better. “I’d like your opinion about something.”

“Really? It’s my lucky day.” She grinned at him, waiting for the comeback, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“A girl came by the store yesterday, just sort of passing through town but thinking of staying, too. She’s looking for a job, and I’m thinking of hiring her for the summer.”

“Sounds good.”

“I’d like to know what you think of her.”

“Since when do you ask my opinion about anything even remotely having to do with that store?”

“It’s just that this girl—there’s something about her that makes me think I want to help her. Then, listening to you talk right now about Beth, well, she’s fairly close to Beth’s age. I heard enough of this girl’s story yesterday to think she could use a friend right now, and I’m considering not only offering her the job but also renting her the duplex for the summer.”

“That would put her right down the street from Beth.”

“Exactly.” He rubbed his chin. “I’m not one to be impulsive, you know that, but I think I might make an exception here, although I’m still not sure of the reason. Yesterday when we were talking, I recommended your church as a good one to visit, and I think she might just show up. If you see her there, will you make a point of trying to meet her? I’d love to hear your impressions.”

“Of course I will.” Alison took a small bite of the bread. “What made you send her to my church instead of inviting her to yours?”