“Wow, you really are chasing this thing again, aren’t you,” he finally said.

Draping her arm over her eyes, she sank back onto her pillow. “I have to, Dad. For whatever reason—for a lot of reasons—I can’t let it go.”

He didn’t respond right away, but when he did she could tell that something had changed. “Fine. You do what you have to, honey. And I’ll support you in it.”

Claire threw the covers aside and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. “You mean that?”

“Of course I do.”

Those four simple words subdued the sinking feeling that had settled in when she woke up. He wouldn’t relent if he’d killed Alana. He’d keep fighting to stop her. His past reluctance had troubled her all these years, so being able to move forward with his blessing meant a lot. “Why the change of heart?”

“What happened last night scares me. I lost your mother. I don’t want to lose you.”

When Claire’s chest constricted, she knew his feelings toward the investigation had been a bigger problem for her than she’d ever wanted to admit. “Leanne said it was my fault for going there in the first place.”

“You should be able to go to your mother’s studio without feeling you might get hurt. Maybe it was a freak encounter, or an attempted robbery. I got off the phone with the sheriff a second ago. He said there’s nothing to indicate it’s more than that, since whoever it was just shoved you and ran off. But…the fact that it occurred at Alana’s studio has him worried, and me, too.”

“You think it might be related to the past?”

“Everyone does, although there’s no proof. You didn’t get a look at the guy?”

“No.”

“Concentrate, honey. Can you remember anything about him? His height? His weight? Maybe some detail about his clothes or his smell?”

She wished she could, but it’d happened too fast. “No, nothing.”

“What about his car?”

“I didn’t realize he had a car, Dad. I didn’t see anyone behind me on the road, didn’t hear a vehicle approach. He must’ve followed at a distance and parked too far away.”

“The sheriff said Isaac Morgan came to your rescue.”

Again, Isaac’s passionate kiss, his hands on her body and his erection pressing against her legs flashed through her mind. Just when the memories of their nights together had grown tired and dim, she’d gone and created a fresh one. “Yes.”

“How do you know he didn’t shove you to begin with?”

“Because he’d have no reason to do that. And it’s not who he is.”

“He never liked that you ended up with David.”

He could’ve stopped it if he’d cared enough. “Believe me, that was no skin off his nose.”

“But he watches you. I’ve seen him do it.”

Her father had never mentioned this before. “What are you talking about? When does Isaac watch me?”

“Whenever. He can’t keep his eyes off you. At the bar. At the café. At the grocery store. Anywhere you both happen to be.”

That was because of their history. She watched him, too. She could feel his presence before she even saw him. “Trust me on this. It wasn’t Isaac. What we had didn’t mean anything to him. You know how he is with women. Anyway, the attack on me might’ve turned into more than just a shove if he hadn’t come running.” How else would he have gotten that terrible gash in his chest?

“Maybe, maybe not. But it’s awfully convenient that he was right there.”

“He lives close by.”

“Not close enough to hear anything. And…Claire?”

“Yes?”

He seemed to be struggling with what he wanted to say next.

“Dad?”

He sighed. “It’s so hard to know what to reveal and what not to reveal.”

Claire gripped the phone tighter. “There’s something you haven’t told me?”

“It’s not directly connected to Alana going missing. I’m sure of that. But…I’ve often debated whether it would make things easier on you to know. And now that you’ve asked… I don’t want this eating away at you, sending you down the wrong path.”

“Tell me.”

“You asked about Leanne being out of school for three hours on the day your mother went missing.”

A hard knot formed in Claire’s stomach. His manner worried her. “Yes?”

“That did happen.”

Leanne had just denied it. Initially, he’d denied it, too. “Then why’d you say—”

“The question took me off guard,” he broke in. “I’m so used to protecting her, so used to minimizing the damage caused by that day, it’s become instinctive to lie about it.”

Claire swallowed hard. “I don’t understand. There must be a reason you’d say she was out of school and keep saying it.”

“Yes. And if you’re going to pursue this, you need to know what it is.”

Whatever “it” was sounded pretty ominous. She took a shaky breath. “I’m listening.”

“It wasn’t your mother who was…involved in some way with Joe Kenyon.”

“Who was it?” Claire could barely make herself heard, but she must’ve spoken loudly enough because he responded with the name she’d suddenly guessed he was going to say.

“Leanne.”

“That can’t be true,” she said. “Leanne was only thirteen at the time. If…if Joe was molesting her, he should’ve been punished. Why would you lie to keep what he did a secret?”

“Because he didn’t molest her. What happened wasn’t his fault.”

Claire stared at the carpet, studying the large flowers as if tracing them on paper. “That doesn’t make sense. He was at least seventeen to eighteen years older than she was.”

“But she had a thing for him. You remember Katie, don’t you?”

How could she forget Katie? Her sister’s best friend had been almost as hard to put up with as Leanne. “Of course. She lived next door to Joe until her family moved during her and Leanne’s junior year.”

“That’s right. I guess—” his words fell off but he seemed to marshal the resolve to continue “—I guess Leanne was coming on to him.”

Sickened, Claire covered her mouth and spoke through her fingers. “How does a thirteen-year-old girl come on to a thirtysomething man?”

“I can’t talk about it. I…won’t talk about it. It’s too upsetting to me, and I’d rather keep the unflattering details private, for your sister’s sake. To be fair to her, that was a long time ago, and…and sometimes girls get themselves mixed up in stuff like that when they’re discovering their sexuality. Or so I’m told,” he added in a mumble.

Claire had never even been tempted to come on to a man nearly two decades older, but…she decided to give her sister the benefit of the doubt.

“Just know that she was young and confused and tried to…entice him,” he went on.

“And you’re sure he—” Her throat closed up. After swallowing, she began again. “Did he act on what she offered him?”

“No.”

“He might have done more than you think. Maybe that’s what instigated…her interest.”

“He had proof when he called us, Claire.”

Claire couldn’t help thinking of Leanne in that nightgown. She’d assumed her sister’s promiscuity stemmed from the accident, but this made her wonder if it’d started at a much earlier age. “What kind of proof?”

“A video she made for him.”

Gross… Claire couldn’t bear to think about it. But she still needed the answers she’d been searching for from the beginning. “So…what does Leanne’s being out of school on the day Mom went missing have to do with any of this?”

“It was that morning Joe contacted us with the…news. Your mother was so upset when she heard it, she called me in tears. I’d dropped her off after having a cup of coffee and a doughnut with her, had just arrived at the gun shop, so I asked her to wait until I could get off work, told her we’d deal with it then. I couldn’t leave. I had nobody to watch the store. Walt was out of town and depending on me, and Don Salter, who could’ve replaced me, wouldn’t answer his phone.” He took a moment to gather his thoughts or his emotions or both before continuing. “But apparently she couldn’t wait. She marched down and signed Leanne out of school so she could talk to her before you were home.”