Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts

Author:Billie Letts
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780733620188
Publisher: Hachette
Published: 2005-12-15T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

T HE POLICEMAN who asked the questions had seen Novalee before. He had been on duty the night Americus was born, had been the first one to arrive at Wal-Mart after the alarm was called in.

“And the front door was unlocked?” he asked.

“Yes, but I just went out to the shed,” Sister explained. “Wasn’t gone more’n a few minutes. Went to get a box of Christmas decorations, seeing as how Novalee and Forney were bringing a tree.”

“So whoever took the baby came in the front and went out the front.”

“Had to. I would’ve seen ’em if they’d come in the back. Shed’s not twenty feet away from the back door.”

“But when you came back in . . .”

“She was gone.” Sister’s voice broke then and she grabbed Novalee’s hand. “Oh, darlin’.”

Where the Heart Is

185

“Was anything else missing? Jewelry? Money?”

“No, I don’t have nothing except for my wheat pennies, right there on the sideboard.” Sister pointed to a jar filled with coins.

“Did you notice anything unusual today? Anyone strange in the neighborhood? A car you didn’t recognize? Anything like that?”

“No. Not that I can remember.”

The policeman turned to Novalee, giving her a stiff smile. “Miss Nation, will you describe your little girl for me?”

“I have lots of pictures.”

“Good. But I’m going to need a written description, too.”

“Well, she weighs nineteen pounds. She has green eyes and light brown hair that grows . . . like this.” Novalee blinked back tears as she touched her own hairline to illustrate. “In a widow’s peak.”

“How old is she?”

“Seven months,” she said. “Seven.” And her mouth burned with a bitter taste, the taste of something scorched and dry. She had been hovering over Americus for days trying to get past that seven, then had risked it all for a Christmas tree.

The policeman wrote down everything Novalee said in a small notebook.

“Is there anyone you can think of who might have taken your daughter?”

Novalee squinted as if she were trying to “see” the question, to bring it into focus.

“Anyone who might be mad at you,” he said, “or jealous. Someone who might have a score to settle?”

“No.” Novalee bit at her lip. “No, I can’t think of anyone.”

“Miss Nation, you think there could be any connection between this and your baby being born at Wal-Mart?”

186

BILLIE LETTS

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it was all over the news . . . on the TV, in the papers. Lots of people knew about it. And I suppose some of them wrote to you?

Called you on the phone?”

“Yes. They did.”

“Did you hear anything strange? A threat of any kind? I mean, there are some real crazies out there.”

“I got a few letters like that. People who said they wished I’d died.

Me . . . and Americus, too.”

Novalee was gripped by a sudden chill that left her weak and trembling. Forney picked up an afghan from the couch and put it around her shoulders.

“Did you keep any of those letters?” the policeman asked.

“No, not the mean ones. I didn’t keep those.”

“Do you remember any of the names? The signatures on those letters?”

“They weren’t signed.

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