Missing in the Desert by Dana Mentink

Author:Dana Mentink
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-05-07T20:01:09+00:00

TWELVE

Mara didn’t wait for Levi’s questions. “The cloud, see? Right above this four-pointed mountain?” She stabbed a finger at the white blob. “You thought it looked like a teapot, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

She rushed on. “That’s a long-standing family joke. Seth and Corinne and I would lie on our backs and look up at the clouds. We’d imagine all sorts of fanciful shapes, animals and castles and such, and my brother would always say ‘I only see a teapot.’”

Levi stared from her to the painting. “Well...”

“Corinne painted this,” she insisted. Her mind was spinning out the theory faster than her mouth could keep up. “Maybe she’s alive, Levi, right here in Furnace Falls. Teegan’s keeping her prisoner or something, all these years. That’s why she didn’t call. He’s kept her locked up.”

“Hold on a second. You might be getting ahead of yourself. It could be that the cloud just happens to resemble a teapot.”

“No. You see the handle here and the spout?” She pointed, amazed that he would even suggest such a thing. “It’s deliberate, a kind of message, I’m sure of it. My sister might have heard somehow that Seth and I were coming to Death Valley for Camp Town Days, and she was trying to send us a message, like the text, but she had to be careful not to be caught.”

He frowned. “Seems far-fetched to think you or Seth would actually spot this one tiny painting. What are the chances—”

“It must have been all she could do.”

He held up a palm to stop her rebuttal. “Mara, slow down a minute. Let’s say your sister did paint this, and somehow it turned up in Amelia’s things. If Teegan had something to do with holding her prisoner, he sure wouldn’t have given her paints. And if you’re right, and this is Corinne’s work, isn’t it possible she painted it years ago before her disappearance? Might it have been in a box of old things or something? Maybe she gave it to Teegan when they were in high school, and he forgot about it?”

Mara’s excitement began to ebb. “I didn’t think of that.”

“I sure don’t want to crush your hopes, Mara, but you heard what Jude said.”

“That she’s dead.” Mara blinked back sudden tears. “But they never found her body. I didn’t realize how I was hanging on to that part.” If they didn’t find her body...there was the slightest possibility that Corinne might be alive. The painting had brought that slender thread rocketing to the surface. For a moment, she’d felt a surge of wild, impractical hope, like she’d experienced in the weeks after Corinne disappeared when there would be a call or a knock at the door.

She’s come back.

My sister.

But the knocks and calls had never panned out. And Levi was right: this painting was probably nothing, either. How had she come up with such a wild theory in the space of a few minutes? She felt foolish. Her cheeks were wet, and she hadn’t even known she was crying.

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