The salads were served almost immediately, and Dill properly asked Jess to say grace. Of course, Jess obliged. Next to me, Jack bowed his head and shut his eyes, but his hand found mine and his fingers wrapped tightly around mine. He brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it-I could feel his warm lips, the hint of teeth-then deposited the hand back in my lap and relaxed his grip. When Jess said, "Amen," Jack let go and spread his napkin on his lap as though the little moment had been a dream.

I glanced up and down the table to see if anyone had noticed, and the only eyes that met mine were my mother's. She looked as though she were half embarra.s.sed by the s.e.xuality of the gesture... but pleased by the emotional wallop of it.

I had no idea what my own face looked like. A salad was placed in front of me, and I stared down blindly at it. When the waitress asked me what dressing I wanted, I answered her at random, and she dolloped my lettuce and tomato with a bright orange substance.

Jack began gently questioning Lou about her life. He was so good at it that few civilians would have suspected he had a hidden agenda. I tried not to speculate on the nature of that agenda.

I turned to Jess, who was having a little trouble with a jar of bacon bits. After the nicely decorated room, plunking the jar of bits down on the table reminded me firmly we were in Bartley. I held out my hand with a give-me curve of the fingers.

Somewhat surprised, Jess handed me the jar. I gripped it firmly, inhaled. I twisted as I exhaled. The lid came off. I handed the jar to him.

When I looked up in his face, there was a kind of dubious amus.e.m.e.nt on it.

Dubious was OK. Amus.e.m.e.nt wasn't.

"You're very strong," he observed.

"Yes," I said. I took a bite of salad, then remembered that Jack needed to know more about this man.

"Did you grow up in a town bigger than Bartley?" I asked.

"Oh, not bigger at all," he said genially. "Ocolona, Mississippi. My folks still live there."

"And your wife, is she from Mississippi also?"

I hated this.

"Yes, but from Pa.s.s Christian. We met in college at Ole Miss."

"And then you went to seminary?"

"Yes, four years at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Lou and I just had to put our trust in the Lord. It was a long separation. In fact, after the first two years, I missed being away from her so much, we got married. She held any job she could get in the area while I worked to graduate. She played the organ at churches, she played the piano for parties. She even worked at a fast-food place, G.o.d bless her." Jess's square, handsome face relaxed and warmed as he talked about his wife. I felt acutely uncomfortable.

The salad dressing was thick as sour cream, and sweet. I shoved the most heavily laden lettuce to one side and tried to eat the rest. I couldn't just sit there and question him.

"And you," he began the conversational return, "what's your occupation?"

Someone who didn't know my life history?

"I'm a house cleaner, and I run errands for people. I decorate Christmas trees for businesses. I take old ladies grocery shopping."

"A girl Friday, though I guess 'girl' is politically incorrect now." He gave the strained smile of a conservative paying lip service to liberality.

"Yes," I said.

"And you live in Arkansas?"

"Yes." I prodded myself mentally. "Shakespeare."

"Any bigger than Bartley?"

"Yes."

He eyed me with a determined smile. "And have you lived there long?"

"Over four years now. I bought a house." There, that was contributing to the conversation. What did Jack want to know about this man?

"What do you do in your spare time?"

"I work out. Lifting weights. And I take karate." And now I see Jack. The thought sent a warm rush through my pelvis. I remembered his lips against my hand.

"And your friend Mr. Leeds? Does he live in Shakespeare?"

"No, Jack lives in Little Rock."

"He works there, too?"

Did Jack want it known what he did?

"His job takes him different places," I said neutrally. "Did Lou have Luke-isn't that your little boy's name?- here in the Shakespeare hospital?" People really like to talk about their childbirth experiences.

"Yes, right here at the hospital. We were a little worried ... there are some emergencies this hospital can't handle. But Lou is healthy, and indications were that the baby was healthy, so we decided it would be better to show our faith in the local people. And it was just a great experience."

Lucky for you and Luke and Lou, I thought. "And Krista?" I asked, thinking this meal would never end. We hadn't even gotten our entrees. "Did you have her here? No, she's at least eight, and you've been here only three years, I believe?"

"Right. No, we moved here from Philadelphia with Krista." But something about the way he said it was odd.

"She was born at one of the big hospitals there? That must have been a very different experience from having your little boy here."

He said, "Are you older than Varena?"

Whoa. Change of subject. And a clumsy one. Anyone could tell I was older than Varena.

"Yes."

"You must have traveled around some in your life, too," the minister observed. The strip lights above the table winked off his blond hair, about ten shades darker than mine and certainly more natural. "You've been in Shakespeare for about four years .. . did you ever live here, in Bartley, after you got out of college?"

"I lived in Memphis after I graduated from college," I said, knowing that would probably cue his memory. Someone had to have told him the story, since he'd been living here more than three years. My history was part of town folklore, just like Mrs. Fontenot shooting her equally married lover on the courthouse lawn in 1931.

"Memphis," he repeated, suddenly looking a little uneasy.

"Yes, I worked for a big housecleaning service there as a scheduler and supervisor," I said deliberately.

That flipped his memory switch. I saw his pleasant, bland face grow rigid, trying to restrain his dismay at his faux pas.

"Of course, that was years ago, now," I said, easing him off the horns of the dilemma.

"Yes, a long time," he said. He looked sorry for me for a minute, then said tactfully, "I haven't had a chance to ask Dill where he and Varena plan to go on their honeymoon."

I nodded dismissively and turned to Jack just at the instant he turned to me. Our eyes met, and he smiled that smile that altered his whole face, deep arcs appearing from his nose to his lips. Instead of the tough reserve of his defense-against-the-world face, he looked infectiously happy.

I leaned over so my lips almost touched his ear. "I have an early Christmas present for you," I said very softly.

His eyes flared wide in surmise.

"You'll like it very much," I promised, breathing the words.

During the rest of the meal, whenever Jack wasn't engaged in talking to Lou O'Shea or charming my mother, he was giving me little glances full of speculation.

We left soon after the dessert plates were cleared away. Jack seemed torn between talking to Dill and Varena and rushing me back to his hotel. I made it as difficult for him as I possibly could. As we stood making conversation with Dill, I held his hand and made circles on his palm with my thumb, very gently, very lightly.

After a few seconds, he dropped my hand to grip my arm almost painfully.

"Good-bye, Frieda, Gerald," he said to my parents, after he'd thanked Dill for inviting him. My mother and father beamed happily at him. "I'll be bringing Lily home later. We have some catching up to do."

I could see my father's mouth open to ask where this "catching up" would take place, and I saw my mother's elbow connect with his ribs, a gentle reminder to my father that I was nearly thirty-two. So Dad kept his smile in place, but it was weaker.

Waving at everyone, smiling hard, we got out the door and hurried through the freezing air to scramble into Jack's car. We had scarcely shut the doors when Jack put his fingers under my chin and turned my face to his. His mouth covered mine in a long, breathless kiss. His hands began reacquainting themselves with my topography.

"The others'll be coming out in a minute," I reminded him.

Jack said something really vile and turned on his engine. We drove to the motel in silence, Jack keeping both hands on the wheel and his eyes straight ahead.

"This place is horrible," he warned me, unlocking the door and pushing it open. He reached in past me to switch on a light.

I pulled the drapes shut all the way and turned to him, sliding out of my black jacket as I turned. He was wrapped around me before I had my arm out of the second sleeve. We undressed in stages, interrupted by the long making out that Jack loved. He was fumbling in his suitcase with one hand for those little square foil packages, when I said, "Christmas present."

He raised his eyebrows.

"I got an implant. You don't have to use anything."

"Oh, Lily," he breathed, closing his eyes to savor the moment. He looked like a Boy Scout who'd just been given the ingredients for S'mores. I wondered when he would work out the other implications of my gift. Then Jack slid on top of me, and I quit caring.

We were wrapped in the bed together an hour later, having finally pulled down the spread and the blanket and the sheets. The sheets, at least, looked clean. One of Jack's legs was thrown across mine, securing me.

"Why are you here?" I asked. This was when Jack liked to talk.

"Lily," he said slowly, taking pleasure in saying it. "I was going to come to see you here. I did think you might need me, or at least that seeing me might help." One long finger traced my spine as I lay facing him, my face tucked in the hollow of his neck. To my horror, I could feel my nose clog up and my eyes fill. I kept my face turned down. A tear trickled down my cheek, and since I was on my side it ran into the curve of one nostril and then underneath. So elegant.

"And then Roy called me. You remember Roy?"

I nodded, so he could feel my head move.

I recalled Roy Costimiglia as a short, stout man with thinning gray hair, probably in his late fifties. You could pa.s.s him six times on the street and never remember you'd seen him before. Roy was the detective with whom Jack had served his two-year apprenticeship.

"Roy and I had talked over supper one night when Roy's wife was out of town, so he knew I was seeing a woman who had originally come from Bartley. He called because he'd been given one more lead to run down in a case he's had for four years."

I surrept.i.tiously wiped my face with a bit of sheet.

"What case is that?" My voice did not sound too wobbly.

"Summer Dawn Macklesby." Jack's voice was as bleak and grim as I'd ever heard it. "You remember the baby girl who was kidnapped?"

And I felt cold all over again.

"I read just a little of the update story in the paper."

"So did a lot of people, and one of them reacted pretty strangely. The last paragraph of the article mentioned that Roy has been working for the Macklesby family for the past few years. Through Roy, the Macklesbys have run down every lead, checked every piece of information, every rumor, that's come to them for the past four and a half years ... ever since they felt the police had more or less given up on the case. The Macklesbys hoped there would be some response to the story, and that's why they consented to do it. They're really nice people. I've met them. Of course, they've kind of disintegrated since she's been gone ... the baby."

Jack kissed my cheek, and his arms tightened around me. He knew I had been crying. He was not going to talk about it.

"What response was there to the story? A phone call?"

"This." Jack sat up on the side of the bed. He unlocked his briefcase and pulled out two pieces of paper. The first was a copy of the same article I'd seen in the newspaper, with the sad picture of the Macklesbys now and the old picture of the baby in her infant seat. The Macklesbys looked as though something had chewed them up and spit them out: Teresa Macklesby, especially, was haggard with eyes that had seen h.e.l.l. Her husband, Simon's, face was almost taut with restraint, and the hand that rested on his knee was clenched in a fist.

The second piece of paper was a picture from the local elementary school memory book, last year's edition; "The Hartley Banner" "The Hartley Banner" was printed, with the date, across the top of the page, page 23. The picture at the top of the page, below the heading, was an enlarged black-and-white snapshot of three little girls playing on a slide. The one flying down, her long hair trailing behind her, was Eve Osborn. The girl waiting her turn at the top of the slide was Krista O'Shea, looking much happier than I'd seen her. The child climbing the ladder had turned to smile at the camera, and my breath caught in my throat. was printed, with the date, across the top of the page, page 23. The picture at the top of the page, below the heading, was an enlarged black-and-white snapshot of three little girls playing on a slide. The one flying down, her long hair trailing behind her, was Eve Osborn. The girl waiting her turn at the top of the slide was Krista O'Shea, looking much happier than I'd seen her. The child climbing the ladder had turned to smile at the camera, and my breath caught in my throat.

The caption read, "These second graders enjoy the new playground equipment donated in March by Bartley Tractor and Tire Company and Choctaw County Welding."

"This was paper-clipped to the article from the paper," Jack said. "It was in a mailing envelope postmarked Bartley. Someone here in town thinks one of these little girls is Summer Dawn Macklesby."

"Oh, no."

His finger brushed the third child's face. "Dill's girl? Anna Kingery?"

I nodded, covered my own face with my hands.

"Sweetheart, I have to do this."

"Why did you come instead of Roy?"

"Because Roy had a heart attack two days ago. He called me from his hospital bed."

Chapter Four.

"Is he going to be OK?"

"I don't know," Jack said. He was sad, and angry, too, though I wasn't sure where the anger came in. Maybe his own helplessness. "All those years of eating wrong and not exercising ... but the main thing is, he just has a bad heart."

I sat up, too, and put my arms around Jack. For a moment he accepted the comfort. He rested his head on my shoulder, his arms encircling me. I'd taken the band off his ponytail, and his long black hair fell soft against my skin. But then he raised his head and looked at me, our faces inches apart.

"I have to do this, Lily. For Roy. He took me in and trained me. If it was anyone but him, any case but one involving a child, I'd turn it down since it concerns someone close to you ... but this I have to do." Even if Anna Kingery turned out to be Summer Dawn Macklesby, even if Varena's life was ruined. I looked back at him, the pain in my heart so complicated I could not think how to express it.