He Leaned In and Said, "Pretend I'm Your Dad"

CHAPTER 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH IN THE SUGAR TIN

Wyatt insisted on driving.

Lena should have said no. She had known the man less than fifteen minutes. But her mother sounded terrified, and the two men in dark jackets were somewhere on the road ahead or behind or both. So she locked the diner early with Doris's blessing, got into Wyatt's old blue pickup instead of his motorcycle, and prayed she was not making the worst mistake of her life.

June Harper lived in the same white clapboard house Lena had grown up in. The front door stood half open when they arrived.

Inside, drawers had been pulled out. Couch cushions slashed. Kitchen cabinets hanging open.

Her mother sat at the table gripping a dish towel in both hands.

When Lena rushed to her, June touched her face as if to make sure she was real.

"I told you not to come."

"I wasn't leaving you here alone."

June's eyes lifted to Wyatt. For one second all the color left her face.

"So," she said quietly, "you finally found her."

Lena turned. "You know him?"

Wyatt removed his cap. "I promised Daniel I wouldn't come unless I had no other choice."

The room tilted.

June closed her eyes. "Then there is no more time."

Lena looked from one to the other. "Stop talking like I'm not in the room."

June stood, walked to the pantry, and reached behind an old sugar tin on the top shelf. From the narrow space behind it, she pulled a photograph in a cracked plastic sleeve.

Lena had seen that picture once when she was little. Her mother had snatched it away.

Now she saw why.

It showed her father, younger and smiling, with her mother on one side and Wyatt on the other. They stood in front of this very house.

And in her father's arms was a baby wrapped in a yellow blanket.

On the back, in Daniel's handwriting, were six words:

If anything happens, trust Wyatt only.

Lena's throat closed.

"You let me believe he was dead," she said.

June's eyes filled. "Because he asked me to."

Wyatt took a slow breath.

"He testified against men who ran guns through three counties," he said. "One of them got out last month. That's why they're looking for this photo. It proves Daniel was here recently enough to break the old case wide open."

Lena stared at the date stamped in the corner.

The photo had been taken two years ago.