A Matter of Circumstance by M J Marlow (top 20 books to read txt) 📕

saw the empty corner and the open door and she panicked. “Oh God, Norman! She’s gone!” 3 Juliana didn’t know where she was going. All she knew was that she didn’t belong here. Why had she thought they would hold a place open for her to fit into? The woman was right. They did not want her. But Juliana would never let that woman have her; even as a young child she had known the woman was evil and fought her. She looked back and saw her mother running out into the street. All she could cause her was pain. “Juliana!” Juliana shook her head and refused to turn back. Gloria was the past; there was nothing there for her. She turned the corner and ran, blinded by the tears and frightened now that she had no direction to take. She ran into a solid unyielding wall of flesh and looked up into the deep brown eyes of the man she’d run into. “Whoa there,” the man smiled at her gently and held her by the arms as she swayed. “What’s the rush?” He frowned as she tried to pull out of his hold and knew something was wrong here. “Why don’t you come into my office…” “NO!” the girl screamed and struggled like a wild thing. She looked around, her eyes filled with panic. “I have to go!” “Juliana!” Gloria cried in relief as she came around the corner with Norman and saw her daughter. She looked at the man. “Agent Travers,” she nodded to him. “Thank you for stopping her. My daughter is a little confused right now and I’m afraid Norman and I frightened her.” “Your daughter?” Hawk Travers looked down his aquiline nose at the flame-haired child he was still holding. He ran over Gloria’s history and his eyes widened. “This is your missing girl!” He smiled at Juliana and the genuine warmth of it stunned her into immobility. “So you finally found her?” “She found us,” Norman said as he watched the girl carefully. “Vivian said she just wandered into town last night.” He looked at Hawk’s hold on the girl. “I think you can let her go now, Hawk. I don’t think she’s going to bolt again.” He placed his hand on Juliana’s shoulder and the girl turned to look at him. The wariness in her eyes hurt him. She was having a hard time believing they meant what they were saying. He wanted to find the woman responsible for putting that look in her eyes and strangle her, he realized. “I’m sorry we frightened you, child. We’re just so happy that you’re finally home that we got a little emotional.” “I can’t stay,” Juliana whimpered and tried to back away from him. “Don’t you see? You have a life here without me. I don’t belong.” She tried to move away but Norman’s arm went around her shoulder, holding her firmly. “Just let me go.” “You’re our family, Juliana,” Gloria insisted as they led her back the way she’d come. “Of course you belong here.” Hawk fond himself wondering why the girl was so terrified at the thought of remaining with her mother. She had come all this way to find her family, of that he was certain. But she looked like she was running from some darkness that she knew would harm those she loved if she remained. He’d seen that behavior in many children who had been stolen from their families and he understood how she was feeling. It was going to take a long time for her family to help her accept that she was finally home. He went into his office and sat down behind his desk. He was still researching the girl when he came across a name that made his blood chill. “Danville,” he cursed and sat back. “I should have known she’d be involved in this.” He pulled up his file on the psychotic bitch whose people had been responsible for the disappearance of a lot of children over the past twenty years or more. “No wonder the child is terrified.” He found the number and made the call. “This is Agent Travers in Montrose, Arizona. One of the victims of the Danville cult has just shown up here. Her name?” he repeated the question. “Juliana Marlow. Her mother is married to our town mayor, Norman Talmadge. Her father is deceased.”” He listened to the instructions. “I’ll be waiting for them to show up.” He was relieved to hear that agents were already in place to speak to her. He remembered the terror in the girl’s eyes and shivered. “This girl is seriously traumatized by what happened to her. I have a feeling she is going to run if your agents push her too hard.” “Hey, Uncle!” a young man’s voice called out as the door was shoved open. “One minute, Adam,” Hawk said as he looked up at his nephew. “I have to go. I’ll have her file ready for your agents when they arrive.” He hung up the phone and his nephew, Adam Tallchief, sank down on the edge of the desk and toyed with the autographed baseball on the stand. Hawk didn’t correct him. His nephew was always very careful of other people’s belongings. “Hey, bud. How are things on the reservation?” “You’d know,” Adam replied with his usual flip response, “if you spent any time there.” He got right to his business, his expression showing his curiosity. “Is it true Mayor Talmadge’s stepdaughter is in town? The lost girl?” “It is,” Hawk nodded. Once again the town grapevine was in full swing. He doubted there was anyone in Montrose who hadn’t heard the news by now. He leaned back and looked over his sister’s boy. He looked just like his father but he had Nyome’s gray eyes and softer nature. He had the usual twinge of guilt and grief at the memory of his sister and her husband. “She got into town last night.” He could see how eager the boy was to know all. In his curiosity, he was like his uncle. Hawk always needed to know all the answers too. “She is very frightened right now and uncertain,” he told the boy. “She was led to believe that her family didn’t want her.” “How could anyone be that cruel?” Adam asked the question that Hawk never had found a satisfactory answer to. “Did she escape from the people that kidnapped her? Are they going to come after her?” “She seems to think so,” Hawk said softly. He hadn’t meant to say that aloud but now that he had he saw a possible action. “I want you to keep your eyes open, Adam. If you or your friends see anyone you don’t know hanging around paying special attention to this girl, let me and Sheriff Marlow know immediately.” He looked at the clock. “So,” he said as he got up and looked at his nephew, “what did you fix us for dinner?” “I forgot,” Adam looked at him sheepishly. “I kind of promised the guys I’d go target shooting with them.” He looked hopeful. “I got all my homework done already. Can I go?” “Just don’t shoot your toe off,” Hawk nodded. He wasn’t afraid of that. He had introduced his nephew to guns at the age of six so that the orphaned boy would know how to handle himself. He’d been afraid, at first. Adam’s parents had been shot when he was only four and he had been sent to live with Hawk. But Adam had taken to the lessons eagerly as if he knew he had to be in a position to protect people from such things ever happening again. At 18, he was now nearly as good a shot as Hawk was. “And…” “No drinking, no drugs, no cigarettes,” Adam dutifully cited the house rules, “no sex, and be home before eleven.” He was grinning as he saluted. “Yes, sir, Uncle Father, sir.” “You’re a cheeky brat, Adam Tallchief,” Hawk nodded and followed the boy out of the office so he could lock up. He saw Adam vault into the back of a rusted out old Ford pickup and nodded to the other boys; his unofficial scouts, he smiled to himself as they drove away. He’d learned more about what went on in the area around Montrose from those boys than his own hours of solitary weekend patrol had ever shown him. He went home and sat back to watch a football game. He thought of his encounter with Juliana Marlow and he grew uneasy. He had the uncomfortable feeling that there was something going on he should be aware of. The girl had been small and slight but the expression in her eyes had not been that of an innocent child. The awareness that had flared to life between them had been that of someone who knew where such attraction led. “You need a woman, Hawk Travers,” he said to himself. “That’s all you’re feeling. There is no way you can pursue an attraction to a traumatized child.” 4 “I heard she’s a hottie!” Adam sat up and cleared his mind of his daydreams to look at his friend Grady Cloudwalker. As always, he was all puffed up with his superior knowledge on the hottest new topic in town. The other three boys were all ears, as usual. Grady smiled and looked important. “My sister works the diner,” Grady said as his preamble. “She was there when the girl came in last night. She said she’s a redhead with big blue eyes. Her name is Juliana.” He looked over at Adam expectantly. “Your uncle met her.” The other boys looked at him expectantly and not for the first time Adam was glad he had the dubious distinction of having a federal agent as an uncle. He always had access to more knowledge than the others did. He nodded and smiled at them like a doting uncle about to impart words of wisdom. “He says the people who kidnapped her told her that her family didn’t want her,” Adam added his own bit of knowledge. “He didn’t say so, but he thinks that the kidnappers are going to come after her.” He was feeling magnanimous. “He wants us to keep watch on her for him and let him know if any strangers take a special interest in her.” “I’d like to take a special interest in her,” Grady laughed, “if she’s as pretty as Ariel says.” He saw Adam frown. “I’m just kidding.” He turned away and a moment later, he stiffened. “Someone is moving into the old Henry place.” They all looked and sure enough a Jeep was parked outside the old cabin on the small farmstead. A man was carrying boxes inside. He paused and saw the pickup full of teenaged and twenty something boys and his attitude turned defensive. The scowl on his face warned the boys they should keep their distance and so they drove on. Adam took out the notepad in his backpack and drew the man’s face quickly before his memory of him faded. “I heard it was bought by someone named Martin Cavenaugh,” Samuel Tallchief, his cousin, told him. “He certainly wasn’t very friendly.” “He goes on the short list,” Adam nodded and looked back at the man watching them drive off. He felt a chill go up his spine and knew there was something off about that man. His uncle was always telling him to trust his instincts and right now they were telling Adam that this new man was trouble. “What’s wrong, Martin?” Joanna asked as she stepped out of the house and saw him scowling up towards the hills. “Don’t you ever smile?” she asked as she joined him by the Jeep and saw the truck driving off. “Neighbors?” “Bunch of teenaged boys,” Martin replied, “probably headed out into the brush to scare up some trouble.” He looked at