Free The Lost Girls of Johnson's Bayou by Jana DeLeon Page B

let you stay.”
    “You don’t have a choice. I’m not leaving. I know you were already headed down this line of searching, but I still feel responsible for upping the stakes. I’m not leaving you unprotected until we find out what’s going on.”
    Ginny stiffened. “I appreciate your sense of responsibility, but I am not helpless. This is a small town. I can hardly have some man I’ve just met staying with me. Remember, I have to live here long after you’re gone.”
    “I’m not trying to get you cast with a scarlet letter. I’ll sneak out in the morning before anyone can see.”
    “So you’ll be leaving before 5:00 a.m., then?”
    Paul blanched. “I thought the café didn’t open until six?”
    “It doesn’t, but my mom gets here early to start baking. You didn’t think those cinnamon rolls came out of a can, did you?”
    Paul sighed. “I guess not. I’ll be out of here at four-thirty. Just to be safe. But I’m going to park my truck somewhere that I can still see the café.”
    Ginny jumped up. “The book! I left the book in the truck.”
    “What book?”
    “I found it at the school. I was on my way to show you when the shooting started. It’s a children’s book and it has the circle design penciled on a page inside. We have to go get the book.”
    “No. We have to stay inside where it’s safe. The most logical place to look for us is here. No one is walking outside and giving him an easy shot.”
    “But what if he steals it?”
    “If you say it was the same design, I believe you.”
    “So that means your sister was there, right? That I got the design from her at the school?”
    Paul frowned. “I wish it were that simple.”
    “But what else could it possibly be?”
    “Maybe she was at the school, or maybe you met her somewhere else before the LeBlanc School and you’re the one who drew it in the book. We don’t know how you got here, so we don’t know where you were before, and since you can’t remember what happened at the school…”
    Ginny’s excitement over the find deflated. “Oh. I guess you’re right.”
    “Don’t be disappointed,” Paul said, cluing in to her mood. “It proves you were there, at least, which is more than we could be certain of before tonight. I’ll check the book tomorrow and see if I can lift prints off the inside page.”
    “But my prints are on it, now.”
    “Your fingerprints will be the same, but bigger as an adult. An expert can easily differentiate the two.”
    “That’s assuming it’s still in the truck in the morning. So I guess the truck is yours? When we were racing away from that cabin, I thought for a minute you’d stolen someone’s truck, but then I remembered you knew where the key was. Why was it parked at that cabin?”
    “It’s my truck. The hotel was full because of the festival. I thought I’d have to drive back and forth from New Orleans, but my partner knew a guy who owned that fishing cabin, so I stayed there.”
    “So you walked into town to meet me for dinner?” Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. “You were expecting trouble. That’s why you left your truck there.”
    “I was preparing for trouble, not expecting. Preparing is part of my job.”
    Ginny felt the anger that had started to develop dissipate at his perfectly reasonable explanation, but just a bit of annoyance remained. Paul seemed to be one step ahead of her on everything, and it made her uncomfortable. Of course, he was also one step ahead of the shooter, and she couldn’t exactly argue the value of that.
    “If we’re going to work together on this,” she said, “you’re going to have to tell me everything. Every plan, every preparation. I don’t want to feel like you’re leaving things out or that I can’t trust you.”
    Paul nodded. “I’ll tell you everything I know. Unfortunately, right now you’re completely up to speed.”
    By the frustration in his expression, Ginny knew he was telling her the truth, and her heart tugged a little for