Free Lost & Found Love by Laura Browning

fingers. “My nurse practitioner, Sara, heard it from her brother, Jim, who heard it from his wife who heard it from Sally Concannon who heard it from both Betty Gatewood and Jeanie Underwood. One of those two supposedly saw Pastor Joe’s clothes strewn all over Tabby’s veranda and heard him singing love songs to her in an upstairs bedroom.”
    Evan’s mouth had dropped open halfway through Jenny’s recitation. When his wife finished, he stood there stunned for a moment, then began laughing until he clutched his stomach in both of his hands.
    “It’s not funny, Evan,” Jenny said stiffly. “She’s my sister.”
    Evan’s face sobered. He’d known she’d come around, particularly if there was a threat. They had both struggled to rebuild their concept of family in the wake of their parents’ betrayals. Jenny was probably a little further along than him in that.
    “Damn right,” he agreed. “That’s exactly why you need to take a look at this. Start with Thomas MacVie’s rap sheet.”
    Jenny lowered herself awkwardly into the chair Evan pulled out for her and took the envelope he offered. As she slowly examined the contents, her brows drew together. “How did you get all this information, Evan?” she asked as she continued to sift through it, reading between the lines as he had.
    “A few friends from law school who owed me favors. Plus, Tommy MacVie appears unpopular with not only law enforcement, but also his neighbors. People were more than willing to spill their guts over the phone.”
    She looked up at him, her golden eyes concerned. “You called people?”
    Evan shrugged. “A couple of neighbors. I didn’t tell them where I was from.”
    Jenny ran her finger down the paper. “There are a lot of abuse arrests here, all dismissed.”
    Evan nodded. “Lack of evidence. I talked to the D.A. in that area who referred me to the former district attorney, who’s now retired. He said they could never get your mother or Tabby to testify against him. The guy was slick. Even social services couldn’t find enough evidence of abuse. The house was always neat as a pin. Tabby never seemed to want for anything. She was always clean and well fed. One thing did keep coming up…how modest Tabby was. No one ever saw her in a bathing suit, shorts, or even a short-sleeved shirt.”
    Jenny tapped her finger on the medical records he had somehow accessed. “She appears to have been very accident prone,” she said in a dubious tone. “A broken arm at five, a wrist at seven, the other arm at eleven, and several ribs a year later. That alone should have been enough to launch a thorough investigation.”
    Jenny looked up at her husband. “I want to meet her.”
    “You can’t right now.”
    “Why?”
    “She’s having dinner with Pastor Joe at Mercer’s.”
    Jenny’s mouth dropped open. “So the rumors are true?”
    Evan chuckled. “Well, I seriously doubt the pastor’s clothes were all over her porch or that they were in a bedroom while he sang love songs to her, but they are neighbors, he does sing—beautifully so Holly tells me—and when you see the two of them together…”
    Jenny grinned and finished for him, “They already look like a couple.”
    “Exactly.”
    * * * *
    “What did Jake Allred come by to tell you this afternoon?” Tabby asked Joe curiously over the noise of the wind rushing by the open top and windows of his Mustang.
    After dinner, Joe had suggested a drive along a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway, leaving the top down so she could enjoy the warm, evening breeze.
    “You saw him?” he asked with a quick glance in her direction just as he slowed and pulled off the road. They stopped at a place where they could get out and sit on a large rock overlooking the valley below them.
    “Yes.” She kept her gaze on the patchwork quilt of farmland still visible in the waning light as she carefully seated herself, thinking that if she painted landscapes, this would certainly be a view worth