Free Stolen Secrets by Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry Page A

anything.”
    I took the catalog back. “It’s okay. I was thinking you might buy one for Cammy, you know, to cheer her up.”
    “She’d probably burn the house down,” Mrs. Michaels said, sneering. “You seen her? She’s supposed to watch her brother so I can go to work.”
    I shook my head. “We go to school with her. We heard what happened.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You and everybody in town. I told her if she made me late for work one more time I was going to—”
    A group of kids approached, Cammy in the middle, puffing a cigarette.
    Her mother yelled at her, then closed the door.
    Bryce and I walked down the cracked driveway and skirted the group.
    Cammy glared at me. “What are you doing here?”
    We didn’t answer.

Chapter 58

    After Ashley and I got home from not selling candles, I went to the barn before dinner. When I got to the top of the stairs, I went into Sam’s office. I knew it was wrong to snoop, but I was dying for more information about him.
    Mail littered the top of his desk, but it looked like just a bunch of bills. I opened the desk drawer and found files listed: Invoices, Insurance, Tax docs, Utilities, Car repair, S-Corp Current.
    Then I came to a file that simply said Letters. I pulled it from the drawer and sat in Sam’s leather chair. The letter on the top was on official letterhead from Washington D.C. I flipped through and found more letters from the same office.
    One was addressed to Sam Timberline at our address. The date showed it was before we moved to Colorado.
    Dear Mr. Timberline,
    I am pleased to hear that you have settled into your new home. I trust things are going well in this difficult transition. Rest assured many here are aware of the sacrifice you have made for your country.
    If there is anything we can do for you and your daughter, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m hoping one day you’ll be able to return to Washington when we apprehend the perpetrators of this heinous crime.
    Godspeed and success in your new business. Maybe one of these days you can fly my family and me to one of the ski resorts out there.
    It was signed by the director of the Department of Homeland Security. I felt guilty about going through Sam’s stuff, so I put the letter back in the file and tried to return it to the drawer. But the file was too full. I rearranged the letters and pulled the drawer out all the way. It slipped off its rollers and thudded to the floor.
    I knelt, pushed the file in, then tried to get the drawer back onto its rollers. Something caught my eye at the back of the desk—a smushed envelope wedged in the corner. I grabbed it.
    The postmark was smudged so I couldn’t read the date, but it looked pretty old. The return address said it was from Marshall Faulkner somewhere in Germany. It was addressed to Lynn Vickers.
    A door banged downstairs and my heart jumped. Sam’s not supposed to be back yet!
    I picked up the drawer, got it back on track, and shoved it closed. I stashed the letter in my pocket and tiptoed to the exercise room.

Chapter 59

    Mom showed me two articles in the newspaper after dinner. The first included an interview with Tracy and Cammy. The headline read, “Local Girls Talk about Safety.”
    The article began:
    Cammy Michaels, 14, and Tracy Elliot, 13, know what it’s like to be scared. Since last week’s alleged assault in Red Rock, the girls have used their terrifying experience to teach younger children about protecting themselves.
    Tracy said in an interview from her home, “When they hear about us getting tied up and threatened, their eyes go wide and some of them start to cry. We want them to imagine what it was like so it won’t happen to them.”
    The article went on to name the suspect.
    “We still have the tape he used to remind us of what happened,” Cammy said. “I’ll never forget that day.”
    I took the whole section to my room to read. Something bothered me, and not just because Cammy had been so mean to me. Something