Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff by J. E. Thompson Page A

that you have more sense than that.”
    â€œSorry,” I said, my voice little more than a whisper. I hated the way he could say things that made me look at situations from a different angle and see what I’d missed.
    â€œAs you know, Willie Smalls has been accused of helping those men, but I believe he’s innocent,” Daddy went on. “I’m trying to keep Willie from going to jail. Willie isn’t any risk to me, but those other men are a big risk to anybody who finds them.”
    â€œYessir.”
    â€œSo no more looking for Yemassee.” He glanced over at me, and his eyes were hard. “Understood?”
    â€œYessir.”
    Â 
    When we got back to Reward, Daddy stopped at the barn so I could unload the ponies. Bee showed up a couple minutes later, and we washed Timmy and Buck, then fed and watered them and finally oiled our tack.
    â€œDid Grandma Em give you a really hard time?” I asked as we worked.
    Bee nodded. “She didn’t yell as much as make me feel terrible for scaring her so bad.”
    I nodded. “Me too. Are you grounded?”
    â€œNo, but I can’t go look for Yemassee anymore. What about you?”
    â€œSame.”
    When I walked into the house a few minutes later, Daddy was just ladling some steaming okra gumbo that Grandma Em had given us into two bowls, and we sat together at the kitchen table. Grandma Em’s cooking helped make me feel better, just the way it always did. In addition to the gumbo, Daddy had tossed a quick green salad and pulled a baguette out of the freezer and stuck it in the oven to warm up.
    I hadn’t really noticed, but he was doing more and more every day. He had his trial tomorrow, and I knew without even asking that he would be going to the office day in and day out from now on. I didn’t like it, but I realized there was nothing I could do to keep it from happening.
    As we started to eat, Daddy cleared his throat in a way that told me he had something more to say. “I know you’ve got school starting,” he began. “But when you’re not doing homework or sports, I want you to stick close to Reward. It looks like we have a killer running around on this island, and until the police catch him, I don’t want you roaming.”
    Now that I had sat down and started to eat, I realized how exhausted I was. Finding that dead body had taken every bit of fight out of me. Rather than arguing, I just nodded. “Yessir.”
    I finished my dinner and was about to excuse myself and head up to bed when I realized Daddy had grown very still and intense.
    â€œSomething the matter?” I asked.
    He looked up, blinking his eyes like he’d been someplace far away. “I was thinking about the gas-company robbery and stealing the truck, and Willie Smalls, and then those men taking Yemassee. I’m trying to see some connection between all those things.” He shook his head. “None of it makes sense, but I’m thinking maybe they’re connected.”
    â€œHow do you mean?” I asked. In spite of how tired my brain was, I had been wondering the exact same thing.
    â€œI can understand somebody getting Willie drunk so they could steal his keys and then breaking into the gas company. They probably hoped to find a bunch of cash lying around, and when they didn’t find any, they stole one of the trucks.”
    â€œBut why would they steal Yemassee?”
    â€œExactly.” He took a spoonful of gumbo but then stopped with the spoon just an inch or two from his mouth. “I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but didn’t you say Yemassee was carrying something in her mouth?”
    I nodded. “Something long and white.”
    Daddy finally put the spoon in his mouth. When he swallowed, he asked. “Maybe something that came off a gas truck?”
    He looked at me, and I looked back at him. My eyes were growing so heavy, I could barely see. Neither