One Chance: A Thrilling Christian Fiction Mystery Romance by Daniel Patterson

information she knew every way she could think to turn it. Nothing seemed to fit.
    Doug came out of the bedroom and flopped down on the couch. "I can't believe Trevor's back, you know, Penny? I'd almost given up hope. That's why I keep hitting the drink so hard. I mean, losing Camille was bad enough, but losing Trevor was the hardest. The worst."
    "God never gives us more than we can handle," Penelope said to him. "I honestly believe that, Doug."
    Her friend nodded. He wasn't convinced. "So, was I just too weak? I mean, God threw all this at me and all I could do was drink myself into oblivion every night." He looked at Penelope hopefully, as if he were waiting for Penelope to say something that would make it all right.
    "I'm not going to judge you, Doug. I never have before. God knows I had enough opportunities to do that while we were growing up. But I didn't. And I'm not going to start now. You dealt with things in your own way. If you think it wasn't the right way, then you're free to do something about that, right?"
    "Yeah," was all Doug said. "What if...I mean, I can't change what I've done, right? Things that are done, they can't be undone."
    Penelope heard something in her friend's words, something he was trying to say without really saying it. "Doug, is there something you need to tell me?"
    To her surprise, Doug nodded. He put his head down into his hands, raked his fingers through his short hair. "I didn't tell you the whole reason that Camille was here."
    Not what Penelope had expected him to say. But it was better than the confession she had braced herself for.
    Able to breathe again, she said, "I was wondering about that, buddy. I was happy to hear she came back and all, it just didn't seem like I was getting the whole story."
    "You weren't, Penny, you weren't, but I couldn't talk about it in front of Trevor, you know?"
    Penelope waited. When Doug didn't say anything more for more than a minute, she prompted, "You can tell me, Doug. I've always been here for you, right?"
    Doug managed a small smile. "Yeah, you have. You've been like a sister to me, Penny. All this time after Camille left me, you've been here for me. Everyone else in town wrote me off. Just ignored me. Or worse. But you've always been there for me."
    "So let me be there for you now. What did Camille tell you?"
    Doug took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "She told me something about her new boyfriend. The...uh...guy she took up with after she left me. The one she's been living with, with my Trevor."
    The heat in his voice was hard to miss.
    "Anyway," he went on. "She said that she started to think, maybe this guy isn't who he said he was. Maybe this guy's something way worse."
    "Like...what?"
    Just then the phone rang.
    They both jumped, then looked at each other and laughed. They had been so intent on what Doug was saying that they'd both lost track of the world around them. Now, the phone continued to ring, insisting on being answered.
    The caller ID showed her it was, once again, the Sheriff's Office. "Deputy Chance," she answered.
    "Penelope, it's Saunders," she heard Jim's voice. "I wanted to tell you what we got with Missy and Tommy. I'm real unsure where to go with this."
    "Okay, what kind of help do you need?" Penelope asked.
    "Well, I called over to her mother and told her just what you said," Jim explained. "You were right, she didn't want to hear it, but it made her feel a mite better to know her daughter hadn't been kidnapped or somethin'."
    "What about Tommy's parents? Did you call them?"
    "Well, yeah, I did," he said, and Penelope could hear in Jim's voice his opinion of that. "They still wasn't too worried about him, though."
    "Really?" Penelope asked. "Did they say why?"
    Penelope could almost hear Jim shrug. "Well, accordin' to them, Tommy's a big boy. Whatever he does with his time is on his own head."
    "So we're up against it as far as where these two might have gone?"
    "Yeah, that's about the size of it right there."
    Penelope