Always Dakota - Debbie Macomber [25]
“I thought I’d go over and visit Joshua.” A question about a couple he’d met at Bernard’s funeral had been bothering Larry and he could think of no one better to ask than his old friend. After barely touching his lunch, he wandered over to Joshua McKenna’s second-hand store. Joshua sold a little of everything. The sign in his window claimed there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix, and Larry believed it.
“Good to see you,” Joshua called out when the bell above the door announced Larry’s arrival.
“I’m not disturbing you, am I?” Larry saw that Joshua was up to his elbows in grease, working on some kind of engine.
“Trust me, I welcome the interruption.” Joshua reached for a wadded-up rag, tucked in his back hip pocket. “This,” he said, gently patting the huge metal contraption, “is the engine to Gage Sinclair’s tractor. Dennis had it two weeks and couldn’t get it running. He threw up his hands and asked me to give it a try.”
Larry knew that low prices were killing many of the small farmers in the heartland. Farmers kept their equipment running as long as possible, and then eked out another twenty thousand miles.
“Did you hear I was over at Buffalo Bob’s?” Larry said as Joshua studied the engine. “Went there a couple of weeks ago, after I met them at Bernard’s wake.” Bob had talked him into trying his karaoke machine. Larry had no singing voice whatsoever, but bolstered by Merrily, he’d fallen victim. He was fairly confident they wouldn’t invite him to sing again.
“They have a little boy, don’t they?” Larry had noticed the child at the Clemens house but hadn’t seen him since.
“His name’s Axel.”
“Unusual name.”
Joshua nodded and continued to inspect the engine.
“Haven’t seen him around much,” Larry said.
“Seems to me Merrily said he’s got the chicken pox,” Joshua muttered.
“Poor little boy.”
“I’ve never seen a couple crazier about a kid,” Joshua said absentmindedly. He rubbed the side of his face, smearing a smudge of oil along his jaw.
“Bob seems to be a good father,” Larry commented.
“He is,” Joshua said. “Especially for being so new to it.”
“Axel isn’t his child?” Larry suspected as much, but then, he suspected a lot more.
“No. The boy belongs to Merrily,” he said, and reached inside the engine with a long-handled wrench. “No one realized she had a kid until she showed up with him one day.”
Larry’s suspicions mounted. When he’d moved into the house, there’d been a pile of junk mail stacked in the post office box, waiting for him once he’d submitted his change-of-address information. Never one to toss a piece of paper without first looking at it, he’d come across some flyers, notifications of several missing and abducted children. The name Axel, being unusual, had stuck in his mind. Within a week he’d met Bob and Merrily and their boy…Axel.
“Come to think of it, I never saw Merrily pregnant, either,” Joshua said. He twisted the wrench again and glanced up. “It used to be that Merrily would drift in and out of town. She’d stay with Buffalo Bob a few weeks, then disappear. He took her leaving real hard and never seemed to know when she’d be coming back.”
“You never saw her pregnant?” Larry repeated.
Joshua paused. “Funny, I never thought about it before, but no.”
“She didn’t bring the boy with her on earlier visits?”
Joshua shook his head. “No, not once.”
“You’re sure the boy is hers?”
His friend looked uncertain. “It’s clear he belongs to her,” he finally said. He held Larry’s eyes for an uncomfortably long moment. “If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”
Larry wasn’t sure this was the time or place to voice his suspicions. For many, he was a newcomer to the community; he had no intention of wading into an explosive situation without being sure of himself.
“Did Sarah hear from Calla?” he asked instead, purposely changing the subject.
“She did.” Regret flashed across Joshua’s face. “Apparently Calla’s not coming.”
Larry had been afraid of that. “Is Sarah upset?”
“Real upset. Frankly, I don’t understand Calla. Makes me wonder what lies that no-good father