Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [78]
“The coffee business is your life, Parker. What in the world would you do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a tour guide. Sell shells on the beach.”
“You need to take these handbags back to the store.”
“Oh, no. That woman thought I was nuts as it is.”
“You are nuts, Parker. I love you anyway. By the way, I didn’t use the credit card. Even though you pissed me off big-time.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. Okay, I have to get back to Maui. I still haven’t located Annie Clark. I know where she’s staying, but I can’t hook up with her. Is it settled, then, you go back to work tomorrow?”
“Yes, Parker. I’m not calling Miss Clark, though. That’s something you’re going to have to take care of.” She smiled and stepped closer to her brother. “I hope you find her, Parker. The island isn’t that big. Camp out by her front door. Sooner or later she has to come in or go out. If she calls me, I’ll let you know. Thanks for the handbags.”
Kiki put her arms around him. “See, the world didn’t come crashing down on us. It’s okay to admit you’re wrong as long as you try to make it right.”
“You sounded like Mom just then, Kiki.”
“That’s one of the nicest things you ever said to me, Parker. You aren’t tough and narrow-minded like Pop was.”
Parker laughed. “Now that’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me. I’ll call you, Kiki.”
“Make sure you do.”
Exhausted, Annie crawled into bed. She knew if she closed her eyes she would go to sleep instantly. She wondered if she had the energy to return Tom’s calls and Elmo’s calls. She also had to decide what to do about the note she’d found on her door along with Parker’s six phone calls. It was Elmo’s three calls that worried her. Maybe her dogs were sick. She looked at the clock. Elmo was always an early riser, getting up at five, puttering around for an hour or so before opening his store at seven. A man of habit. She placed her call.
“Knew it would be you, Annie. Listen to me, girl. I have some news. As you know I still get my periodicals and the local newspaper as well as the campus paper. Most times I let them pile up, then read them when I can’t sleep. It seems in January the guy that was in prison was released. He’d been in a halfway house for a year. They released him early for good behavior and all that garbage. It seems he has aligned himself with Peter Newman, the insurance investigator. They never closed the case, Annie. I didn’t know that. Did you?”
Annie’s heart fluttered in her chest. Of course she knew that. They couldn’t close the case until all the money was returned. Something she was going to do as soon as she returned home. She was wide-awake now. “If they couldn’t find any proof in thirteen years, what do they hope to gain now?” How calm her voice was. She shivered under the light blanket.
“The insurance investigator had rules and regulations he had to abide by. He backed off when we all called the company and said he was harassing us. The boy, he’s a man now, doesn’t have those rules and regulations. I just think it’s strange that he would sidle up to Newman. Don’t you, Annie?”
“It doesn’t make sense, Elmo.”
“When I tell you this, it will make sense. I got a letter today, mailed from the town where the money was returned.”
Annie’s heart stopped beating for a second. “What kind of letter, Elmo?”
“You know the kind where the words are cut out of newspapers? It said, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID AND I’M GOING TO PROVE IT! I went by your house to see if you got one, and sure enough you did. I called Jane, and she got one, too. It isn’t over, Annie.”
“All the letters in the world aren’t going to change things, Elmo. Save yours and mine. Don’t go to the police, though. Let’s see what develops. How are the coffee bags coming along?”
“Shiny apple green bags with a daisy applique on the front and back. Very stylish-looking. I got the rough draft of it today, but the colors aren’t true. Jane’s well but worried now. I told her to stop, that I would do the worrying for all