Vanish in Plain Sight by Marta Perry Page A

back on again. “You were away, what with school and the army, so you probably didn’t notice it, but he really turned… Well, Mom calls it eccentric. ” He grinned. “Odd was more like it. Didn’t want anyone in the house. I had to twist his arm to let me send someone over to mow the yard.”
    The worry that lurked at the back of Link’s mind poked out. “Is there anything in that to make you think he could have been involved in the Angelo woman’s disappearance?”
    Trey’s answer didn’t come as quickly as he’d like. Trey actually seemed to be considering that as a possibility.
    “I wish I knew,” he said slowly. “I’d like to say that was ridiculous, but I can’t. For Mom’s sake, I hope he wasn’t. She’s been through enough the past couple of years.”
    A weight settled on Link’s heart. Dad’s death, thought to be suicide, something that seemed impossible to believe. And then the revelation that someone they’d known all their lives had killed him.
    And only a few weeks later, Link had managed to get himself nearly blown to pieces. No, Mom hadn’t had an easy time of it lately.
    “Marisa’s not going to give up until she knows the truth.” Link spoke with a sureness that surprised himself. He hadn’t realized he felt that convinced of what Marisa would and wouldn’t do. “If Allen was involved… Well, I don’t think we can keep it quiet.”
    “It wouldn’t be right, anyway. Come on, let’s get this stuff unloaded.”
    That was Trey, always determined to do what was right, even when it hurt. Just like Dad. Together they carried the rest of Link’s purchases to the porch.
    “Thanks for the help.” Link hesitated, but Trey would have to know. “About this situation with Marisa Angelo… I stopped by the station this morning to see if Adam had come up with anything. She came in while I was there.”
    “Why?” Trey fired the word, frowning.
    “Adam had called her. He wanted her to take a DNA test. It seems the blotches on the suitcase were blood.”
    Trey looked as if he’d like to cut loose with some colorful language, but he didn’t. “That’s torn it. It’ll turn into a murder investigation for sure.”
    “Not necessarily. Adam says the amount was fairly small—not enough to indicate a fatal wound. But naturally they’ve got to find out if it was Barbara Angelo’s.”
    “Yeah.” Trey rubbed the nape of his neck. “I can’t see Adam letting anything slide. He’ll be thinking the police did a lousy job of it twenty-three years ago.”
    “Anyway, I drove Marisa to the hospital in Lancaster to have the test done. She told me something I found hard to believe.”
    Too bad that just mentioning her name made him think of those moments when he’d been too close to her, the scent of her in his nostrils, the silky hair that had brushed his arm…
    Trey lifted an eyebrow. “You going to tell me?”
    Good thing Trey had pulled him back from that line of thought. “She’s got the idea someone was watching her room last night. A man, out in the yard at the guest house in the middle of the night. An Amish man.”
    “That’s nonsense.” Trey’s first instinct was to reject it, just as Link’s had been. “She must have been dreaming.”
    “That’s what I said, but she seemed pretty certain. She also said that the Millers wouldn’t talk to her about her mother. She seemed to think the Amish are hiding something.”
    “Then she wasn’t just dreaming, she’s paranoid,” Trey said flatly.
    It was what he’d thought himself, but it annoyed him to hear Trey say it.
    “Maybe so. Except that when we were walking to the parking lot at the hospital, I happened to see Josiah Esch with his wife and little boy. And Josiah took one look at Marisa and very deliberately went the other way.”
    Trey was still for a moment, weighing that. “You sure your imagination isn’t working overtime?”
    His temper flared. “Listen, I’d like nothing better than to find out this is all