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"The arson investigators are here now," Mike told Abby the next morning at the kitchen table over toast and coffee. The place still smelled of smoke and chemicals, and water had dripped downstairs from the dousing of the bedroom. Fortunately, though, only the front of the house was damaged. "And the insurance adjuster should be here in a while. After I talk to them I'll be going to the office. So I'm leaving you in Hannah's capable hands. She'll take you shopping and to Jess's." |
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Abby smiled. Perhaps he was as eager as she for the journals to be located, for Abby to prove she was what she said. She was once again clad in a too large T-shirt and jeans of Mike's, for those of her new clothes that had survived the flames nevertheless had been ruined by smoke and water. Hannah had lent her a headband to hold back her hair. |
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There were several strange men about the place when Abby and Hannah left a short while laterthe arson and insurance people, Abby assumed. So far Mike had found nothing missing. |
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Hannah drove the small, open-roofed car that usually sat beside the Bronco in the outbuilding Mike called the garage. Abby enjoyed the feel of the sun on her face, the breeze rippling her hair behind its headband. Before they went far along the twisting descent, Hannah slowed the car at a sharp curve and stopped, pointing to one of several large, gnarled trees clutching the shoulder of the road beyond a new-looking metal railing. Beyond, the land sloped gradually for a few feet, |
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