Susannah's Garden (Blossom Street #3)(54)

“Thanks. I’ll see you later.” She walked out the door with a little wave. The fact was, Susannah already had an alternative plan, although she was keeping it to herself for now.

One thing was certain—she intended to find Jake no matter what it took.

CHAPTER 21

None of the six Jake Presleys on Carolyn’s list turned out to be the Jake Presley from Colville. Susannah and Carolyn spent Monday and Tuesday evening trying various Internet search engines, but to no avail. When she wasn’t on Carolyn’s computer or the phone, searching for Jake, she was making detailed notes about her father’s cash withdrawals from the bank statements she’d found.

At least every other year, and sometimes more often, he’d made these withdrawals, some large and some not. She also discovered that her father had taken frequent trips out of town. Not once had her mother mentioned these trips. They generally weren’t more than a day or two. Business trips, noted in an odd sort of journal her father kept. All he’d written down was the name of a city and a cash amount. In checking the bank statements against the journal entries, she saw that the money withdrawn was the same amount as listed in this pocket-size journal. The largest ones she made special note of.

August 23, 1973—Dallas, Texas—$13,000

March 2, 1978—San Francisco, California—$15,000

October 22, 1980—Boise, Idaho—$10,000

April 19, 1993—Portland, Oregon—$12,000

If these were investments, as both Joe and Carolyn had suggested, she couldn’t understand why the withdrawals were made in cash. Two possibilities occurred to her, and they seemed to take clearer shape with every day. Besides Carolyn, the only person she dared discuss them with was her husband. Her biggest fear was that, like Carolyn’s father, he’d had a mistress and was traveling with her. That night at the bar, she’d told Carolyn it didn’t matter to her if he’d had a lover or not. But it did matter. For her mother’s sake, she told herself.

Wednesday morning, Susannah woke to learn that Chrissie had already left the house. A quickly scrawled note was propped up against the coffeepot announcing that—surprise, surprise—she was with Troy. In less than a week, her daughter and that shiftless bum had become practically inseparable.

Susannah had a lot on her mind and wanted to talk to Joe about it. She reached him at home, having breakfast. After a brief greeting she launched into her concerns.

“The more I study my father’s bank accounts, the more convinced I am that he was either being blackmailed or that he had a mistress.”

“Susannah, you don’t honestly believe your father would put up with a blackmailer, do you?”

It seemed incomprehensible to her. As far as she knew, her father hadn’t backed away from anything in his life. He didn’t tolerate weakness in anyone, especially himself. He was a hard man, difficult to live with, difficult to know.

“I can’t really picture him being blackmailed,” she agreed. “Then maybe he had a mistress.” That idea seemed the more likely of the two.

“What about gambling?” Joe suggested.

“In Boise, Idaho?”

She’d thought of that, too. If her father had made cash withdrawals and flown to Vegas, it would add up, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d listed areas not known for that particular form of entertainment.

“It had to be another woman,” she insisted now.

“I don’t see it,” Joe said. “Your father wasn’t the kind of man who’d cheat on his wife.”

“I would never have thought Carolyn’s father was the type, either.” While the two men weren’t good friends, they were associates through the service clubs in town. And they were well enough acquainted for George to get the information he needed to send Susannah to the same French boarding school as Carolyn.

“You’re far too willing to find fault with him,” Joe stated.

“I am not. I have the evidence right here.”

“Cash withdrawals and cryptic notes about cities. That isn’t evidence.”

“He was hiding something,” she argued.

“I agree with you there. But you might never learn what it was. Why is it so important? Don’t you have enough to do?”

“Yes. In fact, I have far too much.”

“You’re not getting much help from Chrissie, are you?”

She rested one shoulder against the kitchen wall. Her father had been too cheap to buy a portable phone but he could waste ten thousand dollars on God knows what. “She’s spending the day with Troy again.”

“Send her home,” Joe said. “If she isn’t helping you, which is the reason she claimed she was going to Colville, then send her back here.”

“I probably should,” Susannah said.

“Then why don’t you?”

She sighed. “The thing is, Chrissie’s good with Mom.” No matter how much time she spent with Troy, her daughter made a point of visiting her grandmother every day. Vivian thrived on Chrissie’s visits, and proudly introduced her to the other residents. Chrissie’s presence at Altamira relaxed Vivian and gave her something to look forward to. Her mother was beginning to adjust and even to socialize, and Chrissie was, in part, responsible for that.

“Susannah…”

“Sorry,” she murmured into the phone. “I was just thinking about Chrissie. I don’t like Troy or the fact that she’s spending so much time with him. But I think she’ll come to see for herself what he is.” Chrissie was immature, but Susannah still had hope that her daughter would recognize the truth about this new boyfriend of hers.