He Who Walks in Shadow Read Free Page A

been unable to discuss it with Rachel. There was always an excuse, always a reason not to talk to me. With her father’s disappearance and the ongoing investigation into his whereabouts—and the court fight that followed—I couldn’t rightly blame her, nor could I force her to hear me out. Now that the so-called “memorial service” was over I had to press the issue. Striking out on my own would be as foolhardy as it would be impotent. No, I had to have Rachel’s help. Everything depended on it.
    I had barely knocked before she answered the door with a smile, and somehow that worried me all the more. But even dressed in black with her chestnut brown hair pulled back in a bun, there was something enchanting about her, a gift from her mother’s side of the family. I felt my guard slip. Perhaps she would be more willing to help than I had hoped.
    “Henry. Somehow I knew I’d see you today. Come in.” I followed her into the kitchen where she was making a late lunch, or perhaps an early dinner. “Care for a brandy?” she asked. “I know that was always your favorite…and my father’s.”
    “That’ll be all right, Rachel.”
    “Speaking of my father,” she said, “we missed you at the funeral.” As she spoke she removed a knife from a block and returned to slicing a pile of vegetables, a project that, given the pile of half-cut carrots, potatoes, and other sundries, I had apparently interrupted.
    I smiled, without mirth. “I seriously doubt that anyone, present company excluded, missed me today.”
    “Well, Henry, you have been making quite a bit of trouble for my wretched family. And among the few of them who didn’t just want their cut of his money, jealousy can be expected. After all, my father loved you more than most.” She gathered up a handful of vegetables and dropped them in a simmering broth.
    “But not more than you, of course.”
    Rachel looked at me and grinned. “You’re up to something, Henry. I can tell. You were never good at flattery.”
    “And you are as perceptive as ever. Actually, Rachel, I was hoping that you could help me with something very important. I understand that you have some time, now that you’ve quit your job at the Advertiser .”
    Rachel coughed out a little laugh and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Well, I always disliked the sensationalism, but when it was directed at my father I came to despise it. Besides, my editor didn’t care for women in the newsroom.”
    I walked around the island to face her, taking her hand in mine. “Rachel, you know that I would have been there today if I believed your father were dead. If I didn’t know he was alive.”
    Rachel closed her eyes tight, and I feared my words had given her great pain. “You’ve said that before,” she said softly, “but I’ve seen no evidence to believe it’s true.”
    “Only because you haven’t given me the chance to show you. There are things you need to hear, proof you need to see. But you will have to have faith.”
    She cocked her head to the side, and I winced at the look she gave me. “Oh, Henry, you’ve always been like family to me, the uncle I never had,” she said. “But you and my father… For you two, everything was always a mystery. There was always something deeper than the mundane. Something beyond the ordinary. You couldn’t just take things at face value. Sometimes there’s nothing more to the matter than what we see.”
    “Even if that’s true, even if normally that were the case, can’t you understand that this is different? Your father didn’t just walk out and leave. You can’t believe that.”
    “God, Henry,” she said, and her voice was thick with frustration as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, “if I learned one thing from my father it is to never rule anything out. That there is nothing in this world that’s so insane that it can’t be believed. Can you honestly tell me that you know for sure he didn’t just decide to leave? Take that book of