Sooner or Later Read Free

family and disappeared. Letty and Luke had only been five and far too young to comprehend what had happened. Over the course of years, rumors had reached Letty s tender ears about her mothers weaknesses. Stories of a woman addicted to alcohol and men.
    After her mother s disappearance, their father, the local minister, had asked Grammy for help, so she’d moved in with the family.
    Grammy was a grand southern woman who lacked neither grace nor charm. Whenever there was a death in the community, Grammy would visit the family home, stop the clocks, cover the mirrors with sheets, and place a cup of salt in the windowsill. More often than not Letty and Luke accompanied her on such trips. Letty never fully understood the purpose behind these rituals and didn’t think to ask before Grammy’s passing.
    But when her father had laid his own mother to rest, Letty had raced home, and with tears streaming down her face, she’d reverently stopped the giant grandfather clock that tolled in the study and covered the bathroom mirror with a clean white sheet. Last, she’d dutifully set the salt in the kitchen window, then hurried back to the church, knowing her grandmother would have approved.
    Letty had inherited her grandmother’s green thumb, and her garden flourished year after year. She wasn’t the healer her grandmother had been, but there were a number of home remedies she’d practiced on herself, her brother, and their father while he was alive.
    The night before the news of the coup had reached Letty, she’d woken with her heart racing frantically, her head pounding. Instinctively she’d known something was terribly wrong with her twin. Many hours had passed before she’d heard that the government of Zarcero had fallen and guerrillas had taken over the capital. As the days progressed, news of atrocities committed against the people of Zarcero filled the television screen. Letty had watched in horror, praying her brother and his small, floundering group of followers had been spared.
    The feeling that Luke was in trouble hadn’t left Letty since that night. If anything, the sensation had intensified.
    There was no help for it. She was going to Zarcero with or without help.
    And it looked very much as if she’d be making the trip alone.
     
    As luck would have it, two days later Murphy literally ran into Letty at the hardware store. He felt his backside bump against a soft, womanly figure and turned around, prepared to apologize. The words froze on his lips as his gaze slammed into Letty Madden’s.
    From her shocked expression, Murphy suspected their meeting had taken her by surprise as well.
    “Good day, Mr. Murphy,” she greeted him formally, as if they’d stumbled upon each other at a Sunday school picnic. Fat chance of that ever happening.
    He nodded slightly and was ready to turn away when he noticed the contents of her shopping cart.
    “I’m buying supplies for my trip into Zarcero,” she informed him.
    He picked up a flare and wondered if it was worth the effort to tell her that these were the last thing she was going to need.
    “I thought flares might come in handy,” she said, studying him.
    Murphy tossed it back inside her cart. “Sure, if you want to alert the whole damn country that you’ve arrived.”
    “Oh, but I thought—” She stopped abruptly, clamping her mouth closed.
    Murphy purchased what he needed and promptly left the store. At his best estimate Letty Madden would last fifteen minutes in Zarcero. If that.
    He opened his truck door and was about to leave when she called out to him.
    “Mr. Murphy…”
    Groaning inwardly, Murphy climbed inside the cab. “What is it now?” he demanded, making sure she knew he resented the intrusion.
    To her credit, she didn’t cower the way some women would. “I won’t keep you long.” She stood on the sidewalk, looking uneasy but determined. The woman had mettle, he’d say that for her.
    “When I approached you earlier, you didn’t give me a