The Lost Girls of Johnson's Bayou by Jana DeLeon Page A

I can’t help you any more than that.”
    “Don’t be sorry,” he reassured her. “At least I know she left the hospital alive. That gives me hope that if it is my sister, she’s still alive today. It could have been the end of the line.”
    “I suppose you’re right, but it seems like small comfort.”
    Paul rose from the table and thanked the woman for her time. As he walked out the door, he found himself thinking that he couldn’t agree more. It was small comfort, but comfort nonetheless.
     
    T HE NURSE WATCHED P AUL through the slats in the window blinds as he got into his car and pulled away. When the man had first approached her years ago, she’d thought him a bit suspicious-minded. He’d told her the real story behind the girl’s past—that she’d been placed in the school by the foster care system to hide her from an abusive father. The man figured if she didn’t remember, that was for the best. Then there was no way her father could find her. As the years went by, no one ever asked about the girl, but he continued to make the annual payments. Finally she decided it was full-blown paranoia, but if the man wanted to waste money that way, she wasn’t going to tell him anything different. After all, she’d kept her end of the bargain.
    And now, after all the years, the visit the man had been expecting had occurred.
    It took her a while to find the man’s phone number, buried deep in her desk behind years of paperwork, but finally she located the yellowed piece of paper. She pulled out the prepaid cell phone—the only form of communication she bothered to keep these days—and dialed. He answered immediately.
    “It’s Nurse Agnes,” she said, using the name they’d agreed on long ago.
    “Has something happened?” The anxiety in the man’s voice was apparent.
    “A man came to visit me asking about the girl. Claimed he was looking for his sister, as they were separated as kids by the foster care system. It was a good story and he delivered it well. If you hadn’t warned me someone might come asking, I would have believed his story.”
    “You didn’t tell him anything?”
    “Only what we agreed upon.” She hesitated for a moment, a question hovering on the tip of her tongue. It was none of her business and the man wouldn’t like her asking, but something inside her had to know. “You’re going to keep her safe, right?”
    Her query was met with complete silence.
    “Look,” she said, “I know you don’t give details, and that’s fine. I just want to know that you’re not going to allow her abuser to find her. He probably hired that man. I want to know that she’s safe.”
    “She’s safe.”
    The man disconnected the call and the nurse placed her cell phone on the desk. The man had promised he’d protect the girl. He’d paid her all these years to keep her hidden from the man who’d abused her—her own father.
    But something didn’t feel right.
    A flash of Paul’s face as he told her his story passed through her mind. He was so earnest, so passionate and seemed so sincere. Had she really grown so old and unaware that he’d charmed her into believing his story?
    Or was he telling the truth?
     
    T HE MAN CLOSED HIS cell phone and stared across the town square at Ginny. He wondered if she knew why the man she’d been seeing had come to Johnson’s Bayou. If what he’d told the nurse was the truth, then it was no coincidence that he’d hooked up with Ginny almost immediately after arriving in town. But had he told her why? Or was he just hoping she’d give him information?
    Clearly, the lying “vacationer” had decided Ginny wasn’t the woman he sought, or he wouldn’t have tracked down the nurse. The nurse hadn’t told him anything important, but the whole situation didn’t sit well with the man. He’d kept the LeBlanc School secrets for a lot of years, managing to hide everything from the police and others who came behind them.
    If the detective succeeded in blowing