The Secret Sin by Darlene Gardner Page A

two young boys passed them, giving Annie a conversation starter. “How old are your brothers, Lindsey?”
    “Five and six,” she answered without looking at Annie.
    Annie did some quick mental calculations. Lindsey’s father must have remarried and gotten his new wife pregnant fairly soon after his first wife died. She wondered how that had affected Lindsey, but didn’t ask. A question like that could shut down their lines of communication completely.
    “I bet things are never boring at your house,” Annie said.
    “It’s a zoo,” Lindsey said. “My brothers run wild.”
    “Then you must be a big help with them.”
    Lindsey snorted. “Yeah, right.”
    “Don’t you babysit?”
    “My parents never ask me to,” Lindsey said.
    “Then who watches your brothers when your mom and dad go out?”
    “Nobody,” she said. “They take Teddy and Timmy with them everywhere.”
    Annie wondered if Lindsey’s brothers were a sensitive subject. She licked her ice cream but hardly tasted it, concluding that Annie’s chat with Jason was just as likely the source of Lindsey’s short answers.
    They crossed a side street and entered a block with single-family row houses interspersed among the gift shops and the florist.
    “Don’t you just love these stone facades?” Annie asked. “I hear this block looks pretty much the same as it did one hundred and fifty years ago.”
    She sounded like a tour guide showing off the city. Lindsey polished off her baby cone, affording the architecturally significant buildings only a cursory glance. Annie let the tidbit about the city getting its start as a transportation hub for the once-booming coal industry die on her lips.
    She finished her ice cream in quick order and threw her napkin in a decorative black metal trash can. The silence between them grew so pronounced Annie could hear her own breathing and the soft sounds her flat-heeled sandals made on the pavement. Her hip ached where she’d fallen on it.
    “Who lives there?” Lindsey finally broke the silence,pointing up the side street they were crossing to a large, well-kept Victorian house beautifully situated on a spacious lawn.
    “Quincy Coleman and his wife,” Annie replied, although she stopped short of sharing the drama that had swirled around Quincy earlier that summer. “He used to be president of the local bank, but he’s retired now.”
    Lindsey clammed up again. Now that she’d showed interest in a subject, however, Annie wasn’t about to let it go.
    “Years ago all the fine old families of Indigo Springs lived in this neighborhood,” Annie said. “The mayor, the owner of Abe’s General Store, lawyers, doctors.”
    “How about Ryan’s family?” Lindsey asked.
    “His sister lives about a block and a half up that street.” Annie indicated the cross street they’d just passed.
    “She’s the one who broke her leg, right? Isn’t Ryan staying with her?”
    “I believe he is.”
    “Ryan said he’d drop by today. Wonder why he didn’t.” Now that the subject was Ryan Whitmore, Lindsey was a regular chatterbox.
    “He left a message that he’d gotten hung up.” Annie had been relieved, not up to dealing with his overwhelming presence. “Something about bringing home a dog.”
    “A dog! Let’s go see it!” Lindsey did a complete one-eighty, heading back in the direction leading to the Whitmore house.
    “That’s not a good idea,” Annie called, hurrying tocatch up to her, her hip aching a little more. Her heart started to race. “We can’t just barge in on him, Lindsey.”
    “Why not?” Lindsey asked airily. “He’ll be glad to see us.”
    Annie could hardly dispute that point. She anxiously rummaged for another reason to stay away. “It’s impolite to show up without calling first.”
    Lindsey whipped out her cell phone and started pressing buttons. “He said I could call him anytime,” Lindsey said and put the phone to her ear. He must have answered on the first ring. “Ryan? This is