The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb Page A

convenience. “He was no monster, Mira. I loved him more than anything. He was a perfect father.”
    The sympathy in Mira’s eyes turned cold. “Perfect father? That’s quite a description, considering the man is a murderer who took you away from your mother and made sure everyone thought you were dead.”
    “Mira, please. You don’t know anything about the life I had with my father. He was a good man. I know he was. We were very close.”
    “Hallie, you have no idea what that man did.”
    “I know exactly what he did—and what he didn’t do,” I told her. “I heard about that girl’s death for the first time yesterday. And my father
didn’t
murder her.”
    “You don’t know that. The police—”
    Was this how it was going to go with every islander? Was I going to have to defend my dad’s memory in what was tantamount to a street brawl?
    “I don’t care what the police said. The man who raised me didn’t kill anybody.”
    Mira sniffed. “Tell that to the Suttons.”
    “I will!” I said indignantly. “I
will
tell that to the Suttons! Bring them on, Mira! I’m sorry their daughter is dead, but my dad didn’t kill her. I was there. It was an accident.”
    Mira’s eyes widened. “You saw what happened? We all suspected as much! That’s why he killed you—or pretended to.”
    “I don’t remember it.” I looked down at my hands, trying to regain my composure. “I wish I could. I don’t remember anything about my life here on the island, not one thing. Yes, it looks pretty bad. He took me away from here under false pretenses. He changed our names. I know that now. The only thing I have to go on is what I actually remember—the best father a girl could ever have.”
    “You can talk all you want about his being a great father, but it’s not up to you or me,” she said. “This is a police matter, Hallie. There’s no statute of limitations on murder. When the police learn he’s been alive all these years—”
    Then it hit me. She didn’t know my dad was dead. “The police aren’t going to reopen this case, Mira,” I told her softly. “My dad’s gone. Remember I said I was having a hard time back home? It was because he died—the day after I got the letter from Madlyn.”
    “Noah’s dead?” Mira’s eyes darted back and forth, as if she were looking for something she’d never find. “I . . . this is a lot to digest in one sitting. Noah was alive all these years, butnow he’s dead? You thought your mother was dead all these years, but she was alive—and now
she’s
dead? What you’ve been through!”
    “Yeah, it’s been . . . devastating. I guess that’s the only way to describe it.”
    “Hallie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything or to insult his memory. What you’ve endured these past few weeks I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s just that we’ve believed, all this time—”
    My head was starting to pound. I ran a hand through my hair. “Thank you for that, Mira. But I know what you’ve believed, and it’s not true. It can’t be.”
    “Okay, then,” she conceded. “If it’s not true, if he didn’t kill that poor girl, why did he leave? What other reason could there be?”
    “That’s what I need to find out. If he was not guilty of murder, and yet all the evidence pointed to him and the police were bearing down on him, it would’ve been cause enough to run. Or it might have been something else.”
    “Another woman, maybe?” Mira offered.
    “I don’t think so,” I said slowly. “There was no woman in our lives. My dad never even dated anybody, all those years. When I was in high school, I used to encourage him to see the single mothers of my friends, but he never would. He used to say he had had one true love in his life and that was all he ever needed.”
    “If that was so, why would he take her child away from her?” she said icily.
    Mira had a point. And suddenly I knew, without a doubt, what I was going to do.
    “Well, I certainly