Chapter 159: Her Mother's Love, Part 1, Frank Conners

JAMES

Charlotte pleads with her mother. "Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me there? At Blessingmoors. With him?"

Mitch thunders upright from her seat. Face reddening, her mouth twists. "I did not leave you. I would never have left you..."

"I thought you must have abandoned me..."

"No." She swings on Charlotte, eyes glossy. "I left because..." Her voice hushes... "Because you were dead." Mitch presses fingers to her forehead. "You were dead. He told me that. How can you be alive? How?"

"Who told you?" I ask. "Klempner said that? He told you your baby had died?"

"No, not Larry." Hands pressed to her cheeks, Mitch swings her face to one side then the other. "It was Frank. He said you were dead, that he'd seen Larry murder you."

The bang of a door closing echoes through the room, then boots on linoleum coming closer.

Mitch whirls to the door. "He'll tell us."

"He?"

The door opens and a figure steps into the lounge. Not overly tall although perhaps once beefily bu