Daniel dialed the number while Eve leaned in to listen. She could hear the phone ringing. After the fourth ring, a sleepy voice answered.
“Hello.”
“Is this Mr. Winters?”
There wasn’t an answer.
“My name is Daniel Hively. I’m a friend of Dorisanne Divine.”
Eve could hear the man clearing his throat.
“Divine,” he said, pronouncing it correctly, just as Daniel had done. “Not Divine.”
“Yes,” Daniel responded.
“It’s 2245 Lone Star Place,” was what he said next.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel replied.
“It’s 2245 Lone Star Place,” he said, repeating himself, “89048.”
There was a brief pause where neither of them spoke, and then Mr. Marcus Winters ended the call.
Daniel hit Redial three times, but the man whose name and number were listed in Dorisanne’s address and phone book never picked up again.
Daniel and Eve turned to each other.
Eve spoke first. “Could it be that easy?” she asked.
Daniel didn’t answer, but he seemed convinced. He reached into a small drawer hidden under a drink holder and pulled out a small electronic device. Eve recognized it from earlier in their trip. It was a GPS. She watched as he plugged it in, turned on the engine, and typed in the address that had just been given to them. Immediately, a map was displayed.
“Okay, 2245 Lone Star Place,” Daniel said as directions started to be given. He looked at Eve. “We’re going to find her.” He put the engine in Drive and left the city jail parking lot. He followed the instructions and headed south out of the city.
Eve pulled away from Daniel and glanced out the window. She couldn’t believe it might be so easy. She couldn’t believe Dorisanne would just give out an address to a man Eve had never heard of. And how did he know to give it to Daniel? Had Dorisanne expected the family friend to show up and look for her? It just didn’t make sense, and she was worried that this was actually some setup, some trap that she and Daniel were about to walk, or drive, right straight into. She reached over and touched Daniel on the arm.
“I don’t know if this is the right thing,” she said.
He slowed a bit but kept driving as the directions were leading him.
“It’s the right thing,” he responded, without an explanation for his confidence.
Eve closed her eyes. She wanted to believe him, but she knew that the man on the motorcycle had already tried to kill Pauline, was after Eve at the hospital, and had apparently found Steve and had him murdered at the jail. If this was a trap set by him or the people he worked with, she and Daniel could be making a fatal mistake by going to this location.
“I think she must have known we’d come searching for her,” Daniel finally explained.
“How could she have known such a thing?”
“She knows the Captain. She knows you.”
Eve looked at Daniel. “And you,” she added. “You’re the one who’s been coming out here all the time, checking up on her. I’m so grateful for you, Daniel.”
He turned away. And there was something about the way he moved so quickly, the way he had looked since she had told him that she saw Dorisanne at the hospital, the way he had gotten so worried since leaving the hospital. Suddenly, things began to come together. She thought about how earlier he seemed not to want to talk about his many trips to Vegas, the way he so quickly and easily changed everything at his work to come with her, the way people recognized him in the town. Eve knew then that there was something more going on with her friend and his relationship with her sister.
The voice from the GPS gave another instruction about a turn Daniel would need to make.
“You’re in love with Dorisanne,” Eve blurted out.
Daniel quickly faced her. “What?”
“I said, you’re in love with Dorisanne.”
“That’s crazy,” was his reply. And he rolled down his window a bit.
And just like that, several things were clear to Eve. “Your coming out here all those times, that wasn’t for the Captain. You came out here for yourself.”
Daniel shook his head. “She’s young enough to be my daughter,” he answered.
“And Mama was young enough to be the Captain’s. I don’t think age has anything to do with falling in love.”
“And you’re such an expert on this?”
“I’m not an expert on anything,” she replied. “I think we both know that.”
The GPS reported they had about fifteen more miles to travel. Lone Star Place was not in Las Vegas, it was in the neighboring town of Pahrump.
“When did this happen?” she asked.
Daniel didn’t answer at first.
She waited.
“A while ago,” he answered. “After my divorce.”
Eve leaned back into her seat.
“It was before Dorisanne got married. I came out here, and I don’t know—things just happened.”
“What things happened?” Eve wanted to know.
Daniel turned to her and smiled. “Just things,” he answered.
“But why did she marry Robbie? Why didn’t we find out about this? How long did it go on?” She knew she was already asking way too many questions, and there were way too many more rattling around in her mind.
“I broke it off,” he answered. “I just couldn’t see this as something that would work. I’m your father’s best friend.”
Eve thought about what he was saying. “So?” It was all she could think to say.
He made a kind of laugh. “So?” He shook his head. “Are we talking about the same man? Do you remember the Captain?”
“I remember him just fine. And I know you. And I know Dorisanne. If you two fell in love after knowing each other your whole lives, then so what? Don’t you think he would much rather it be you with Dorisanne than Robbie the credit card thief?”
Daniel didn’t answer for a few seconds, and then he blew out a breath. “It doesn’t matter. It was wrong. And I value your father’s friendship. I didn’t want to lose that.”
“I don’t think you’d have to,” Eve responded. “He’s a bear, we both know that. But he also loves you both. You’re both adults and have been for a long time. I don’t think he’d be as against the relationship as you think.”
He nodded but didn’t appear to be convinced.
“What did Dorisanne say?” she wanted to know.
“She said that the two of them never got along anyway. It wasn’t such a big issue for her.”
“How did she take the breakup?”
He shook his head. “She got married in three months.”
Eve didn’t know what to say. She was remembering the wedding, how Daniel had not come, saying he was out of town for that weekend. She recalled her sister’s demeanor and how Eve had even questioned her about the quick timing of the event. Dorisanne had never let on what had happened between her and Daniel. No one in the family, at least as far as Eve knew, had had a clue.
She wanted to know so much more, but before she could ask another question, Daniel made the announcement.
“This is it.” He turned the car into a short driveway and came to a stop.