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Chapter 35

Thursday afternoon

Ruth finished with her workout. The activity not only helped keep her strong physically, but it also helped her to think clearly. She still needed a walk or a jog in the lanes around the village and along the coast. The sky and the land worked together to open everything up with fresh air, birdsong, and the distant bleat of sheep. As she rounded a curve in the land, she startled a group of four wild ponies. They tossed their winter-thick manes and flicked their tails and moved up the hill away from her. She jogged past.

Her mother had gone through everything in her liquor cabinet. She must have some secret helper buying her more, because Ruth hadn't been to the grocery or the liquor store since Annie disappeared. Then there was Sam. He had shown up with his new tactic of moaning, moping and sighing. She wasn't sure it hadn't been Sam who stuck to her like a coat of paint that needed to be peeled off. Sam was likely her mother's liquor supplier.