Liar's Moon

Eleven

Breakfast was silent the next morning at the Peterson family's house. Little Lisa rubbed her eyes and moved her long, golden hair out of her face. She looked at the scene in the dining room, where her mother buried her face in her hands tearfully and her father ate silently with his stern and cold-as-ever expression. Her head turned to the two and she faced her father.
"Daddy, are you bein' mean to Mommy again?"
Lisa's mother laughed a bit and shook her head.
"No, honey," she responded, "Your mama's not feeling very well this morning. Why don't you go on back to your room and Pearl will bring you a nice breakfast?"
"But I don't wanna go!" Lisa whined.
Her father began to speak up, raising his voice.
"Did you hear your mama? Get to your room. Now!"
Lisa looked back as she turned and paced her way to her bedroom. A door from the other side of the dining room opened, and Pearl walked out with a kettle in her hand. She stood next to the banker's wife and poured coffee into her porcelain cup. When Pearl moved next to the banker to pour him his cup, the colonel entered from the same room she did.
"What's all this yelling about Ginny being gone?" he asked.
The banker picked up a folded piece of paper on the left side of his plate and handed it to him, his eyes still looking away.
"Pearl found this this morning."
"Sure did," Pearl added.
The colonel studied the piece of paper, and a grin started to spread across his face. This caught the attention of the banker, who looked at him questioningly.
"Like some coffee, Colonel?" Pearl asked, approaching him.
"No thanks, Pearl," he told her, still reading the note. When he finished, he raised his head to face the banker.
"So she eloped with Jack Duncan. Frisky little fella, ain't she?"
The banker looked at the colonel disgruntledly, a contrast from the man's expression.
"I don't find any humor in it."
The colonel threw the note down at the table and turned to the banker, still donning a carefree expression.
"I think we should call the police," the banker told him.
"What's the charge, being in love?"
"Look, Colonel, you don't understand," the banker began to stand up, "That Duncan boy is not right for Ginny. It won't work! We gotta stop 'em!"
The colonel continued to look at the banker, his expression unchanged.
"Alex, you got a right to your opinion, however wrong you may be. Now I thought that Duncan boy was a nice young man. If you'd have given him a gentleman's chance, you'd have thought so, too. Let me give you some advice, Alex. Shut up, simmer down. They'll be back when they're good and ready."
The banker stared silently at the man and walked away.
"I'm going to work."
The colonel started to pace forward, making his way to the banker's chair.
"It's about time. Hey, Pearl! I'll take that coffee now!"
He pulled the chair from under the table and sat down in an untroubled manner.

The banker opened the door to his office and walked to his desk. He approached the back and pulled a key out of his pocket. Sticking it in the lock, he turned, opening the wooden drawer. In the space were multiple papers and he reached in, shuffling through them. His searching eventually got slower and eventually stopped completely when he saw a small white business card. He picked it up and read it.
"ROY LOGAN, Licensed Private Detective."
The rest of the card had the address and phone number to the name. The banker set the card on his desk and his eyes wandered to the shiny, black phone next to him. Picking it up, he began to spin the dial.