“What can I do? I have no authority.”
“It will help if you can find me a photograph of Mr. Winters.”
Caleb’s face puckered into troubled wrinkles.
“It’s too late,” he muttered under his breath. “It wouldn’t do any good.”
“What was that you said?” Penny questioned sharply.
“Nothing. I was just talking to myself. About the picture. I’ll see what I can do. Don’t count much on getting it though because I doubt if I can locate one for you.”
The girls chatted a few minutes longer but Caleb was not very good company. He responded briefly if at all to their conversational sallies and for the most part seemed lost in thought. They soon left him to his fish cleaning and went on toward the house.
“I wonder what got into him all at once?” Rosanna mused. “Perhaps he was offended at the way I spoke to him.”
“I don’t think he gave it a second thought,” Penny responded. “I suspect Caleb rather likes to have folks talk up to him. No, I’m sure it wasn’t anything you said that annoyed him. Likely enough it was my request for Mr. Winters’ photograph.”
“Why should that bother him?”