A Cold Dark Place by Gregg Olsen Read Free Book Online Page A

worked.
    "Yes, thank you"
    With the sheriff, Jason, and the two interlopers from
Spokane looking on, Emily lowered her gaze to the darkened
backside of Donovan Martin. His shirt was stiff and shiny. It
was soaked in blood.
    "Can't say for sure," she said. "But it looks like we've got
another homicide victim here"
    "Jesus, that makes three"
    "Or four?"
    "Depending on where we find Nicholas's body."
    Sheriff Kiplinger watched as Emily followed the dead
boy to the coroner's van. The panel doors were open. A set of
steel racks filled the back end. There were no seats. It was
more a hearse with a lab destination than a family vacation
van headed to Yellowstone, which it closely resembled. A
mountain scene was painted on the spare tire cover. The
Spokane County coroner approved the secondhand purchase
of the van and liked the airbrushed painting. Not only did the
coroner have a bad eye for artwork, he was cheap to boot.
    By 10:15 A.M., it was tragically clear that there were no
bodies left in the wreckage of the home. Dogs had been used
in the surrounding field and back wooded area that fed off
the creek. But nothing was found. No sign of anyone. No
sign of Nicholas Martin.
    Sheriff Kiplinger pulled his smokes from his breast pocket. "I hate to say it, Emily, but it looks like Nick Martin
has some explaining to do"

    An hour later, Sheriff Kiplinger and Emily Kenyon stood
in front of a pair of cameras from two of the three Spokane
TV stations. For the second time in a week, Cherrystone had
made the news. First the tornado and now a triple homicide.
    Twenty years of nothing happening around here and now
this, Emily thought as she stood next to the sheriff and the
cameras recorded the story for the evening news. The attention was unwanted for a couple of reasons. One deeply personal. The other had to do with pride. Both were rooted in an
incident that had shaken the foundation of her life and sent
her to Cherrystone to start over. To hide. And if this story
gets picked up by the Spokane station's sister station in Seattle they'll think I've let myself go.
    "We don't know exactly what happened or even when it
happened," the sheriff said. "It appears Mark and Margaret
Martin and their son Donovan are the victims of a brutal
homicide."
    "What about Nicholas? The oldest Martin boy?" The reporter shoved her microphone as if it were a fire poker. She
wanted Kiplinger to spill some major news.
    "Is he a suspect?"
    Emily took that one. "No. We do, however, consider him
a person of interest. If anyone knows of his whereabouts,
please contact the sheriff's department"
Tuesday, 12:25 RM., Cherrystone, Washington
    It was the biggest mistake of a very long day and Emily
knew it when she absentmindedly answered her cell phone
without looking at the caller ID panel. She just flipped it open
and there he was. It was Cary McConnell's husky voice. Her
heart plunged.

    "I thought you were avoiding me," he said.
    "I've just been busy," Emily lied.
    "I know. I saw you on the Spokane news" He paused.
"Twice"
    There was an awkward beat of silence as Emily toyed
with pretending that she had a bad cell and couldn't hear him.
She was more direct than that and as much as she was beginning to loathe Cary McConnell, he deserved to know the
truth.
    "Yeah. Brian's hooked up with Diane Sawyer and I'm
stuck with Spokane TV talking to a reporter just out of communications school." She tried to inject a friendly tone in her
voice, but mostly Emily just wanted the call to be over. She
knew what he was after. But she was too tired to be quick
with an excuse as to why she had to cut the call short.
    "Are you busy tomorrow night?"
    Damn it, he asked.
    "Now isn't a good time," she said, wishing she'd been
more direct and used "never is a good time."
    "We have something, you know."
    She found her footing. "No, Cary, we don't. We dated. It
didn't work out. And now the best we can be is good friends."
    "We're not friends. Last time