A Killer Past by Maris Soule Read Free Book Online Page B

after he died.’
    ‘So do your boys live around here?’
    ‘No. Johnny’s in Virginia with his wife and daughter – he works for the FBI – and Richard is somewhere in the Middle East.’ At a location he couldn’t reveal, Richard had said last time Jack talked to him. ‘He’s a general in the marines.’
    The waitress brought his hamburger and asked Jennifer if she wanted dessert. Jennifer shook her head. ‘Just bring me my check, please.’
    As Jack grabbed the catsup bottle, Jennifer pulled out her wallet. ‘I’m afraid I’ve got to take off. I want to pick up some candy to take in the patrol car. I figured it might help make a good impression with the kids.’
    ‘Might give Stewart something to nibble on around midnight.’ Jack watched her stand and brush crumbs off her uniform. ‘Be careful tonight. Halloween seems to bring out the worst in some kids.’

CHAPTER SEVEN
    ‘I HAD TO get away from Mom,’ Shannon said, wandering into the kitchen and opening the refrigerator. ‘She is absolutely driving me crazy.’ Shannon grabbed a can of soda and popped it open before facing Mary. ‘Was your mother ever like that?’
    Mary thought back to her childhood – her real childhood – and grinned. ‘We had disagreements.’ Out-and-out fights, she remembered. Especially when Mom was high on drugs. ‘So what’s the problem?’
    ‘School.’ Shannon flounced back past Mary, into the living room, where she flopped down on the couch. ‘You heard her last night. All she can talk about lately is college. She wants me to apply to the University of Michigan, Harvard, Yale. Every college in the universe.’
    ‘Those are good colleges, and you have the grades.’
    Her granddaughter looked at her as if she’d just joined the enemy, and Mary realized she’d missed something the night before. ‘I thought you were excited about going to college.’
    ‘Like, yeah.’
    ‘OK.’ Mary tried another approach. ‘What would you like to do?’
    ‘What you did.’ Shannon sat up straighter and faced her grandmother. ‘After I graduate, I want to travel. You didn’t go to college right after you graduated from high school, and you did fine.’
    ‘Don’t use me as an example.’ Please , Mary prayed. ‘I was lucky. If my parents hadn’t died and left me money, I wouldn’t have been able to move here and open a bookstore, wouldn’t have met your grandfather.’
    ‘Are you sorry you traveled?’
    Mary sank into the easy chair opposite her granddaughter. How to answer? What to say? ‘No,’ she admitted. ‘I’m not sorry I traveled. I enjoyed going to foreign countries.’ At least I did when I wasn’t afraid of being caught. ‘I enjoyed learning about other cultures.’ Even when the lessons and training went on and on, day after day, until they were sure I wouldn’t make a mistake. ‘But things could have turned out different.’ I could have been the one who was killed. ‘I’m sorry, but I think your mother’s right. You should go to college first. Get that degree. Then, after you graduate, if you still want to travel, I’ll see to it that you have the money to do so.’
    ‘Maybe you could travel with me.’
    Mary chuckled. ‘Honey, I’ll be eighty … or close to eighty by then.’
    ‘I mean now. Next summer. We could go to France. Dad said you speak perfect French, better than the teacher he had in college. I’ve always wanted to go to France. You could take me places you went, show me what you saw.’ She leaned forward, excitement dancing in her eyes. ‘We’d have a wonderful time.’
    Mary leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, flashes of memory taking her back fifty years to a mansion just outside of Paris where she seduced René LeMond. She remembered the look of surprise on his face when she inserted the needle and injected the aconitine, remembered how close she’d come to being caught, and the headlines the next day.
    ‘Don’t you want to go back?’ Shannon asked, a note of