Cold Pursuit by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online Page B

Canoeing in the cold yesterday, a five-mile run in the cold this morning.” She gave an exaggerated stretch of her lower back. “A three-mile run would have been fine with me.
No
run would have been fine. I don’t need to be in shape to leap tall buildings and run after bad guys. Then again, at the rate you’re going, before long neither will you.”
    Jo broke open her scone, which was filled with tiny dried currants. “Fair point.”
    “I’m just saying.” Beth dipped her knife into a small pot of Vermont-made butter and slathered it on her scone. “You like this kid, Charlie, don’t you?”
    “Charlie counts on people liking him.”
    “Maybe he was looking for attention with that prank of his. Big family, father’s the vice president—you Secret Service types everywhere. It can’t be all that easy to stand out.”
    “Not my problem. He and his friends and bazillion cousins are okay. That’s really all that matters.”
    “Even if you lose your job?”
    “Even if.”
    “That’s very Secret Service of you, video or no video.”
    “I’ll survive. There are other jobs for someone who can leap tall buildings and run after bad guys.” Jo smiled at her sister. “The Vermont State Police might take me.”
    Beth almost spit out her coffee. “Scott would just die, wouldn’t he?”
    A muffled sob back toward the glass case drew their attention, and they both turned as Nora Asher burst from the café kitchen, whipping off a dark green apron and charging for the front door.
    Jo started to get up, but Beth shook her head, subtly pointing as Devin Shay quietly came out from the kitchen, hesitated, then followed Nora outside.
    “What was that all about?” Jo asked.
    “Devin’s in over his head with that girl.” Beth sat back, still and serious now. “He’s in over his head with a lot of things these days. He’s had a rough time since he found Drew Cameron. That was a tough one, Jo, I have to tell you. Drew was a father figure to Devin. He almost didn’t graduate. He’s been in and out of trouble ever since—nothing too bad, but it could turn bad fast.”
    “Does he have any plans to go to college?”
    “Talks about community college, but he can’t plan what to have for supper much less what he’s going to do six months from now.”
    Jo looked out at the street, but she couldn’t see the two teenagers. “How long have he and Nora been seeing each other?”
    “A month, maybe. She’s only been in town six or seven weeks. She’s a hard worker, but she’s using Devin—not consciously, I’m sure. She’s just caught up in the romance of living in Vermont.”
    “Mountains, moose, maple syrup, pretty cows.”
    Beth barely cracked a smile. “She likes the idea of hooking up with a ‘native’ Vermonter. Devin didn’t climb off a Norman Rockwell painting. I didn’t, either.”
    “What’s he see in Nora?”
    “Everything he isn’t.”
    Jo drank more of her coffee and watched the sun dance on the clear, copper water in the shallow river. She remembered Drew fussing about why Sean had wanted to buy the gracious old house in the first place, never mind why he hung on to it. The three friends—Beth, Dominique and Hannah, Devin’s older sister—had applied their talent, vision and energy into creating their cozy, very popular café. They’d sanded, painted, scrubbed, added cottage-style furniture and come up with a varied, appealing menu. Dominique was responsible for most of the food, Hannah for keeping the books and managing the staff, and Beth for maintenance and comfort food.
    Finally Jo shifted back to her sister. “What else?”
    Beth drummed her fingers on the table. She’d finished her scone and most of her coffee and seemed ready to jump up and get out of there. While Jo was off chipping away at a career in the Secret Service, Beth had stayed in Vermont, gone to college, worked—but Jo wasn’t fooled. Her sister had the same restless energy as she, but Beth funneled hers into her