Danger in Plain Sight by Marta Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

she left for the hospital, but it was anyone’s guess whether she had or not. Mom still seemed to think she lived in the safe, placid, rural community she’d moved to as a bride nearly forty years ago.
Sure enough, the door was unlocked. Libby slung her bag and jacket on the coatrack and walked back through to the family room. “Hello? Anyone home?”
No answer, not even from Sam, the golden retriever. But then, she hadn’t expected one. She and Mom had crossed paths when she was coming out of the hospital while her mother went in, and Link was undoubtedly spending the afternoon with Marisa, probably taking the dog with him. Those two were newly engaged, and eager enough that Mom might well have another wedding on her hands soon.
Fatigue dragged at Libby as she went up the stairs, hand running along the smooth, warm wood of the banister. She was happy for Link. Of course she was. He deserved all the happiness in the world.
So why did the thought of Link married leave her so bereft? It wasn’t as though they’d seen a lot of each other in the past few years.
But twins were twins, wherever life took them. Link had been the companion of her childhood, even more than Esther. He’d been her partner in countless acts of mischief, her confidant when things had gone wrong.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself , her conscience snapped in a voice that sounded rather like Adam’s. That’s what he’d said to her, wasn’t it?
He didn’t know the half of it. There was also the little matter of her job, and the fact that she still hadn’t told the family she had joined the ranks of the unemployed. To say nothing of the nagging sense that she didn’t know what she was going to do with her life.
Grow up, maybe. That sounded like a good move. She looked longingly at her bed, but another hot shower might do more to take out the kinks induced by hours in a plastic hospital chair.
A few minutes later she was stepping out of the shower, steam fogging the bathroom mirror and window. She wrapped one of Mom’s enormous bath sheets around her. This had definitely been the right choice. The shower seemed to have washed away the doubts she’d let debilitate her.
One thing at a time. The important factor now was to keep Esther safe, in case the accident had been deliberate. Since it was unlikely that Adam would agree to put a guard on her door, she’d just have to make sure there was always someone in Esther’s room with her.
Libby opened the bathroom door, letting the steam escape into the bedroom. She’d snatch a few hours of sleep and go back to the hospital. At some point she’d have to stop at a store and pick up a few more incidental Christmas gifts, with the holiday headed for them so quickly. At least nobody was questioning her staying for so long a visit, since the wedding had fallen less than a week before Christmas.
A door closed downstairs. Mom? A glance at the clock on the nightstand told her it was impossible for her mother to be back already. Maybe Link and Marisa, in which case it would be only tactful to let them know someone was here.
She traded the bath sheet for the fluffy pink robe she’d worn in high school and opened the bedroom door. “Link, is that you? I’m upstairs.”
No one answered. But from downstairs came the creak of a floorboard. She froze, clutching the door. She knew exactly which board made that sound…the one in the hallway near the family room door. They’d joked, as kids, about having their own private alarm system to let them know when Mom was about to appear in the door to the family room.
She listened, holding her breath. The faintest of sounds, like a hand brushing the wall. Her imagination? Or someone being careful, trying to avoid hitting any more creaky boards?
She gripped the door, undecided. She wouldn’t let herself panic. Maybe—
A footstep, definitely.
She moved backward, bare feet making no sound on the wide floorboards. Ease the door shut, carefully, carefully. She held her