Deadly Valentine (Special Releases) by B. J. Daniels Read Free Book Online Page B

with real foundations and swing sets in the backyards, houses with real families who actually lived here year round and shopped at the pizza parlor, burger joint, service stations, working-class bars and video stores that had moved in among the fancier businesses. If River’s Edge wasn’t careful, it would turn into a real town one day.
    Over it all stood the mountain that had prompted the resort town to sprout here in the first place. Even through the falling snow he could make out the lights of the grooming machines moving like caterpillars across the white slopes. Nearer, he could see the golf course—still buried under a foot of snow and crisscrossed with ski tracks, like a secret writing he’d never been able to decipher. This place had once been divided by those who skied and those who didn’t. He hadn’t skied.
    As he stood in the silence of the falling snow he wondered what the hell he was doing. There were no answers for him here. Frannie had killed herself and taken whatever her reasons with her. He’d been a fool to think that anything of her was still here.
    He walked through the snow to the motel along the highway where he was staying, telling himself he’d have to find a decent place to live if he was going to stay. On the way, he passed The Riverside and remembered Peggy’s car, a new Ford Explorer, black and shiny. He still had the keys in his pocket.
    He unlocked it and climbed behind the wheel. The seats were leather and the interior still had that brand-new smell. Wearing his winter gloves, he turned on the dome light and glanced around. No fast-food containers. No empty latte cups. Not even a scrap of paper. He opened the glove box. She hadn’t had the car long enough to even throw old mail into it. He dug out the registration. It was in her name. No bank lien against it.
    He climbed back out, locking the door after him, wondering what she’d paid for the car. More importantly, how she’d paid for the car.
    He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Tempest’s number. ‘‘Accept the job and meet me at Peggy’s apartment,’’ he said when she answered.
    Silence. ‘‘Are you sure?’’
    ‘‘Yes.’’ As sure as he was of anything. He understood her hesitation. He had mixed feelings about working with her as well. But he also thought she’d make one hell of an undersheriff. And he needed her help. She knew these people, maybe better than he did because even though she’d felt like an outcast in high school, she’d been one of them.
    Silence. ‘‘Okay.’’
    ‘‘By the way, she was driving a brand-new expensive SUV with leather seats and no lien against it.’’
    ‘‘Maybe she has a rich boyfriend.’’
    ‘‘My thought exactly.’’

CHAPTER FIVE
    T EMPEST LET OUT a low whistle when Jack opened the door to Peggy Kane’s apartment and they both stepped inside.
    ‘‘Get a load of this,’’ he said as he took in the place.
    From the outside, the apartment house looked like something Oliver Sanders’s secretary could afford in River’s Edge. Not too cheap. But not too expensive, either.
    Of course Peggy’s clothing, her sophisticated look and her car didn’t fit the profile. And not surprisingly, neither did the contents of the apartment.
    ‘‘Holy cow,’’ Tempest said as she moved through all the brand-new expensive furnishings. ‘‘Either this Girl Friday inherited big, is neck deep in debt or she’s gotten herself a sugar daddy.’’
    Jack agreed. ‘‘See what you can find, but keep your gloves on.’’
    She nodded and he moved through the apartment, looking for something to explain Peggy’s obviously recent windfall. Drugs. Signs of a benevolent boyfriend. A rich uncle’s will.
    They started in the kitchen. Jack searched the drawers, but found nothing more than over-the-counter diet pills. No large bags of drugs to be sold.
    ‘‘Scary diet,’’ Tempest said holding open the fridge door.
    He could see that it held little more than bottled water and