Footprints in the Sand by Mary Jane Clark Read Free Book Online Page A

gusting winds and sheets of rain pounding down.
    She could imagine Sam saying, This one’s a beaut, Roz.
    When she and Sam had first bought the town house, they’d been thrilled to get the end unit. They enjoyed their neighbors in the small complex, but they also liked the privacy afforded by being the last one. The long stretch of palm trees, sea grapes, and other tropical foliage that separated the town house from the Whispering Sands Inn property was like their own private nature preserve.
    Weather permitting, they walked the beach every morning and swam in the therapeutic Gulf waters each afternoon. Sam had his golf, and she had her book group and volunteer activities. At the end of the day, they would have their cocktails before dinner and watch the glorious sunsets. Roz missed Sam, missed him deeply, but she knew she was lucky to have had a wonderful marriage for thirty-nine years. She tried to focus on the happiness, not the loss.
    It was hard sometimes, though. And since the other night, when she’d seen the man carrying the woman over his shoulders as he disappeared into the foliage, Roz had ached for Sam. He would reassure her. Sam would know what to do.
    Roz kept thinking about it. Had the man swept the woman off her feet in a romantic gesture? Had the couple merely been playing? Had the woman been drunk? Or had it been something more sinister and dangerous?
    She’d watched and waited, leaving the window only once to go to the bathroom. After a long time, the man finally came out of the foliage again. But he was by himself.
    She hadn’t been able to see his face but saw him open the trunk of his car and toss in a shovel.
    Roz was sure that was what she’d seen.

Chapter
15
    H e couldn’t sleep. He got out of bed and went
to the window. His heart raced as he watched the flashes of lightning. The
thunderous boom that followed almost immediately signaled that the storm was
right on top of them. He prayed it wouldn’t last too long.
    This was the first storm since
he’d buried her. Was the hole deep enough? Could the winds and rain expose
the grave? Would the pounding surf rise high enough to wash away the
sand?
    He’d picked a spot far from
the shoreline, up near the vegetation line. There was less traffic there.
The morning walkers took their strolls at the water’s edge, stopping to pick
up seashells and sand dollars washed up on the beach. Sunbathers, too,
stayed closer to the water, where they might feel the ocean breeze and
easily go for a dip when they got too hot. It seemed that only the sea
turtles tried to make it to the vegetation line. The mother sensed that her
eggs might have a better chance of survival the farther they were from the
seawater that could wash out the nest.
    Thankfully, it wasn’t turtle
nesting season now. It would be several months before the daily turtle
patrols began again. For now no volunteers scanned the beach every morning,
alert to signs of turtle tracks and mounds of disturbed sand.
    As thunder boomed again, he
felt his chest tighten. He turned away from the window. There was nothing he
could do now. He certainly couldn’t fight Mother Nature.
    He lay down on the bed and
closed his eyes, but his mind continued to race. He wished it had never come
to what it had. He wished he hadn’t had to kill Shelley, yet he was relieved
she was dead. She wasn’t going to make any more trouble.
    He was pretty certain Levi
wasn’t going to present a problem. The stricken look on the kid’s face
almost made him feel sorry for him. And the way Levi had promised not to
tell anyone what he’d seen and pleaded for his sister’s life had been truly
pathetic.
    The only other complication
was the old lady in the town-house window. What should he do about
her?
    He soothed himself asleep with
the hope that Shelley’s body wouldn’t be found. Without a body, there was no
crime.

Tuesday
    A woman’s tongue
    is the last thing about her that dies.
    A MISH PROVERB

Chapter 16
    Valentine’s