On Deadly Ground by Lauren Nichols Read Free Book Online Page A

“Where are you? You’re never home. Pick up if you’re there.” She waited a few seconds, then gave up. “Okay, love you. Hope you’re having a good day.”
    Oh, yeah. He was having a peachy day.
    After a beep, the second message played. “Jake, it’s Alex Liston at the middle school. We’ll have fifteen students for the field trip. The kids know they’ll need a packed lunch, and all of the permission slips are in, so we’re a go. Looking forward to seeing you Thursday morning at nine.”
    Well,
that
plan had worked out at least.
    Jake glanced at his watch, saw that it was barelyseven-ten, then returned his mother’s call and phoned his brother and sister-in-law with his congratulations. He was glad for Greg and Julie, but his happiness for them was tempered by a touch of what-might-have-been. Their mom had always been pretty good at getting what she wanted from her sons, and after a few good-natured back and forths, he and Greg had agreed to a double-wedding ceremony with both couples promising to love, honor and cherish at the same time. Obviously, only one couple had made it to the altar last November. Now he couldn’t help thinking that if Heather’d had a passing interest in fidelity, they might have had a child on the way, too. Unfortunately, Heather’s interests had been elsewhere.
    “Come on, Maggie,” he said, abruptly pushing to his feet. “Let’s go fill the bird feeders.” He didn’t need to go over his notes for the lecture portion of the field trip. He’d given it dozens of times when he’d lived and worked in Potter County. What he needed was to concentrate on something else.
    Dutifully, Maggie padded behind him to his screened-in back porch. In a corner, near a couple of weathered Adirondack chairs that had come with the house, sat a forty-pound bag of black oil sunflower seeds. Reaching inside, he used the scoop to fill a pail, then took both outside and got to work. A jittery nuthatch took off as he approached the feeders—and his traitorous dog did the same. Not that he blamed her. He wasn’t the best company this evening.
    He forced himself to think about Joe Reston. He knew the man slightly. Last month, Reston and a handful of concerned citizens had met with him to complain about last year’s crop damage by the elk. Reston was ahothead, but as he’d told Rachel, that didn’t make him a suspect unless there was bad blood between Reston and Tim Decker. And if the two men were on the outs, Reston’s would have been the first name Tim offered when the chief asked if he had any enemies. He was glad when Rachel agreed he was right. After seeing the chief in action yesterday, Jake suspected that Perris would have considered any “help” from Rachel an affront to his capabilities, and would have shown her the door pronto.
    He was midway through filling the feeders when his phone rang. Putting down the bucket, Jake strode back to the house and answered it on the fifth ring. He picked up just before his answering machine clicked on.
    “Hi, it’s me,” a soft voice said after his “hello.” “I can’t stop thinking about tonight. Is everything okay between us?”
    Us? There
was
no us. “Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked.
    “Because you were upset when you left. I know you tried to hide it, but we’ve known each other for a while now, and I can tell when something’s bothering you. Do we—Do we need to talk about my turning down your dinner invitation?”
    And give him the opportunity to say what he’d been thinking for the past month? I know David was a nice guy, and you loved him, but I’m tired of hearing about your late-husband every forty-five minutes. Yeah, that would be classy—especially because he had no ties on her and didn’t want any. Jake drew a breath, then let it out. If pretending to be happy was number one on his hate-to-do list, uneasy conversations ran a close second. He could go toe-to-toe with any man, had no problemgetting down and dirty with thugs