Skye Cree 02: The Bones Will Tell by Vickie McKeehan Read Free Book Online

he grabbed his shirt and pants in a snit and started to storm out of the kitchen.
    “Josh…” Skye finally managed.
    But her comeback died a quick death when Josh’s cell phone sang out. The ringing broke what was now awkward silence between them.
    Josh stared at the phone he’d set down on the marble countertop. He was reluctant to talk to anyone right at this moment. Would she ever completely trust and commit to him? He was beginning to wonder. While he pondered that question, he snatched up his cell and saw the caller was Brad Jones, the detective working on Annabelle’s homicide case. What lousy timing, Josh thought as he gave Skye a go-to-hell look, and hit the screen to accept the call.
    “Yeah,” Josh said into the receiver, clearly not in a good frame of mind.
    “I’m glad I caught you, Mr. Ander,” Brad began. “I wanted to let you know the district attorney was notified this afternoon that the judge ordered Michelle Reardon to undergo further evaluation.”
    “Goddamn it!” Josh railed into the phone. “So Michelle kills Annabelle and gets a pass to a psychiatric ward? That isn’t right.”
    “I knew you’d be upset, that’s why I wanted you to hear it from me,” Brad detailed. “It seems Michele has been putting on quite a crazy act in her cell.”
    “Like what kind of act?”
    “Talking to herself mostly while she rocks back and forth. Then she pulls her own hair out, so much of it that they had to cut it off. You wouldn’t recognize the woman you once knew.”
    “Believe me, I wished I’d never laid eyes on her. But I told all of you that Michelle was a clever con artist. There’s not a thing wrong with her mental state except for the fact that she’s manipulative. She played Annabelle. She played me. Did you even bother to delve into her past, to see if she’s ever done this kind of thing before? Michele knew exactly what she was doing when she filled that syringe with succinylcholine. She had to know since she used to work as a nurse. And now…”
    “Calm down, Mr. Ander. As of this afternoon Reardon’s being shipped off to the Laurel Lake Facility in Kirkland where she’ll be under lock and key for at least three months. There isn’t a thing I can do about it. The judge has already made his ruling. They’ll evaluate her to see if she’s sane enough to stand trial.”
    “She’s sane enough now,” Josh pointed out, clearly agitated by the turn of events. “And now she’s simply scheming to pull a stint in a mental hospital instead of prison.”
    “For what it’s worth, I happen to agree with you.”
    “And then what? What happens after this evaluation period?”
    “After the ninety-days are up, the judge will go over the recommendations by the staff psychiatrists, make another ruling. Let’s hope the doctors will come to the same conclusion that we have. Michelle Reardon murdered your wife in cold blood so she could make her move on you. That after planning it for months, Michelle used her considerable knowledge of lethal drugs to kill Annabelle Ander and she should be held accountable for her actions.”
    Josh rubbed at his forehead where a headache had already kicked in. “Yeah, that all sounds fine and good but I guess now all we have is the hope that Michele doesn’t get away with it.”



Chapter Four
     
    F or the rest of the evening the tension between Josh and Skye grew worse with each ticking of the clock. By nine that night, when it was time for Skye to make her rounds, the two of them were pretty much ready to part company for a few hours.
    They hadn’t said a word to each other since they’d finished dinner. So when he heard the sound of the elevator door clanging shut, he grimaced.
    Would things between them ever be normal? How many nights had he heard that ding and hoped like hell the woman he loved would be okay going out at night into Seattle’s mean streets without him?
    Since the transformation he might be ten percent wolf but that meant ninety