Sunshine and the Shadowmaster by Christine Rimmer Read Free Book Online

Linda Lou’s could be heard through steel walls. “I tell you. Bad. And I’m one who knows. I have read them all.”
    Nellie was appalled. “No.”
    Linda Lou hung her head. “Yes.”
    â€œOh, Linda Lou. I can’t believe my own ears. I remember you told me you read the first one he wrote, and I understood that. You’ve always been a reader, and it’s only fair to give even the most questionable forms of literature one chance. But I assumed that after one book, you’d have had quite enough.”
    â€œYes. So did I. But they’re like drugs, those stories of his. You read one, and you know it’s bad for you. But can you make yourself stop reading? No, you cannot.”
    â€œOh, Linda Lou.”
    â€œI know, I know. There’s no excuse. I did what I did.”
    â€œWell, it’s not your fault if you can’t help yourself.”
    â€œOh, Nellie. You are so sensitive...”
    â€œWell, I like to think I understand the human heart.”
    â€œAnd you do understand,” Linda Lou concurred. “You understand utterly.... But back to that poor Drury child.”
    â€œYes.” Nellie rubbed her pointed chin, ruminating. “As we’ve both said, the signs were all there. His father writes those horrible books. And then, of course, there was Lucas Drury’s childhood.”
    Linda Lou shook her head instead of bobbing it. “Exactly. A horror story in itself.”
    Nellie was ready with all the gory details that everyone in town had heard a million times. “Stabbing his own father like that when he was only seven years old. Though, the good Lord knows, Rory Drury had it coming. Not only a drunk and a womanizer, but a wife beater, too. Bless that poor woman’s heart.”
    For once, Linda Lou was a little lost. “What woman?”
    â€œNorma. Remember? Lucas Drury’s mother, Norma. Passed away herself just a few years back.”
    Linda Lou took a sip of her tea. “Oh, yes, of course.”
    â€œAnd at least that poor woman got her chance for a bit of happiness in the end, after Rory finally died of liver failure.”
    â€œAnd though it may sound shocking,” Linda Lou declared, “I have to say I agree with you that no one could fault Lucas Drury for stabbing his own father—under the circumstances, I mean.”
    â€œYes, he was only trying to protect his dear mother, after all,” Nellie said. “And yet, something like that’s got to damage a person.”
    â€œAbsolutely. And it did, we know it did. One only has to read those awful books.”
    And don’t forget that assault and battery scandal.”
    â€œYes, yes. Of course.”
    â€œLucas Drury was a grown man by then. Fully responsible for his own actions.”
    â€œToo true, too true. The way I heard it, his ex-wife, the boy’s mother, got him out of that one.”
    â€œShe certainly did. Some fancy lady lawyer from Arizona. Notice the ex before the word wife. They’re divorced, of course. I’m sure Lucas Drury isn’t the kind to stick in there and make a marriage work.”
    â€œNo, of course not, not with his past.”
    â€œAnd now he’s rich as sin.”
    â€œMoney made from writing those awful books.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œWhat is the world coming to?”
    â€œI don’t know. I simply do not know....” Nellie looked up, smiling. “Ah, here’s Sunshine with our sandwiches. A little mayo on the side, please?”
    It was like that all day.
    Heather kept working, kept doing her best to tune out the gossip, but by the time she finally went home at six, she was ready to throw the next tale-teller into Lily’s deep-fat fryer. And worse than all the awful rumor-spreading and the in-depth dissection of Lucas’s life, there was no real news about Mark.
    Periodically, someone from one of the search crews or the sheriff’s office would come in