The Edge of Ruin by Melinda Snodgrass Read Free Book Online Page A

flowers, stood at the sink filling a vase and arranging the yellow calla lilies with elaborate care. I was terribly aware of my father standing by the window. Occasionally he parted the blinds and looked out. Disapproval was radiating off him, making the small room seem even smaller. Everyone was studiously not looking at each other.
    Angela transfered her fidgeting from the tubes to me. Picking up my wrist, she took my pulse. “Must be a pleasant change from most of your clientele,” I said. It was a feeble joke, and it was totally swallowed by the tension flaring between all of us.
    I coughed, trying to clear the obstruction that seemed to have settled in my throat. I looked to Damon, so I didn’t have to look at my angry sister and my expressionless father anymore. “What’s going to happen to me?” I asked my boss.
    Pamela spoke up. “Well, hopefully you’ll get fired. Since you didn’t quit like you were supposed to. You told us you were going to quit.” It seemed my sister was taking it as a personal affront.
    “The call went out. I was close and I was still a police officer,” I shot back. In all these years I’ve never been able to keep from engaging with her.
    Damon shook his head. “No, he’s not going to get fired. I think he’s … you’re going to come out of this okay. And what does she mean he … you were going to quit?” My boss was alternately trying to glare at my sister, smile reassuringly at me, and keep the pronouns straight. He wasn’t notably successful, because I ended up on the receiving end of one ferocious glare that wasn’t meant for me.
    Or at least I didn’t think it was meant for me. Maybe Damon really was angry with me. Maybe I should have waited for SWAT. Maybe I should have told him to order Snyder to stay away. Maybe I could have aimed for the leg and not killed Snyder.
No, screw it
,
he deserved to die.
    Morphine was making me loopy. “He tried to kill me. If he’d succeeded those kids would have died. I dropped the sword. The father would have gone nuts again. I had to shoot him.”
    Damon nodded in enthusiastic agreement. “Yes, yes you did, but here’s another reason you’re going to be fine. You’ve got one hell of a witness in that little girl. She seemed to want to talk more about how the one policeman tried to kill the other policeman, instead of talking about her father.”
    “And who can blame her,” said Angela. “I get to autopsy these babies.” Her glance toward my sister and father was challenging. “At least three of them are alive thanks to Richard.” She gave my hand a hard squeeze.
    My father’s profile didn’t alter, but Pamela’s back stiffened. Bless Angela for the kindly impulse, but I wished I could have told her that protective justification didn’t play well with my family.
    “Any idea why Snyder wanted to kill me?” I asked hurriedly.
    “Well, putting aside the hating-your-guts part, I convinced Judge Cole to give me a warrant, and I had a little peek at Snyder’s bank account. On January third he deposited twenty-five thousand dollars,” Weber said.
    “A hit.” I tried to wrap my head around the idea. It wasn’t easy with the morphine washing through my system, but once I did the rage returned. “Crap, he did this for
money
?”
    “Seems likely,” Damon said.
    “Watch your language,” my father said at the same time.
    “Now it makes sense what he said. When I drew the sword he said, ‘it’s real.’”
    “Implying he knew about the sword,” Angela said. “Which means somebody told him about it. Gee … three guess as to who that might have been,” Angela added and smiled. If it was meant to be an ironic smile it failed, presenting instead like an angry grimace.
    I was hoping everyone would assume Angela’s fury related to Rhiana’s betrayal of Kenntnis. I knew it had a whole lot more to do with me. I was suddenly so tired of everyone’s desires and expectations being focused on me.
Why couldn’t Kenntnis