The Hidden by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online

The door below was locked.
    Diego would be here soon.
    She finished her tea, walked to the window and looked out. Everything was peaceful.
    Bizarrely peaceful, given what had happened there in the woods.
    And as she stood there, she felt once again that she was being watched.
    She told herself that was foolish. “I am alone,” she said into the empty air.
    The feeling persisted, but she forced herself back to bed, leaving the door to her room ajar so that she could hear anything that went on in the museum.
    Surprisingly, she fell asleep easily, and so deeply that she was untroubled by dreams.
    The next thing she knew, she heard birds.
    She smiled slightly, waking up. It was nice here, that sound of birds in the morning, with the feel of the sun, strong and warm at this time of year.
    She opened her eyes, feeling as if everything would be all right.
    Then she realized someone was standing at the foot of her bed, and a scream tore from her lips.
    She stopped with a gasp when she saw who that someone was.
    The decidedly not-alive statue of Nathan Kendall was staring down at her.

3
    D iego wondered why he had ever turned down an invitation to join the Krewe of Hunters.
    By 6:00 a.m. he was aboard a private plane with Brett Cody, along with Krewe agents—and lovers—Meg Murray and Matt Bosworth. They were flying out via a friend of Adam Harrison’s, the man who had established and still ran the Krewe. Nothing they were doing was official yet—and might never be, Matt had reminded him. Until the local authorities asked for their help, they couldn’t officially give it, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t run their own investigation.
    That was one of the greatest assets of the Krewe. Their purpose was to investigate when there were strange and otherworldly elements to a crime, but they operated independently, beholden to no one and able to operate freely.
    All Diego really knew was that he was incredibly grateful that he had been able to ask for assistance, and that it could so quickly and easily be granted.
    “Adam will be coming out himself,” Matt had told Diego earlier. “Estes Park is apparently one of his favorite places in the world. He’s a major supporter of our national parks, and Rocky Mountain National Park is one of his favorites.”
    Diego was glad to have a seasoned agent like Matt on the case. Meg was still new—not even a year out of the academy—but she was a rising star, and since the Krewe had its own rules, their personal relationship was no barrier to the two of them working together.
    All they’d had to do was make a few phone calls to set everything in motion. Special Agent Angela Hawkins—wife of Jackson Crow, their official field director—had made travel arrangements for them and found out everything the police knew so far regarding the murders at the Conway Ranch.
    The dead couple was Candace and Larry Parker, who’d been visiting the area from their home in Denver. They had apparently headed out to Estes Park without hotel reservations for a lodge; one supposition was that they’d been hiking up to the Conway Ranch to see if there was a vacancy.
    Based on bark found in abrasions on his back and blood found on a nearby tree, Larry Parker had been strung up and had his torso ripped repeatedly by a bowie knife or something similar, and then he’d been shot in the head. Candace had been shot in the gut and bled out in about twenty minutes, according to the medical examiner’s estimate.
    Bertram—aka Ben—Kendall had found the bodies at approximately 10:30 p.m. The medical examiner could narrow the time of death down to about an hour—sometime between eight and nine the night before, Monday, a beautiful, cool October evening.
    There were more details about the insects and woodland creatures that had already gone to work before the bodies were found. Diego read the reports with a careful and practiced eye.
    The police had questioned one Scarlet Barlow McCullough regarding reports of