The Night Before by Lisa Jackson Read Free Book Online Page B

searching for a lie.
    “Did you visit your husband last night?”
    She nearly wilted. “No. As I said, we were separated,” she said, telling herself that what she’d seen was a dream, that was all. Then why did it seem so real? Why are you getting flashes of Josh at his desk, his wrists covered in blood? “Do I need a lawyer, Detective?” she demanded, suddenly stronger.
    “I’m just trying to figure out what went on last night.”
    Me, too! “When you do, would you fill me in?” she said, feeling heat climb up the back of her neck.
    “Of course,” the woman, Morrisette, cut in. She shot her partner a warning glance. “Now, I would feel better if there was someone here with you,” she said, touching her on the arm gently, inadvertently putting pressure on the wounds.
    Caitlyn gritted her teeth against the pain. The last thing she wanted was to deal with anyone. Except Kelly. “I can call one of my sisters or my brother.”
    “Promise?”
    “Yes. Please. I’ll be fine.” Liar! You’ll never be fine!
    Reed looked skeptical, but the woman cop bristled, sending him a silent message that warned him to hold back whatever protest he was about to voice.
    Frowning hard, Reed snapped his notebook closed. “We could phone someone for you. One of the siblings you mentioned.” He scratched his chin, seemed lost in thought as he glanced out the window to a spot where a bird feeder turned slowly as it hung from a limb of her magnolia tree. A cardinal balanced on a small perch and was busily pecking at the tiny seeds. “You’ll need someone with you. Some reporters were already showing up at your husband’s house as we left.”
    Her heart nearly stopped beating. “Reporters?”
    “It won’t be long before they put two and two together and show up here,” he said matter-of-factly.
    “Wonderful.” Dealing with the police was tough enough; she couldn’t imagine taking on the press. Not now.
    “I wouldn’t talk to them if I were you.”
    Don’t worry.
    Detective Morrisette nodded her agreement as she slid her dark glasses onto the bridge of her nose. “They can be nasty. Please let us call someone. A friend or a family member. You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
    “No—I’ll be all right . . .” A ridiculous statement. She would never be all right. Maybe never had been. Now Josh was dead and there was so much blood in her own bedroom and her dream . . . was it a dream? If only she could get through to Kelly and find out what the hell had happened last night. She forced a calm, humorless smile. “I’ll call my brother, Troy. He works downtown at the bank.” Both officers appeared skeptical as she walked them to the back door.
    “It’s Saturday,” Reed pointed out. “Aren’t the banks closed?”
    “Not Montgomery Bank and Trust,” she said, glancing at the clock. The bank was open a few hours in the middle of the day, an innovation her grandfather had incorporated years before. “I don’t need anyone to call my brother. I’ll be fine,” she insisted, knowing that she was lying. “Just give me some time alone to pull myself together.”
    Reed looked as though he was about to say more but caught a quick shake of his partner’s head and held his tongue. Caitlyn watched as they walked through her front yard. The old gate creaked as they passed through and Oscar, spying a neighbor’s cat lurking in the branches of the sassafras tree, started barking insanely.
    Before he could race outside, Caitlyn closed the door, and as it latched she leaned against the cool panels. Somehow, some way, she had to figure out what had happened last night.
    Josh was dead. Dead.
    Probably murdered.
    And she couldn’t even swear that she hadn’t killed him.

Four
    This morning the spirits were still restless.
    Angry.
    Hissing as they darted through the shadows.
    Mocking.
    As they had been all night long.
    Their movements had kept Lucille from sleep, haunting her, touching her mind if she dared drop off even for a