The Rivals by Joan Johnston Read Free Book Online Page A

eyes. “Because we found the body of another young woman last spring—not one of the two reported missing—buried in a shallow grave in the mountains. She’d been shot once in the back of the head.”
    â€œHow did you find her?” Drew said.
    â€œI wish I could claim it was good detective work,” Sarah said. “It was pure accident. An out-of-bounds skier found her. She turned out to be a runaway from Nevada.”
    â€œYou have no clue who’s taking these girls, or why?”
    Sarah shook her head. “Nothing. We’re not even sure the cases are connected, or we’d get the FBI involved. The girl who went missing three months ago is from a family living in Driggs, Idaho, about ten miles north over the Teton Pass, who came from Mexico illegally to work in Jackson,” Sarah said.
    â€œThe girl reported missing fifteen months ago has no family. She came here from California to bum around on the slopes and worked in one of the motels. She hooked up with a local ski instructor, who reported her missing, or we might not have known anything had happened to her. Folks come and go on the drop of a dime around here.”
    Sarah frowned and added, “Which is what makes the third girl’s disappearance different. This girl has family here in town.”
    â€œSo she decided to kick up her heels for the evening, and she’ll show up at home in the morning,” Drew said.
    â€œI hope so,” Sarah said. “A lot of parents have panicked since that girl was found dead in the mountains. A mother calls and says, “Susie’s late getting home.” Then Susie shows up and she’s been making out in the backseat of Johnny’s car for the past three hours. This might be one of those calls.”
    â€œOr it might not,” Drew said.
    â€œRight,” Sarah said. “If this disappearance is connected, and we can find the girl, it might lead us to the other two missing girls.” Sarah pulled free of Drew’s embrace and turned to face him. “This was…tonight was…nice.”
    â€œCome back when you’re finished and we can—”
    Sarah’s grimace cut him off. She’d been saved by the pager, given a reprieve. But there was no sense tempting fate. She’d liked everything Drew had done way too much. But there was simply no future in it. It was sex merely for the sake of the pleasure it could bring. Better to cut all ties now.
    â€œI don’t think we should—”
    â€œI’ll be here in Jackson a while,” Drew said. “We’ve got time to give it another try. By the way,” he said, “what’s your name?”
    Sarah stared at him, stricken. She’d almost had sex with a man who didn’t even know her name! What had she been thinking? “You don’t need to know my name,” she said. “Since we won’t be seeing each other again.”
    She turned to leave, but he caught her arm.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said. “I should have asked sooner. It didn’t seem to matter.”
    She stared at his hand until he let her go. Then she headed through the darkened house toward the kitchen door, Drew flipping switches behind her to light her way.
    Sarah snatched up her sweater and coat from the black-and-white checkerboard linoleum floor in the kitchen and realized she couldn’t race out the door in this frigid weather without stopping to put them back on.
    â€œI can ask at the garage who you are,” Drew pointed out. “Or at the sheriff’s office.”
    Sarah shuddered at the thought of Drew making inquiries about her in town. “My name’s Sarah Barndollar,” she said, glaring at him. “Don’t ask about me. Don’t try to contact me. I don’t want to see you again.”
    By then, she had her coat on but couldn’t get the zipper to work.
    Drew stepped in front of her and moved her trembling hands away, then