What Lies in the Darkness (Shadow Cove Book 1) by Jessica Sorensen Read Free Book Online Page A

deserves a vacation—but why do I get the feeling she took the vacation with the person who gave her the money?
    No! Stop thinking that, Mak! Your mom isn’t shacking up with Don Jennings!
    Still, I can’t help thinking about it. A lot. And a thought crosses my mind, not about Don, but about Dixon. He’s always disliked me, but lately, he’s acted extra douchey. What if it’s because he knows about the affair?
    “Ugh.” I grimace, feeling disgusted and beaten down.
    After searching through the rest of the files and finding nothing else that seems suspicious, I move on to her emails, finding she’s currently deleted most of the messages in her inbox and sent files. Does she know I snoop around? She has busted me a time or two before.
    Giving up for the night, I set the computer aside and turn toward the far back wall to a few newspaper clippings tacked up, along with a handful of Post-it Notes covered in my dad’s messy handwriting. The notes are random dates and times, and the newspaper clippings are help wanted ads for a gardener, a dog walker, and a housekeeper. If my dad didn’t love his job, I’d think he was job searching. But he loved being a reporter as much as I love skateboarding. And besides, I saw the wall before he disappeared. There were so many sticky notes and torn sections of newspapers that the tan paint wasn’t even visible. What compelled him to take some down and leave some up is beyond me. I have a hunch they carry some sort of importance because of something my dad said to me right before he flew off the radar.
    “Mak, if something ever happens to me, just follow the trail, okay?” he said to me in a panic. “Just be careful. Don’t let them find out you’re on to them. I think that’s what happened to your brother.”
    By that point, my mom had started calling him crazy, and I overheard her talking to one of her friends on the phone about sending him to the Shadow Cove’s Treatment Facility. I worried that she might be right, but I didn’t have the heart to say anything to my dad. I just nodded and agreed to follow this alleged trail.
    About a month after he disappeared, I wandered into the hidden nook and spent hours staring at the notes and clippings, attempting to make sense of them. Then, one day, it dawned on me. My dad used to refer to his research as a trail to his article. He’d put most of the research on this wall. So, what if the leftover research on this wall is the trail?
    The problem is, I’ve been staring at the wall for months now, and I can’t even find a starting point. I’m afraid of where the trail will lead me when I do figure it all out, and I don’t know if I’ll be brave enough to follow it.
     

LOCATION: SHADOW COVE HIGH
    TIME: 7:54 AM
    DATE: MONDAY, MARCH 22 TH
     
    I spent most of the rest of the weekend cleaning the house as an apology to my mom for not answering my phone and for going through her computer files. Sure, she may never know about the last part, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel a little bit guilty for doing it. I also tried to bring up Don Jennings a couple of times to get to the bottom of what’s going on, but every time I so much as mentioned his name, she shut down the conversation.
    Her odd behavior raises the suspicion factor immensely. I don’t want to believe she’s having an affair with him, but what if she is? Not only is that gross, but it makes both of them cheaters.
    After looking through her emails on Saturday, I did a search online for a report on the girl who drowned. Nothing came up, and my frustration bubbled.
    Back when my dad reported for the newspaper, he had to fight to get certain stories printed. A lot of the “more complicated and unsettling stories,” as his boss and the mayor put it, weren’t allowed in print. Topics like deaths, robberies, and other illegal activities were often swept under the rug. Most of the time, my father had a pain in the ass time interviewing people because hardly anyone