Read Online A Darker Justice by Sallie Bissell - Free Book Online Page B

mountains to the west. “There’s a little store I’d like to visit before we go to Irene’s.”
    Safer frowned. “We don’t have a lot of time—”
    “I won’t be long,” Mary promised. “I just want to stop in and see if an old friend of mine is there. He hunts a lot. He might know if anything weird’s going on up here.”
    “Old boyfriend?” Safer looked at her with a sly smile.
    Mary thought of Jonathan, how they’d reunited after so many years, only to find themselves different, changed. They’d tried to make it work—for six months he’d lived with her in Atlanta. She’d been happy, but he’d always felt edgy in the city, looking beyond the high-rises into a horizon that held something only he could see. Finally she’d come home one night to find him gone, and a note that said, “I love you, Mary, but I can’t live here anymore. Come home when you’re ready. I’ll be waiting.”
    “Not a boyfriend,” Mary shot back. “Just someone I used to know.”
    Safer turned the wheel, and they twisted around the base of a mountain, following the curve of a river that spewed white foam over rocks the size of small cars. When Mary began to feel nauseous from all the twisting turns, the Little Jump Off store came into view. It looked as it always had, an ancient, ramshackle log cabin that sold everything from slop jars to zip drives.
    “Turn here,” Mary said, searching the porch for the long lengths of wood that would indicate the presence of a bowyer. Strangely, they were gone. In their place stood a towering collection of cardboard boxes.
    Safer pulled the truck into the parking lot. “We haven’t got much time, so no tearful reunions, okay?”
    Mary jerked open the door without replying. She had intended to ask Safer inside, but now he could sit in the Dodge and rot, for all she cared. What an asshole this man was. She leaned in the window. “Stay out here and go over your evidence files, Agent Safer. I might be a while.”
    “Five minutes, Ms. Crow,” Safer replied. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today. This isn’t old home week.”

CHAPTER 7
    Up yours,
Mary fumed. Though she wanted to storm away from Safer and his stupid truck, she walked calmly up the steps to Little Jump Off. Her years in the courtroom had taught her the value of a poker face; she was not going to allow Agent Safer to know that he’d rattled her. God, what a jerk. How glad she would be when she could hand him over to Irene.
    She paused when she reached the top of the steps. Although an angular pile of computer boxes had replaced Jonathan’s usual stock of hickory, the old porch otherwise looked the same. In the thirteen years since her mother’s death, she had not trod upon it without a shudder. Whoever had murdered her mother had escaped along these old heart-of-pine boards, and the sound of those footsteps still echoed in her heart. Even now it was difficult to think about, and she crossed the planks quickly, with downcast eyes, hurriedly pulling open the door.
    She sensed something different the instant she stepped inside. Although the old stone fireplace was bedecked with blinking lights, and Little Jump Off’s traditional cedar Christmas tree listed in one corner, something beyond the holiday trappings was different. The air smelled charged—tinged with a sweet, dry aroma that reminded her of Alex’s home in Texas.
    “Can I help you?” A soft, female voice floated across the store.
    Startled, Mary turned. Behind the counter stood a woman who looked surprisingly like—her. Dressed in a faded denim shirt and jeans, she had blunt-cut dark hair, high cheekbones, and cinnamon skin. She looked about thirty and wore the trappings of the West—turquoise studs in her ears, a silver ring on her right finger, long agate beads dangling between ample breasts. Her dark eyes sparkled with intelligence and curiosity. For a moment, Mary didn’t know what to say.
    “Uh, does Jonathan Walkingstick still work here?”