Read Online All Night Long by Jayne Ann Krentz - Free Book Online

understand.”
    Irene jerked ever so slightly, as though she’d been slapped, but she did not step back. Luke watched her scribble something on her notepad.
    “Did Chief McPherson tell you that the reason I’m back in town is because I got an e-mail from Pamela requesting me to meet her here in Dunsley?” she asked.
    Ryland was clearly astounded by that information. “Pamela contacted you? What did she want?”
    “She didn’t say. She just asked me to come here to talk with her.”

    Ryland swung around to confront Sam. “You didn’t tell me about this.”
    Sam flushed a dark, dull red. “Didn’t think it was important.”
    “Sir,” Hoyt interrupted nervously, “we really have to get moving.”
    Ryland switched his attention back to Irene. “I wasn’t aware that you and Pamela were still in contact with each other.”
    “That e-mail note was the first word I’d had from her in seventeen years,” Irene said very steadily. “Naturally I was more than a little surprised to receive it.”
    “She gave no indication at all why she wanted to talk to you?” Ryland demanded.
    “No,” Irene said. “But I got the impression that it had something to do with the past.”
    “What past? Your friendship with her, do you mean?” Ryland grew visibly calmer.
    “Yes, that does make sense in a way. I expect that she wanted to say good-bye to an old acquaintance. People intent on committing suicide sometimes do that, I’m told.”
    “Really? Who told you that?” Irene asked, scribbling madly.
    “I read it somewhere,” Ryland muttered. He eyed the recorder uneasily. “Pamela was being treated for severe, clinical depression,” he added, enunciating each word very clearly.
    “I don’t believe that she contacted me to say good-bye, Senator,” Irene said. “I think she may have wanted to discuss the circumstances surrounding the death of my parents, Hugh and Elizabeth Stenson. I’m sure you recall the case.”
    Ryland stared at her. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    Alexa closed her elegantly manicured fingers over his sleeve. “Ryland?”
    “It’s all right, dear.” He pulled himself together. “Years ago there was a terrible tragedy here in Dunsley.
    A murder-suicide. Irene’s parents both died.” He raised his voice slightly and spoke directly toward the recorder. “Poor Irene, here, found the bodies. Everyone said she was badly traumatized by th xperience and would probably never be quite right again. Don’t worry, there is no connection t amela’s death.”
    Alexa looked at Irene. “You have my deepest sympathies, Miss Stenson.”

    “Thank you.” Irene did not take her gaze off Ryland. “Sir, don’t you agree that there is at least a remote possibility that Pamela’s death is connected to what happened all those years ago?”
    “No,” Ryland said in a thoroughly crushing tone of voice.
    Hoyt Egan jerked. He stared at Irene in mounting horror. “What you’re implying is impossible, Miss Stenson, absolutely impossible. And if your paper prints any innuendos of that sort, the senator will consult his lawyers.”
    Ryland gave Irene a hard stare. “You said yourself that you had no contact with Pamela after leaving Dunsley. That means you don’t know how unstable she was.
    Sam says there was nothing at the scene to indicate anything other than an overdose.
    For the sake of everyone involved, but most of all out of respect for my daughter’s memory, I ask that you leave this alone.”
    Alexa bestowed a kindly smile on Irene. “Rest assured, Miss Stenson, when Ryland returns to Washington he intends to introduce a bill to increase funding for mental health research.”
    “That certainly makes me feel a lot better,” Irene said.
    Luke saw her knuckles whiten and knew that she was digging her nails into the leather strap of her purse.
    “The senator is a busy man,” Hoyt announced. “We can’t delay our departure another minute.”
    He stepped directly in front of Ryland and