Read Online Cold Dawn by Carla Neggers - Free Book Online Page A

kicked off his shoes and called Sean. "Where are you?"
    "Out by the pool. It's sunny and warm today."
    "Go to hell."
    "Okay," Sean said. "I'm in my car, stuck in traffic, looking at smog on the horizon."
    Nick grinned. "That's better. I had dinner with your sister. She's had to deal with dead bodies in her work. That part she can handle, but this time she knew the victim."
    "Training Ranger is repetitive and requires a lot of discipline. She loves it, but the Whittaker place was probably a welcome change of scenery. She's always felt safe in Black Falls."
    "Feeling safe's an attitude. Anything can happen anytime, anywhere. How well did you know this guy Derek?"
    "Not well."
    Curt answer. Nick looked out the window with the full moon casting shadows on the snow. He could make out groomed cross-country ski tracks. Black Falls Lodge seemed less dark and isolated tonight. Maybe he was seeing the nuances Lauren had implied he would if he looked. Or maybe he was experiencing the effects of jet lag, whiskey and Rose Cameron.
    "The bar fight last March," he said. "What kinds of insults did Cutshaw and his friends hurl at Hannah?"
    "The personal kind," Sean said. "Her mother waited tables at O'Rourke's before her death seven years ago, and Hannah hasn't had it easy, working herself through college, raising her two younger brothers on her own."
    "So the insults were all about her?"
    "As far as I know."
    That left a fair amount of wiggle room, Nick thought.
    Sean added, "Hannah hasn't seen Derek since he, Robert Feehan and Brett Griffin stopped by the cafe last March to apologize for their behavior."
    "Telling me to back off, Sean?"
    His friend sighed heavily, less defensive. "Derek said some fairly nasty things before Bowie O'Rourke intervened and prevented him from saying more."
    "He wasn't just talking about Hannah, was he?"
    Sean clearly didn't want to answer, but he said, "That's my guess."
    Nick contemplated the moonlit landscape. "Hannah knows," he said finally, certain he was right.
    "She and Rose have been friends for a long time. Hannah was in Black Falls all last year after Pop's death while I was out here in California." Sean let it go at that. "She's here now. I'll talk to her."
    "If anything went on between Derek Cutshaw and Rose, this Bowie character knows, too."
    "Bowie was willing to get into a fight and end up on probation to shut Derek up."
    "I'll keep that in mind," Nick said.
    The comment went right over Sean's head. "Bowie wasn't just defending Hannah's honor, or Rose's if you're right. He has a hot temper. He likes a good fight."
    "Used to be a bar was the perfect place for a good fight."
    "Now you sound like my father," Sean said, almost amused.
    "What about the two guys with Cutshaw that night?"
    "Robert Feehan said a few things. Brett Griffin was mostly quiet. They're not local guys. I didn't have anything to do with them after the fight. I doubt A.J. did, either. Elijah was on leave. He headed back the next day."
    "Your father?"
    "He died a few weeks later. We never talked about the insults. You can ask A.J. He might know."
    "You ask him."
    "You managed to piss him off already?"
    "Scared to," Nick said with a short laugh. He stepped back from the window, feeling his fatigue for the first time since he'd looked at the clock at four-thirty that morning. "Feehan and Cutshaw rented a house for the ski season up by Killington. Griffin's in town--right up the road."
    "You've been doing your homework."
    Nick figured there was no point beating around the bush. "You and your brothers are in close touch. Maybe think about including Rose, too. Even with you three, she still seems isolated."
    "Her choice," Sean said.
    "Doesn't matter. Sean, a fire killed this guy today."
    "Lowell Whittaker could have turned a kerosene lamp into one of his homemade bombs."
    "And investigators missed it?"
    "They might not have thought twice about seeing an old lamp in a shed."
    "Where did Whittaker learn how to make bombs?"
    Sean didn't