Read Online Cut to the Corpse by Lucy Lawrence - Free Book Online

Tara said. “Please don’t look at me like that. There’s been a mistake.”
    Jake made to cross the room to her, but Barker restrained him with a hand on his arm.
    “No, Jake,” he said. “I need to question you first.”
    “But she and he . . .” He gestured toward the bedroom. “What the hell happened here last night? Did you sleep with him? Did you sleep with my best friend?”
    His voice was a savage growl, and Tara recoiled from him even as her mother stepped forward, putting herself between them.
    “Not now, Jake.” Chief Barker tightened his hold on him and forcibly pulled him into the other room. The door slammed shut.
    Tara began to sob in earnest and Tiffany pulled her into her arms. “I don’t know what happened, Mother. How can I reassure him when I don’t know myself?”
    “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Tiffany said as she pulled back to look at her daughter’s face. “I’m calling your father. He’ll know what to do.”
    She fished her cell phone out of her purse and pressed a few buttons. She walked into the kitchenette to have what little privacy the bungalow afforded.
    Tara’s red-rimmed eyes met Brenna’s. She was the picture of misery, and Brenna remembered when she had been in a similarly bad situation, the victim of a robbery in Boston. She crossed the room and took Tara’s hands in hers.
    “It’s going to be all right,” she said. “Chief Barker is very good at what he does. He’ll find out what happened and catch whoever did this horrible thing.”
    “What if it was me?” Tara’s voice was barely a whisper, but Brenna heard her and felt the cold fingers of dread creep up her spine.
    “Move aside!” Mr. Montgomery ordered. “That’s my girl in there.”
    “Daddy!” Tara rushed to the door and threw herself into her father’s arms.
    Mr. Montgomery was tall and broad with thinning gray hair. He was wearing a golf shirt and khaki pants as if he had been called on his way to the links.
    Mr. Montgomery held his daughter tight and glanced over her head at his wife. She met his gaze and in a gesture reminiscent of her daughter she bit her lip as if she didn’t know what to say.
    “It’s okay, honey,” he said. “Daddy’s here. I’ll take care of everything.”
    Tara stepped back and wiped her streaming eyes with the back of her hand.
    “You can’t, Daddy,” she sobbed. “No one can.”
    The door to the guest bedroom banged open and crashed against the wall. Jake stormed out with two patches of angry scarlet staining his cheeks. He stopped in front of Tara and glared at her.
    “Jake . . .” She reached out a hand to him, but he shrugged it off and stomped to the door.
    “I’m late for work,” he said to no one in particular.
    DeFalco stepped aside as if he expected Jake would plow him over if he didn’t move fast enough.
    Tara buried her face in her hands and sobbed while Mr. Montgomery blustered at the chief.
    “What is the meaning of this?”
    “This is a criminal investigation,” Chief Barker said.
    “My daughter has done nothing wrong.”
    “Then she has nothing to worry about,” Barker said.
    “I am taking her out of this backwater and back to Boston where she belongs,” her father announced. “Tara, get your things. We’re leaving.”
    Tara sobbed even louder, and her mother pulled her protectively against her.
    “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Chief Barker said. “There is a dead man in the next room and she was found holding the knife. I’m going to have to take her in and we’ll see what a judge has to say about her release.”
    “I’m calling my attorney,” Mr. Montgomery said.
    “That would be wise,” Chief Barker agreed. He nodded at Officer DeFalco, and Brenna realized he hadn’t been standing in the doorway to keep people out as much as he had been to keep Tara in.
    “If you’ll go peacefully with Officer DeFalco, Miss Montgomery, we’ll forgo the handcuffs,” Chief Barker said.
    Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery