Read Online Deep Down (I) by Karen Harper - Free Book Online Page B

it down. Go ahead, Jess, okay?” he added when he saw her hesitate.
    Why did she feel so afraid? She felt almost closed in again, as if a big, black box were shutting around her. Or a coffin with the thud, thud of soil hitting its lid. With a shudder, she dug into the jumble of papers and photos.

Chapter 6
    6
    “I never would have found this back road,” Tyler Finch told Cassie as they bounced along a rutted track in her old Ford truck.
    “No offense, Mr. Finch, but even if you would have found it, that compact rental car wouldn’t get you back in where we’re going.”
    “I’d like it if you’d call me Tyler.”
    Pearl, squeezed in between them, piped up, “Finch is better ’cause it’s a real pretty bird. It crunches seeds in its pow-ful beak.”
    “Pearl’s getting to be quite a reader,” Cassie said. “All right, I’ll call you Tyler and you call me Cassie, but Pearl has to mind her manners and call you Mr. Finch.”
    “And I promise I won’t crunch any seeds,” he said.
    Pearl found that funny. Her girl was warming up to this stranger fast, a good reminder for her mother to keep her distance. Poor Pearl, with no daddy—not one she knew, anyway. Shy as she was, she took to most men once she knew them. Pearl’s loss was even greater than her own, and another reason a certain man deserved to die.
    “What’s this mountain ahead of us called?” Tyler asked.
    “Big Blue, but the place we’re going for your first shots is right by Shrieking Peak.”
    “Sounds haunted. Does a story go with that?”
    “Not that I know of. When the wind blows, which is most of the time, it sounds like a woman screaming.”
    “Your friend’s mother you were telling me about—”
    “Mariah Lockwood.”
    “Yes. Could she have wandered up into this area?”
    “That’s one of the good things about working for you, Mr.—Tyler. We’re going to keep a good eye out for signs of her, as well as for pretty places for your photos. Mariah Lockwood wandered far and wide, that’s why it’s been so hellfire hard to find her. Oh, sorry for the cussing. Pearl, you just forget you heard that now.”
    She parked the truck where the thick stands of oak and basswood began, and they hiked up toward the place she knew would not only suit Tyler Finch but awe him. Their pace was slow, because he didn’t seem used to the rough terrain and Pearl’s legs were still so short. Besides, might as well treasure their time together—the extra money, that is, ’cause he said he’d pay her each and every day.
    “So,” she said, trying not to stare at him, “tell me more about your work.”
    “There’s hard work and then there is joy work. Not that I don’t like my job, but I often have to go into the city—New York. It’s a bit too crowded and noisy for me, and I’m always fenced in by someone else’s ideas. For example, my assignment here is to get some photos of sites where TV ads for a power drink could be shot later—with live people.”
    “Better’n dead ones. Ginseng power drinks?”
    “Right. I’d like some really winsome ads, but we’ll probably have pro athletes hiking or rafting around here.”
    Cassie wasn’t sure what winsome meant, but it must have something to do with winning. She nodded to encourage him.
    “Our client puts caffeine and ginseng in their liquid sports aids,” he explained. “G-Man and G-Woman Drinks. Bailey and Keller, my advertising firm, helps a client build a brand name and tell their story.”
    “Tell their story,” she repeated. “That’s important, I reckon, even for things, let alone for people.”
    “Someday, Cassie,” he said, stopping and turning to face her, “will you tell me your story?”
    She shrugged but smiled. “Not much to tell. Will you tell me yours then?”
    “Yeah,” Pearl said with an impish grin. “Like you have to go first!”
    He smiled at both of them, then got serious again. “On paper, my story is not important. I plead guilty to being an artistic