Read Online Hell by Hilary Norman - Free Book Online

wasn’t admitting it, and the fact was, none of them could be truly safe so long as Cooper was at large.
    Time to do something .
    He called Grace just before he and Martinez left for the Tewkesbury apartment.
    â€˜I want us all to move to Dan and Claudia’s house until we know things are safer. Cathy and Saul too.’
    Security and family all under one roof.
    Made sense to him.
    â€˜Sam, we can’t do that.’ Grace was startled. ‘We can’t impose on them.’
    â€˜I talked to Dan an hour ago. He and Claudia are all for it.’
    â€˜You’ve all been talking about this?’ She felt a surge of irritation.
    â€˜Gracie, don’t get mad,’ Sam said. ‘One conversation, one hour ago.’
    She shook her head. ‘But why now? I mean, I know they found this poor person, but what’s changed?’
    â€˜Nothing’s changed,’ he said. ‘But too much still points to Jerome being back, and that’s a risk I don’t want to take.’
    Her anger had gone, replaced by a sinking sensation.
    â€˜You think it was him at the party shop last week,’ she said.
    â€˜I don’t know, but I guess I’m just not prepared to take the chance that it might have been,’ he said. ‘And you can’t deny that your sister’s house is a much nicer proposition than some hotel room or safe house.’
    â€˜That’s not the point,’ Grace said.
    â€˜I’d say it’s exactly the point.’
    Daniel Brownley’s security system had been set up so that any occupant could check any part of Névé, internal and external, from several locations around the house. The smart materials created primarily for comfort could also be used to fool would-be intruders into believing that the house was occupied when it was empty. And the alarm system was directed through to the Village of Key Biscayne Police Department and a private security firm.
    It was everything Sam and Grace both ordinarily hated.
    But these were not ordinary times.
    â€˜I’m not going to leave you or our son unprotected again,’ Sam said. ‘And the same goes for Cathy and Saul.’
    â€˜We could make our own house more secure,’ Grace said.
    â€˜Is that what you want?’ Sam asked.
    Grace was silent for a moment, picturing alarms and bars at their windows, hating it as he knew she would.
    â€˜Is there anything you haven’t told me?’ she asked. ‘Any threats?’
    â€˜Nothing I haven’t told you,’ he said. ‘Just common sense.’
    She took another moment.
    â€˜What do we do about preschool?’
    â€˜We keep Joshua with us till this is over,’ Sam said.
    Another pause.
    â€˜What do you want me to do?’
    â€˜Get packed, lock up, pick up Joshua and get over to your sister’s.’
    â€˜I have two patients this afternoon,’ Grace said.
    â€˜Are they emergencies?’
    She considered the cases: an eight-year-old and a young teen. Both doing quite well, neither in crisis.
    â€˜I can postpone,’ she said. ‘What about Cathy and Saul?’
    â€˜Leave them to me,’ Sam said.
    â€˜You know you’re scaring me now,’ Grace said.
    â€˜I don’t mean to,’ he said. ‘That’s the whole point.’
    Gail Tewkesbury was heartsick, but she was still exactly the kind of intelligent, clear-minded person that Sam and Martinez needed to assist them. Staying calm and cooperative as the investigative machine got underway around her, she offered the detectives coffee and water and then began, all over again, to tell them everything she could about Andrew Victor and the friendship they’d first formed at the Starr Banking Corporation.
    He had, she divulged to them now, been fired after three warnings for bad timekeeping and, finally, for swearing at his boss.
    â€˜And I guess he could have his moments, but he was still the nicest man I ever met,’ Gail