Read Online Land's End by Marta Perry - Free Book Online Page A

“No, ma’am. They was like the three monkeys, you know. See no evil—”
    â€œI know,” she said shortly. He was clearly amused at his own joke. “So you didn’t find out anything.”
    â€œWell, Joe Findley did say he saw a car pull in and then out again quick, but Joe’d been hitting the bottle pretty hard. You don’t want to pay too much attention to what old Joe says.”
    She wasn’t as quick to dismiss it as he was. “Did this Joe say what the car looked like?”
    He shrugged, his shoulders moving uneasily as he pulled back onto the road. “Said it was a big car. A big gray car.”
    A big gray car. Like Trent’s Rolls. Had he thought of that, dismissed it so quickly because he didn’t want to tangle with Trent?
    Words bubbled up, but she suppressed them. It would do no good to argue with the patrolman. The person she neededto confront about this was Trent. And that probably wouldn’t do any good, either.
    By the time the patrol car swung into the driveway at the Lee house, she felt too wiped out to confront anyone about anything. With any luck, Jonathan and Adriana would never know she’d come home in a police car.
    The car stopped in front of the cottage, and she slid out with a word of thanks. The cruiser rolled quickly away, leaving her alone in the still night. The cop hadn’t had to ask her where she was staying. He’d known. Probably everyone on the island knew by now. St. James was Trent’s fiefdom, and she’d best remember that.
    She unlocked the door and stepped inside, sagging with weariness. She’d have to call about the car. Switching on lights, she crossed to the bedroom. She’d call from the phone there.
    Kicking off her shoes in the doorway, she took one step into the room and stopped. Her stomach clenched as if she’d been punched.
    A hurricane might have swept through, ripping apart everything it passed. Clothes, makeup, everything she’d brought with her had been strewn over the furniture, ripped and crumpled. Nothing had been spared.
    It took several minutes for the shock to subside enough that she could start thinking. Then she realized the desolation extended only to her things. Nothing that belonged to the Lees had been touched.
    She picked up a coral cotton sweater. It had been one of her favorites. Not any longer. A jagged tear rent it nearly in half. She dropped it as if it burned her fingers. It had been cut. With a knife.
    A shudder rocked her, and the room seemed to shift. A knife. Probably the same knife that had slashed her tires hadslashed her clothing, too. The sheer malevolence of the act twisted inside her. How could anyone—
    Not anyone . The sick feeling escalated to active nausea. Trent. Trent was the only one who wanted her off the island. The slashing of her tires at the tavern could have been a random act of vandalism, aimed at no one in particular. This couldn’t. This was deliberate. Ugly and deliberate.
    She pressed her hand against her stomach, trying to still the waves of nausea. She had to think. Had to decide what to do. Tell Jonathan?
    She supposed she must, but she shrank from what would inevitably follow. He would call the police, but what could or would they do?
    The doorbell jangled, and her hand dropped away from the phone. Probably Jonathan. If he’d seen the police car, he’d come to find out what was going on. She’d have to show him.
    She crossed the living room quickly. Nothing had been touched here, because nothing in this room belonged to her. The intruder must have realized that.
    How had he gotten in? She hadn’t noticed any sign that the door had been tampered with. Obviously Jonathan’s security wasn’t as good as he’d thought. Either that, or someone in the Lee household was involved. No, she couldn’t believe that.
    Her hand closed on the knob, cool against her palm. She turned it, swung the door open.
    It