Read Online The Beginning by Catherine Coulter - Free Book Online

her guile?
    Fifteen minutes later she was talking as if there wasn’t a single black cloud in her world. “…Amabel told me that The Cove was nothing until a developer from Portland bought up all the land and built vacation cottages. Everything went smoothly until the sixties; then everyone simply forgot about the town.”
    â€œSomeone sure remembered, someone with lots of money. The place is a picture postcard.” He remembered old Thelma Nettro had told him the same thing.
    â€œYes,” she said, kicking a small pebble out of her path. “It’s odd, isn’t it? If the town died, then how was it resurrected? There’s no local factory to employ everyone, no manufacturing of any kind. Amabel said the high school closed back in 1974.”
    â€œMaybe one of them has discovered how to tap into the Social Security computer system.”
    â€œThat would only work in the short term. The fund only has money for, what is it? Fifteen months? It’s scary. No one would want to count on that.”
    They stood on the edge of a narrow promontory and looked down at the fierce white spume, fanning upward when the waves hit the black rocks.
    â€œIt’s beautiful,” she said as she drew in a deep breath of the salt air.
    â€œYes, it is, but it makes me nervous. All that unleashed power. It has no conscience. It can kill you so easily.”
    â€œWhat a romantic thing to say, Mr. Quinlan.”
    â€œNot at all. But I’m right. It doesn’t know the good guys from the bad guys. And it’s James. You want to climb down? There’s a path over there by that lone cypress tree that doesn’t look too dangerous.”
    â€œI don’t want you fainting on me, if you get too close to all that unleashed power.”
    â€œThreaten to knee me and I’ll forget about fainting for the rest of my life.”
    She laughed and walked ahead of him. She quickly disappeared around a turn in the trail. It was a narrow path, strewn with good-sized rocks, snaggled low brush, and it was too steep. She slipped, gasped aloud, and grabbed at a root.
    â€œBe careful!”
    â€œYes, I will be. No, don’t say it. I don’t want to go back. We’ll both be very careful. Just another fifty feet.”
    The trail stopped. From the settled look of all the brush and rocks, there’d been an avalanche some years before. They could probably climb over the rocks, but Quinlan didn’t want to take the chance. “This is far enough,” he said, grabbing her hand when she took another step. “Nope, Sally, this is it. Let’s sit here and commune with all that unleashed power.”
    There was no beach below, just pile upon pile of rocks, forming strange shapes as richly imagined as the cloud formations overhead. One even made a bridge from one pile to another, with water flowing beneath. It was breathtaking, and James was right, it was a bit frightening.
    Seagulls whirled and dove overhead, squawking and calling to each other.
    â€œIt isn’t particularly cold today.”
    â€œNo,” she said. “Not like last night.”
    â€œI’m in the west tower room at Thelma’s Bed and Breakfast. The windows shuddered the whole night.”
    Suddenly she stood up, her eyes fixed on something off to the right. She shook her head, whispering, “No, no, it can’t be.”
    He was on his feet in an instant, his hand on her shoulder. “What is it?”
    She pointed.
    â€œOh, no,” he said. “Stay here, Sally. Stay right here and I’ll check it out.”
    â€œNo, I won’t stay put.”
    â€œYes you will.” He set her aside and made his way carefully through the rocks until he was standing five feet above the body of a woman, the waves washing her against the rocks, then tugging her back, back and forth. There was no blood in the water. “Oh, no,” he said again.
    She was at his side, staring down at the