Read Online The Edge of the Shadows by Elizabeth George - Free Book Online Page B

unfinished business
 . . .
    Becca tried to sound thoughtful. “Could it be . . . like, a journal or something? Like there’s no real person at all? ’Cause it’s sort of odd, isn’t it? First of all, the name’s kind of a non-name. And then writing letters but not sending them? If she was real, wouldn’t he just’ve asked you to mail ’em?”
    Dave considered this. “There’s that,” he admitted. “But . . . well . . .”
Always holds back
 . . .
if there’s a way for a breakthrough
 . . .
dad and son trust and he can trust me I swear it
 . . .
    Becca furrowed her brow. She
thought
she got it and what she got was that Derric wasn’t hiding the truth about Rejoice nearly as well as he thought he was. She said, “He’s never said anything to me about a Rejoice, Sheriff Mathieson. And . . . well . . . I kind of think he would.”
    Still he gazed at her steadily. That he was trying to read her for truth or lie was something Becca could tell even without his whispers. He wouldn’t be able to read the truth from her, though. She’d been on Whidbey Island for just a year, and her biggest accomplishment so far had been perfecting her ability to lie with an innocent expression on her face.
    He said with a sigh that sounded relieved but could have meant anything, “Okay, then. Can we keep it between us that I asked you about her?”
    â€œAbout Rejoice? Sure,” Becca said.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    THE TRUTH WAS that Becca knew all about Rejoice. The truth was that Rejoice was Derric’s sister. The truth was that he’d never told anyone at the Ugandan orphanage that among the children with him whom they’d picked up off the street in Kampala was a two-year-old girl who didn’t remember that the boy sharing the cardboard cartons in the alley in which they’d been discovered was her older brother. That Becca knew all this was purest chance. For she was the person who’d found the letters that Derric had written to his sister and hidden from the world, along with his shame at having kept their very relationship his most closely guarded secret.
    Becca could have told Derric’s father all of this. But aside from wishing not ever to betray Derric, she also believed that the story of Rejoice had to come from Derric and not from her. He wasn’t ready to do that. That was how the situation had to stay for now.
    Or so it seemed until she caught sight of an older woman in a baseball cap walking an elegant standard black poodle along Cascade Street in her direction. This was Diana Kinsale, the first adult Becca had met on Whidbey and the only person whose whispers Becca had never been able to hear, unless Diana
wanted
them heard.
    Becca set off to meet her. The woman and the poodle were taking their time, with lots of stops so that Diana could admire the Cascade Mountains, the jagged range clearly visible from the top of the bluff along which the street ran. They rose far in the distance across the water and beyond the city of Everett, whose port buildings caught the sunlight of the late afternoon.
    As Becca approached the woman and dog, Diana went to one of the benches along the bluff and sank down onto it. She bent to caress Oscar’s floppy ears. The poodle leaned into her in his usual fashion. Diana pressed her head to the top of his. This, too, he accepted without stirring from her knees. It came to Becca that something wasn’t quite right.
    She called out, “Where’s the rest of the pack?” referring to Diana’s other four dogs.
    Diana turned. She tilted her baseball cap back and exposed her face. Becca felt a shiver. Diana looked unwell.
    â€œBecca,” the older woman said in greeting. She patted the bench. “Join me. Oscar’s had his teeth cleaned today, and I’m giving him a bit of exercise