Pokrewne

Start
Brick & Storm [Hood Misfits Hood Misfits Volume 2 (retail)
Carola Dunn [Miss Hartwell's Miss Hartwell's Dilemma (retail
C J Busby [Deep Amber 01] Deep Amber (retail) (epub)
Cara Lynn Shultz [Dark World The Dark World (retail) (epub)
Barbara Steiner [The Photogra The Photographer (retail) (epub
Caroline Stevermer [College o A College of Magics (retail) (e
Avery Hastings [Feuds 01] Feuds (retail) (epub)
C J Cherryh [Fortress 03] Fortress of Owls (retail) (epub
Bill Naughton [Alfie 01] Alfie (retail) (epub)
Anabelle Bryant Duke of Darkness (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”“No!” Cheri looked around the kitchen.Her eyes were round blue pools of fear.“Jimmy must have mistaken her for me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.“I should have been the one to die.Oh my God.Hannah Jones died instead of me!”CHAPTER THIRTEENI banged on Bonnie Wilson’s door at eight the next morning.After a minute, I leaned on the doorbell.My nephew Evan opened the door still dressed in his pyjamas.He carried a plastic water pistol.“I’m here to see your dad,” I said.“My name is Aunt Anna.”Evan studied me with Cheri’s blue eyes.“Dad’s sleeping.Are you my aunt?”“I am.Can you go wake your dad up for me? Maybe give him a big blast of water from that gun you’re carrying.”“Okay.”Evan scooted down the hall and up the stairs.I smiled when I heard Jimmy shriek.Bonnie’s angry voice travelled downstairs.Ten minutes later, Jimmy joined me where I was sitting on the front steps.He wore a black T-shirt and jeans.His eyes were red and tired.His black curls could have used a good brushing.“I worked late,” he said.“I need coffee.”“We could walk to the Baker Street Café.”“Sure.”He trudged along beside me.Neither of us said much.Mornings had always been our worst time.I needed coffee as badly as he did.The café was busy, as it usually was Sunday mornings.We got a table near the back and both ordered bacon and eggs.We were on our second cup of coffee when I started asking questions.“So what’s going on between you and Cheri?”Jimmy sighed and leaned back in his chair.“Cheri and I started fighting last year.She was working all the time.When she wasn’t working, it was all she talked about.I thought if I moved out, she’d rethink things.As it turned out, she started acting out, wanting my attention.Do you know she even took drugs and left Evan alone in the park? I wanted to strangle her.”“You might want to watch how you phrase things.”“She refuses to talk to me.”“Could it be because you took Evan away?”“She was acting crazy.I had to make sure he was safe.”“What about Cheri? Do you care if she’s safe too?”Jimmy rolled his eyes.“You mean the supposed phone calls and threats? She’s just trying to get my attention, as I said before.”“She thinks you’re trying to kill her.”“Like I said, she’s trying to get my attention.You know what she’s like.”An unspoken thought passed between us.Yes, I knew what my sister was like.All our lives, Cheri had wanted what I had and she had found ways to take it.She had to be the centre of attention.Jimmy was living proof.“I don’t think that’s what’s going on,” I said.“She honestly fears for her life.She thinks you want to get rid of her.”“Do you believe that, Anna? You know me as well as anybody.Do you honestly think I’m capable of killing my wife?”“You tell me.What was going on between you and Hannah Jones?”“Hannah Jones? Nothing.What makes you ask me about her?”“Because I saw her at your house yesterday morning.Maybe that’s why you’d like to get rid of Cheri.Maybe Hannah was going to tell Cheri about your affair, so you got rid of her first.Hannah could make your divorce very messy.Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time you dropped a woman when you’d had enough of her.”“Ouch.” Jimmy winced.“Nobody was more surprised than me to see Hannah yesterday.She wanted to meet after I finished work to tell me something.Then she ended up dead on our front lawn.With all the crazy things Cheri’s been up to.She might have thought we were having an affair too, and done something about it.I can’t even go there.I have nothing more to say.”The waitress set our plates of food in front of us.We stared at each other for a good long time and then dropped our heads to eat.I knew from what I’d just read in Jimmy’s eyes that he was done talking.Later when I drove the truck back to Dad’s, I remembered the Jimmy I’d planned to marry.I could tell that he felt something for me still.The eyes never lie.Not for the first time, I wished I’d stayed far, far away from Ottawa.When this was over, I’d be making tracks to Kermit, Texas, as fast as the plane could fly me.I owed myself that.No ties.No problems.Nobody to cause me grief ever again.CHAPTER FOURTEENMonday morning, Cheri pulled herself together.She got up, put on her navy suit and high heels, and got ready for work.She put blush on her cheeks to cover up her pale skin.Some magic cream covered up the dark circles under her eyes.Her jaw jutted out in its old defiant way.“If I stay at home much longer, Bob Cahill’s going to give someone else my promotion.I need to spend time with my co-workers.It’s still so hard to believe Hannah is dead.”“What about your fear that someone tried to kill you?” I asked.She smiled.“Jimmy called me last night.He said that I can see Evan if I’m feeling better and not acting so.crazy.”“That’s big of him, but he might still be trying to hurt you.”“I don’t know.Jimmy didn’t sound as angry with me as he has been.He even said he missed me.Evan keeps asking to come home.”“And that’s it? You don’t fear for your life anymore?”A shadow of worry passed across Cheri’s eyes.She shook her head as if clearing away bad thoughts.“Maybe I went a little overboard.I’m putting all that behind me.”“And what if you weren’t imagining the danger?” Jimmy might be trying a new approach if he’d had a hand in Hannah’s death.“The emails started when Jimmy and Evan moved out.Whoever is behind this, if there is anybody, will stop when my family comes home.”I stared at her, too stunned to reply.There were only two reasons that I could see behind her change of heart.Either Cheri was choosing to believe what she wanted to believe, or she was the one behind all the nastiness.Both options were disturbing.A memory of eight-year-old Cheri flashed across my mind.Our mother had been dead three weeks and Cheri hadn’t cried.In fact, she hadn’t asked what happened to our mother.I was only eleven years old but even I found my little sister’s reaction odd.One day after school, I walked past Cheri’s bedroom.She was talking on the phone to her best friend Emily.Cheri was telling Emily that our mother would be home from the hospital as soon as she felt better.Dad took Cheri to the doctor after that.The doctor said that Cheri knew deep down that Mom was gone forever.But she coped by making up a story that allowed her to feel safe.She would accept our mother’s death when she was ready.Cheri’s biggest fear had always been that people would desert her.She feared that the people she loved would leave her even more than she feared that her husband could try to kill her.*********For the next two weeks, Cheri left for work each morning by nine and returned for supper at seven.I fell into the role of shopper and chef.I listened carefully over plates of pasta, chicken casseroles, and grilled steak as she told me the details of her day [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]