Official Duty. Doreen Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ Cully briefly closed his eyes. Who in hell would want to hurt two of the most generous, neighborly people he’d ever known? It had to be a robbery. Not that the Corbetts had much to steal. They’d always lived a frugal life, not being ones to buy fancy cars or boats and the like. He couldn’t even remember them ever taking a vacation away from home. They’d given their lives to their foster kids, until they’d gotten too old to keep up with the work.

      He thanked the coroner and shoved his phone back in his pocket. First thing in the morning he’d apply for a warrant to go over the house. Take a look around. It was as good a place as any to start.

      In a hurry to get home now, he swung himself into his Jeep and started the engine. As far as he knew, the Corbetts had no family. No kids, no relatives to notify. Unless he found something in his search of their home that told him different. Maybe he’d find something that would tell him where Ginny had disappeared to. She needed to know what had happened. Too bad she’d miss the funeral in the morning. She would have wanted to be there.

      He tried to ignore the faint twinge of anticipation. It wouldn’t do to go getting any ideas about her. She was married now. He didn’t even know her married name, so it wasn’t likely he’d be able to track her down. In any case, she’d let him know long ago how she felt about him. Even if he found her, he sure as hell wasn’t giving her the chance to tell him all over again.

      THE FOLLOWING EVENING Ginny stood in the quiet luxury of her living room, the phone pressed anxiously against her ear. She’d promised herself that if she got no answer this time, she’d call the police and have them check out the Corbetts’ home. She would have done it last night, except that in Gold Peak the police meant the county sheriff and that meant Cully Black.

      Outside her window, the sultry Philadelphia heat shimmered on the cars parked in the parking lot. Kids ran barefoot in and out of the vehicles, their shouts muffled by the thick glass. Everything seemed so normal, yet her heart pounded unevenly as she waited, praying to hear Jim’s gruff voice on the other end of the line.

      Unbelievably, the line clicked open. Her gasp of relief echoed in her ears as she said breathlessly, “Jim? Where have you been? I’ve been so worried, I—”

      Shock slammed into her as the deep voice answered her. A voice quite different from Jim’s harsh tones. A voice that she recognized, even after all these years. “Ma’am? This is Sheriff Cully Black. I’m afraid Jim’s not here.”

      For what seemed like an eternity she struggled to get her breath. She needed to steady her voice, not to let him know he could still affect her. She waited so long he spoke again.

      “Ma’am?” Then his voice changed, dropping even lower. “Ginny? Is that you?”

      It had been so long since anyone had called her by that name. For just a second or two, she felt a tug of sweet nostalgia, until she remembered the last day she’d seen him. The day he’d shattered her dreams.

      Instinct urged her to hang up but then Mabel’s sweet face swam into her mind and she swallowed.

      Her fingers gripped the phone so hard she felt them cramp. The three thousand miles between them melted away and she felt as if he were right there in the room with her. She loosened her grip and struggled to keep her voice as casual as possible. “What are you doing there, Cully? Where’s Jim?” A rush of alarm tightened her nerves. “There’s nothing wrong with him, is there? Is Mabel there?”

      “Ginny…”

      She heard something else in his voice then and the chill spread rapidly throughout her body. For some idiotic reason she didn’t want to hear what he had to say and went on talking as if he hadn’t said her name in that awful tone that smacked of sympathy and sorrow. “Their answering machine doesn’t seem to be working and I was worried…”

      “Ginny, listen to me.”

      She pressed a hand over her mouth as she heard him say the unbelievable words. Mabel and Jim died in a car wreck on the mountain, both dead, funeral was yesterday.

      “No-o-o-o-o!” The hollow cry echoed around her living room, bounced off the colorless walls and beat mercilessly back into her ears. Vaguely she heard Cully’s voice repeating her name over and over but nothing made sense. Nothing. They couldn’t be dead. It had to be a mistake.

      “Ginny, please, don’t hang up.”

      Cully’s urgent voice finally penetrated the loud humming in her head. Holding back a sob, she whispered, “How did it happen?”

      “We don’t know.” He sounded ragged, weary, as if he hadn’t slept in days. He’d always had a huskiness in his voice—a sexy rawness that had once thrilled her to the core. But it was more pronounced now, as if every word he spoke were painful. “It was late at night. You know how that road winds down the mountain. It was dark, not much moonlight…”

      She couldn’t take any more. “I have to go. I can’t…”

      “Ginny, don’t hang up! Don’t!”

      The urgency in his words frightened her. “I’m sorry.” She gulped, afraid she was going to bawl right there into the phone. “I know it must be hard for you, too. But right now I don’t feel much like talking.”

      “Wait, I’ve been trying to find you.”

      His pause seemed fraught with tension. She gripped the phone, prepared to stand her ground if he asked her to come home. There was no point now.

      “Ginny, the will is being read in two days. You need to be there.”

      She shook her head at him, even though he couldn’t see her. “No, I don’t see why. I’m not a relative.”

      “Paul Bellman, he’s the Corbetts’ lawyer now. He needs you there.”

      She swallowed. “Did he say why?”

      “No, he didn’t.”

      Her mind raced with questions. She couldn’t be a beneficiary. The Corbetts had been her foster parents, as they had to dozens of kids in their lifetime. As far as she knew they had nothing to leave, anyway.

      “Ginny? Come home. You should be here. At least give me a number where I can reach you.”

      Her instincts, honed by months of hiding in the shadows, bunched into a solid wall. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

      She felt sick, still unable to believe that the only real parents she had known were gone. Yet somewhere in there, she felt guilt, as well. She had never had the chance to say goodbye. The least she could do was visit their graves and say her goodbyes there. It would give her closure, if nothing else.

      Before she could change her mind again, she said sharply, “Never mind. I’ll come home. I’ll be there tomorrow.” She hung up then and gave herself up to the awful, tearing sobs of grief.

      THREE THOUSAND miles away, Cully let the receiver fall gently onto its rest. He should have told her all of it. He just hadn’t been able to bring himself to hurt her even more than she was already.

      This way he could give her a little time to get over the shock, before she found out that the Corbetts hadn’t died in an accident after all. Before he had to tell her that the couple she had СКАЧАТЬ