A Widow's Guilty Secret. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ Pete seemed to love her, and he’d never laid a hand on her or physically mistreated her, Suzy knew deep down in her heart that she needed more to lay the foundations for a lasting relationship.

      She also felt as if Peter was keeping things from her. Not work-related things but just things. He seemed to lead a secret life apart from the one he shared with her. It got to the point where she felt as if she were dealing with a photograph of a man and the actual three-dimensional man was out of reach.

      On the surface, Peter was friendly, outgoing, gregarious, but after several years of marriage, she still knew very little about him. And no details about his childhood.

      What husband keeps his past from his wife? What was it that Peter was hiding?

      Or was she just being completely paranoid?

       Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone after you.

      She supposed that she’d been hoping for some sort of last-minute breakthrough with this baby, and that was why, when Peter, completely out of the blue, had suggested having a baby, she’d agreed.

      It had been an irresponsible way to go about patching up their relationship. First you had a stable home with two people who loved each other, and then you brought a baby into the equation. You didn’t do it the other way around. You didn’t just make a baby, and then hope everything turned out for the best.

      Suzy admitted to herself that she’d been trying to create the exact opposite of what she’d grown up with: two alcoholic parents who were either drunk and passed out on any available flat or semi-flat surface, or going at one another with anything they could get their hands on when they were sober.

      And whatever verbal and physical blows they threw that didn’t land on each other, found their target in her—or her younger sister, Lori.

      All she’d ever wanted was to be loved and to have someone to lean on. Someone who could be her protector if the occasion arose.

      Or at least, that was what she thought she wanted when she’d married Peter. Only recently she realized she wanted more. She wanted someone to talk to. Someone who really talked to her as well. In essence, she wanted someone to share a life with.

      That wasn’t Peter.

      “Come on, Peter. Come home. I need to get this over with before I lose my nerve,” she pleaded.

      Only the darkness heard her.

      At thirty-eight, Nick Jeffries felt he’d seen it all—and for the most part, he’d left it behind him. As a former fifteen-year veteran detective on the Houston police force, he’d accepted a position on Vengeance’s police force thinking that it would be a walk in the park and that chilling, stomach-turning homicides were a thing of the past. Vengeance, Texas, was one of those sleepy, picturesque little towns people dreamed about while trapped in a rat race, struggling to stay abreast of the bills, the tax man and soul-numbing, time-sapping boredom.

      Apparently that wasn’t the case anymore, Nick thought, looking down at the gruesome discovery made earlier that day by some enterprising geology graduate students. The students had initially been assigned to dig up and catalog several mineral specimens on the private land just on the outskirts of Darby College.

      Instead, what they’d found were three male bodies buried in shallow graves and located fairly close to one another.

      “Three for the price of one, huh?” Nick murmured sardonically.

      The flippant comment was intended for the young man he’d been partnered with but when he looked up, he saw that the tall, baby-faced detective had done a quick about-face and was currently—and miserably—throwing up his breakfast behind the nearest tree.

      “That’s okay, Juarez,” Nick assured the younger man, raising his voice so that it carried. “I did the same thing when I saw my first dead body.”

      It actually wasn’t true. For the most part, Nick Jeffries had practically been born unshakeable, but he thought it might give the young detective a measure of comfort to know that he wasn’t alone or unique in his misery.

      Shaking his head, Nick looked down at the three dead bodies that had been lifted from their graves.

      Three separate, shallow graves—not one. Did that mean there were three separate killers, or just one with an odd reverence for the sanctity of death that had made him dig the multiple graves rather than just toss the bodies one on top of another?

      And why these particular three people? Was it just convenience? The luck of the draw?

      He highly doubted it.

      What did these three have in common with each other, other than being buried out here just off the college campus? Did they all die at the same time, or did they meet their respective ends at different times by the same hand?

      He supposed at least part of the latter question would be answered by the medical examiner after the autopsies were performed.

      He wondered how long that would take and if they even had a medical examiner around here. If not, they were going to have to find one, fast.

      There were times when he really missed being in a city like Houston.

      “So much for this being a sleepy little college town,” Nick said, talking to Juarez as if the man had rejoined him instead of still heaving up his by now meager stomach contents behind a tree. “And let me tell you, if you thought that the media seemed frenzied and out of control when they converged here, asking questions about that Grayson woman’s kidnapping, wait’ll you see what happens when they get wind of this triple homicide,” he predicted.

      With a handkerchief held close to his mouth in case he wasn’t quite finished throwing up what was left of his insides, Jason Juarez, his eyes watering, made his way back to his partner.

      When he looked at Nick, his eyes appeared to be bloodshot, definitely the worse for wear.

      Nick was tempted to tell him to go home, but that wouldn’t solve anything. The kid needed to tough it out, Nick thought. Still, he couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

      “You think that this is a triple homicide?” Juarez asked him.

      It was obvious that the young detective was deliberately avoiding looking down at the uncovered bodies, which had already been on their way to becoming lunch a la carte for all the local rodents, wild animals and insects in the area.

      Had he ever been this naive? Nick wondered. Somehow, he didn’t think so.

      “Well, there are three bodies buried pretty close to one another,” he said to Juarez, doing his best not to let his impatience show, “and they’re definitely dead, so, logically speaking, I’d say yes, there’s a pretty good possibility that we’re looking at a triple homicide. But if you’re asking me if I think that the same person killed all three victims, that’s something we’re going to have to find—”

      Nick abruptly stopped talking and he suddenly squatted down beside the body that was nearest to him. With an unreadable expression on his face, he gave the body a very slow once-over.

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