Once Cold. Блейк Пирс

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      Riley wondered how much she should tell the kids. She didn’t want to describe the murder details to her family.

      “It’s a cold case,” she said. “A series of murders that neither the local police nor the FBI were able to solve. I’ve been trying to crack it for years.”

      Jilly was bouncing in her chair.

      “How are you going to solve it?”

      The question stung Riley a little.

      Of course, Jilly didn’t mean to be hurtful – quite the opposite. The younger girl was proud to have a law enforcement agent for a parent. And she still had the idea that Riley was some kind of superhero who couldn’t ever fail.

      Riley held back a sigh.

      Maybe it’s time to tell her that I don’t always catch the bad guys, she thought.

      But Riley just said, “I don’t know.”

      It was the simple, honest truth.

      But there was one thing Riley did know.

      The twenty-fifth anniversary of Tilda Steen’s death was coming up tomorrow, and she wouldn’t be able to get it out of her mind any time soon.

      To Riley’s relief, the conversation at the table turned to Gabriela’s delicious dinner. The stout Guatemalan woman and the girls all started speaking in Spanish, and Riley had trouble following all that was said.

      But that was OK. April and Jilly were both studying Spanish, and April was getting to be quite fluent. Jilly was still struggling with the language, but Gabriela and April were helping her to learn it.

      Riley smiled as she watched and listened.

      Jilly looks well, she thought.

      She was a dark-skinned, skinny girl – but hardly the desperate waif Riley had rescued from the streets of Phoenix a few months ago. She was hearty and healthy, and she seemed to be adjusting well to her new life with Riley and her family.

      And April was proving to be a perfect big sister. She was recovering well from the traumas she had been through.

      Sometimes when she looked at April, Riley felt that she was looking in a mirror – a mirror that showed her own teenage self from many years ago. April had Riley’s hazel eyes and dark hair, though none of Riley’s touches of gray.

      Riley felt a warm glow of reassurance.

      Maybe I’m doing a pretty good job as a parent, she thought.

      But the glow faded quickly.

      The mysterious Matchbook Killer was still lurking around the edges of her mind.

*

      After dinner, Riley went up to her bedroom and office. She sat down at her computer and took a few deep breaths, trying to relax. But the task that awaited her was somehow unnerving.

      It seemed ridiculous for her to feel this way. After all, she had hunted and fought dozens of dangerous killers over the years. Her own life had been threatened more times than she could count.

      Just talking to my sister shouldn’t get to me like this, she thought.

      But she hadn’t seen Wendy in … how many years had it been?

      Not since Riley had been a little girl, anyway. Wendy had gotten back in touch after their father had died. They had talked on the phone, mulling over the possibility of getting together in person. But Wendy lived far away in Des Moines, Iowa, and they hadn’t been able to work out the details. So they’d finally agreed on this time for a video chat.

      To prepare herself, Riley looked at a framed picture that was sitting on her desk. She had found it among her father’s belongings after his death. It showed Riley, Wendy, and their mother. Riley looked like she was about four, and Wendy must have been in her teens.

      Both girls and their mother looked happy.

      Riley couldn’t remember when or where the picture had been taken.

      And she certainly couldn’t remember her family ever being happy.

      Her hands cold and shaking, she typed Wendy’s video address on her keyboard.

      The woman who appeared on the screen might as well have been a perfect stranger.

      “Hi, Wendy,” Riley said shyly.

      “Hi,” Wendy replied.

      They sat staring at each other dumbly for a few awkward moments.

      Riley knew that Wendy was about fifty, some ten years older than her. She seemed to wear her years pretty well. She was a bit heavyset and looked thoroughly conventional. Her hair didn’t appear to be graying like Riley’s. But Riley doubted that it was her natural color.

      Riley glanced back and forth between the picture and Wendy’s face. She noticed that Wendy looked a little like their mother. Riley knew that she looked more like their father. She wasn’t especially proud of the resemblance.

      “Well,” Wendy finally said to break the silence. “What have you been up to … during the last few decades?”

      Riley and Wendy both laughed a little. Even their laughter felt strained and awkward.

      Wendy asked, “Are you married?”

      Riley sighed aloud. How could she explain what was going on between her and Ryan when she didn’t even know herself?

      She said, “Well, as the kids say these days, ‘It’s complicated.’ And I do mean really complicated.”

      There was a bit more nervous laughter.

      “And you?” Riley asked.

      Wendy seemed to be starting to relax a little.

      “Loren and I are coming up on our twenty-fifth anniversary. We’re both pharmacists, and we own our own drugstore. Loren inherited it from his father. We’ve got three kids. The youngest, Barton, is away at college. Thora and Parish are both married and on their own. I guess that makes Loren and me your classic empty-nesters.”

      Riley felt a strange pang of melancholy.

      Wendy’s life had been nothing at all like hers. In fact, Wendy’s life had apparently been completely normal.

      Just as she had with April over dinner, she again had the feeling of looking in the mirror.

      Except this mirror wasn’t of her past.

      It was of a future self – someone she once might have become, but now would never, ever be.

      “What about you?” Wendy asked. “Any kids?”

      Again, Riley felt tempted to say …

      “It’s complicated.”

      Instead, she said, “Two. I’ve got a fifteen-year-old, April. And I’m in the СКАЧАТЬ