Easy Prey. Lisa Phillips

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СКАЧАТЬ show it to Elise.” Shelder stepped away, pulling out her phone. “Good idea.”

      Jonah glanced at the house as Shelder strode down the drive. He ignored the fact that his house looked weathered, badly in need of fixing up, and saw Elise at the window. Looking at him.

      She was like a magnet, drawing him to her. Elise had always been like that, and Jonah had given up fighting the pull of her a long time ago and left town instead. She’d been far too young to consider a relationship with, and when he returned the next time she’d been married to Martin. But just because her presence had the same effect on him even all these years later didn’t mean he had to do something about it. She was his weakness. He’d known that the minute he found out she’d left, and it was as if his heart had been removed from his chest. She’d walked away with it...to Idaho of all places. So near, all these years, and yet she might as well have been on another planet.

      If she could identify the man from the zoo it would go a ways toward wrapping this up. He didn’t like the idea of her being in danger.

      Nathan glanced over and gave Jonah a tentative smile, like the kid was waiting for something else to go wrong. Or explode. He knew how Nathan felt, but Jonah was going to figure this out.

      All he had to do was convince Elise to listen—and actually follow instructions. He didn’t blame her for doing something as innocuous as going to the mailbox, but he would have felt a whole lot better if he’d gone with her. Although if he’d done that, Nathan would have wound up in the middle of sniper fire along with the rest of them.

      “Quite the hoo-hah this morning. Eh, Rivers?” Jonah’s elderly neighbor strode up to him, holding his hand out. The man was late seventies easily, but walked his land every day and ate fresh from his garden. He was probably healthier than Jonah would ever be.

      “You could say that, Tucker.” Jonah motioned Nathan over. When the teenager reached them, Jonah said, “Tucker, this is my nephew, Nathan. Nathan, this is my neighbor. Tucker was army, like your dad.”

      Nathan brightened up, shaking the old man’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

      Making the connection aloud, it dawned on Jonah—Tucker had the skills to have shot Jonah’s mailbox. And the hardware. The man had more guns in his house than Jonah had seen in his life, but Tucker’s prize possession was his old sniper rifle.

      “What have you been up to this morning, Tucker?” He often made small talk with the vet when they crossed paths. Hopefully he wouldn’t know that today Jonah’s question was not so innocuous.

      “Not much. Manny’s laid up, so I only made a short walk this morning.”

      Tucker’s dog was a husky, and an old one at that. Manny had a lot of health problems Tucker had told him about—in depth. If the dog was having a bad morning, Jonah believed Tucker would stay close to home.

      Jonah didn’t know why he felt that Tucker could have been involved. There wasn’t evidence to justify his assertion, but the theory wouldn’t leave him alone, and Jonah had learned to trust his instincts. It was only when he ignored his gut that bad things happened. Like getting shot in the middle of a manhunt.

      He rubbed a hand across his flat stomach where the ache seemed to ebb and flow for no reason. “Nathan and I should be getting inside. I was showing him my bike, so we didn’t have breakfast.”

      Tucker’s eyes lit up. “You keep me posted when that thing’s finished.”

      “Sure, Tucker.” Like Jonah was actually contemplating parting with it when it was done. Not likely. The last hold he had on Martin’s memory wasn’t something he could put a monetary value on.

      Tucker walked away and Nathan turned to him. “You’re going to sell the bike?”

      “No way.” Jonah eyed the kid. “I’d give the thing to you before I sold it to anyone else.”

      Nathan’s eyes lit up. “Serious?”

      Jonah realized the implication of what he’d said. “Or you could borrow it sometime.” He nudged Nathan’s shoulder.

      “Or you could borrow it.” Nathan shoved his shoulder back.

      Jonah sobered. “Where do you think you’ll be after the summer?”

      Nathan shrugged. “I got accepted into a zoology program at the university, so I’ll be leaving in August and it’ll be nothing but labs and research classes for four years.”

      Jonah eyed him. “You like all that science stuff?”

      “Sure.” Nathan shrugged. “Maybe I’ll enjoy it.”

      Multiple thoughts went through Jonah’s head, but he didn’t know either Nathan or Elise well enough to speculate on the topic of Nathan’s future.

      The front door slammed open. Shelder was already down the porch steps with Elise on her heels when the screen door snapped back on its hinges.

      “She identified him.” Shelder stopped in front of him. “It’s the reporter.”

      Jonah turned to Elise. “Are you sure? It won’t be official until you make the identification to the police, but it’ll give us something to go on.”

      Elise nodded. “That man on Hailey’s phone—” She motioned to Shelder’s cell. Jonah saw the reporter’s picture was on the screen.

      “That’s the man who hit me in the office.”

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