Shadow's Darkness by Mary Stone

Author:Mary Stone [Stone, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

22

Dust flew from her tires as Rebecca slid to a halt in front of Abe Barclay’s residence. Her anxiety tasted as bitter as old coffee…or dried blood. It had taken her just over half an hour to get there from Coastal Ridge. Thirty minutes when her people were on the scene with a possible shooter. And she hadn’t been able to be there to make sure they were safe.

As she wove through traffic at a pace she knew was reckless, Rebecca was transported back to the tiny spit of land and its blood-soaked shoreline. She wasn’t on Little Quell Island battling an ambush from more than a dozen men. Her deputies weren’t in a fight for their lives while the deafening roar of automatic weapons reverberated in her ears.

Even when the all-clear call had broadcast over the radio saying they’d found a body, the pounding of her heart had only slowed slightly. It was an over-the-top reaction. She knew it. Her therapist had confirmed it during their recent consultations. He also said an exaggerated reaction was normal for what she was dealing with and that it would fade in the coming months with some effort on her part.

Until time and cognitive processing therapy could work its magic, she distracted herself from the anxiety by looking for objects that were all some random color her subconscious chose. She was cursing her inner prankster for choosing orange, because absolutely nothing inside or outside her cruiser was orange.

Perfect.

“Hey, Boss.” Viviane gave a faltering wave as she looked up from the crime scene tape she was securing around the house. “Are you okay? You look nervous or something.”

Rebecca’s head rocked back in what could be considered a nod but felt too jerky. She couldn’t tell her friend, now employee, about the many different ways she’d pictured her untimely death in the last thirty minutes. Viviane hadn’t been on Little Quell during the attack, but every time she put on her badge and gun now, she risked the same fate as Darian.

Dammit.

“Just frustrated with the traffic.” The best lies were always partly true, and Viviane seemed to buy that one completely. Since Rebecca’s face often betrayed her emotions, she knew a half-truth was a necessary component to convince Viviane. The second tactic was to change the subject. “What do we have here?”

Viviane waved a hand at the front door hanging wide open. “It’s pretty gruesome. Would you believe me if I said it’s a suicide since he’s holding a gun?”

Rebecca wouldn’t believe anything until she saw it for herself. “Can you show me what we have?”

“We got the shots-fired call, but when we got here, there was no answer at the door. Then Hoyt saw the victim through the window, so we had to break the door down.” They walked toward the front of the house, which seemed to be a duplex. The door was smashed in, a ram bar lying on the porch.

The tension finally left Rebecca’s shoulders, and she smiled at the sight before her.

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