Thicker Than Water by Maggie Shayne

Author:Maggie Shayne [Shayne, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Suspense
ISBN: 9781460307694
Google: lfaaseUxn2MC
Amazon: B009NEIMR2
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Twelve

She had to go home. She had to get to the bottom of this. Find out how they'd died and who the hell had sent her this envelope, and she didn't want to do it from here. Not with MacKenzie watching her every move and suffering from this hero-delusion, all just to ease his own guilty conscience.

Cramming the clippings into a pocket, she hurried out to her car and drove home. There were still twenty minutes before she had to pick up Dawn from school. Close enough so anyone who noticed her absence would assume that was where she had gone. She went into her house, up to her bedroom and into the closet. It took her a few minutes to find the false board in the back. She hadn't needed to open it in a very long time. Not since she and Dawn had moved into this place. She took the metal security box out and turned the combination padlock to the four numbers of Dawn's birthday. Then she opened the box and removed the tiny address book from inside.

Her eyes strayed to the photographs in the bottom of the box. Their edges were starting to curl and yellow. They'd been tucked into the pockets of one of Mordecai's duffel bags full of ill-gotten cash. Somehow Julie hadn't been able to make herself throw them away.

The best friend she'd ever had in her life, Lizzie, smiled up at her from the bed where she'd just given birth. Her blond hair was untidy and her striking blue eyes damp. Shewas holding her baby daughter cradled in her pale arms. Julie remembered when Mordecai had snapped that photo. It had been only a short time after Julie had helped Lizzie through the delivery, as soon as she'd cleaned everyone up and changed the bedding. God, Lizzie had been so happy.

But the image in the photo was replaced by another in Julie's mind. The memory of Lizzie lying limp on the basement floor while the house burned down around them. The blood that stained her clothes, and the way she'd used the last of her strength to push her most precious possession into Julie's arms and to mutter a barely coherent plea.

Julie blinked out of the memory and moved the photo aside. Beneath it were two others. Sirona, with her olive skin and black eyes. Tessa, the green-eyed redhead.

Julie lowered the lid of the metal box, clinging to the address book. They couldn't exchange addresses before they had gone their separate ways, because those were apt to change. So they'd only shared the names they would use and the cities in which they would stay, promising to keep their numbers listed. They'd made a pact, back then, three teenage girls scared to death of being found out, never to contact each other again unless it was absolutely necessary. It was necessary now.

Hands trembling, Julie checked the clock. Fifteen minutes until she had to pick Dawn up from school. She flipped open the book.

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