Touch of Evil by Colleen Thompson

Author:Colleen Thompson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Sheriffs, Fiction, Suspense, General
ISBN: 9780843962444
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Company, Incorporated
Published: 2010-02-23T00:59:01+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

—Michel de Montaigne

Held close to earth by the boughs above, the echo reverberated from damp tree trunks. In such surroundings, it was all too possible to believe they’d heard a dead woman singing.

“Laney,” Ross called, whipping around in an attempt to figure out where the voice was coming from. For he knew his cousin’s voice when he heard it, no matter how strained or muffled. “Where are you, Laney? It’s Ross. I’m here to take you home.”

“Listen,” Justine whispered, her left hand on her flashlight and her right clutching her drawn weapon. She looked coiled, prepared to spring into motion in an instant. “Just be still and listen.”

A fragile set of notes drifted their way. Not singing, he realized. Laughter. Laughter that raced up the scale before disintegrating into an animal-like keening that made Ross’s stomach clench.

Was Laney hurt, hysterical? It was impossible to know.

“That way,” Ross said, turning toward his left. “It’s coming from over…”

His voice trailed off as he looked behind them. “Or is she back there?”

Justine fixed him with a stern look. “Stay here. Do not move an inch unless I call you.”

He didn’t get his mouth open to argue before she added, “Not a word, Ross. We don’t know who’s with her. Or what this person might do if he sees us.”

Pressing his lips together in a grimace, he nodded. But knowing she was right didn’t do a thing to dampen his desire to take the lead on this, to be the one to save his cousin and protect Justine from harm.

Anne’s memory drifted toward him like a specter. Anne, who had left their lunch date early—and angry, thanks to their argument—to meet and interview the victim of a sexual assault. Who hadn’t made it halfway to the scene when an unrelated police chase sent a fifteen-year-old car thief in a Hummer bursting through a red light and into the passenger side of her car.

If Ross had only been there, he might have stopped the bleeding in time. Or if he’d only kept her with him in the restaurant a minute, even seconds, longer…

But Justine was gone already, hurrying, her head lowered, into the undergrowth. Almost immediately, she disappeared completely, moving with an athletic grace that somehow looked out of place amid all the mud and tree limbs.

Followed by laughter, another slurred scrap of song floated in his direction: a tattered vestige of Laney’s singing voice. Skin prickling with cold, Ross realized he was hearing the sounds of intoxication. Had she come out here alone to drink away the memories of her lost band or escape from them with drugs?

A flare of anger cut through his chill. Though he suspected he’d be more forgiving of a grieving stranger who’d resorted to chemical relief, he was furious to think Laney would shun her family, all the

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