Danger to Others by Martha Crites

Danger to Others by Martha Crites

Author:Martha Crites
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery. Late October in the Pacific Northwest foothills brings more than a change of season. Psychiatric evaluator Grace Vaccaro is on edge. A field evaluation gone wrong leads to a shooting, Grace’s mother has died and ghosts from her family past are everywhere. 

When Laurel, a young psychiatric patient, says she killed her therapist, Grace suspects it’s a delusion and sets out to prove her innocent. Then Laurel escapes from a locked unit and suspicions abound. Her parents have secrets too. Laurel is reuniting with her father, a recovering heroin addict. Just how much does he oppose mental health treatment and why? Laurel’s mother doesn’t trust him. The mother may have a disturbing past of her own—someone is following her. 

Grace’s work partner disappears next. Is it related to the case? Grace’s search leads to the Seattle music scene, an abandoned mental hospital in the North Cascades and a group of cloistered nuns on a remote island. Whenever Grace believes she’s identified the killer, new information points to someone else. As Grace digs deeper, she must face both the hope and inadequacies of medical treatment of mental health in the last sixty years. The final scenes bring all the suspects together—can Grace stop the killer before someone else dies?
Publisher: Epicenter Press Inc.
Published: 2022-01-11T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER 14

Low clouds darkened the sky. Nell and I took turns driving north from the Extended Stay. Caesar snored in the backseat. By the time we reached Conway, where Jimmy James would be playing, sheets of rain swept across the fields of stubble. It was too early for music; we’d have to circle back for Jimmy in the evening. Now I was certain he was harboring Laurel.

Mount Vernon was up the road. When we arrived, the rain let up, but the town was draped in clouds. The Skagit River and its waterfront park ran beside a grid of brick-faced shops built in the early 1900s. We took Caesar for a walk beside the river where the waters ran fast.

I told Nell I would recognize where the chocolate shop had been because I had learned how to read there. The building had its name and date in raised concrete letters between the second story windows. U-n-i-o-n, I remember sounding it out and the year it was built, 1908. Why I expected to find a chocolate shop that had been there in the 70’s, the only time my mother brought me to visit, I’d never know. Instead of a chocolate shop, we found a gluten free bakery called Shambala. I told Nell that walking in the footsteps of those who’d gone before was probably all we’d get. I’d had great hopes of a revelation, but whenever I visited a place with history, I only saw the empty space where battles had occurred—either historic or family.

Nell wouldn’t tolerate my self-pity. “I need a treat anyway,” she said and pulled me across the wet sidewalk and through the door like she used to when she was little.

I looked around with a lump in my throat. The glass display case was the same. The smell wasn’t far off, but the milk chocolate was overlaid with baking bread. The rest was all black ceiling, white walls, and bright paintings. An upright piano and a sofa covered in red velvet backed the room. I liked it but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted to see the same café tables I remembered.

Baked goods filled the old glass case: glazed cinnamon rolls, fruit tarts, and stacks of cookies from chocolate chip to sugar to molasses. The man behind the counter was about thirty with plugs in his earlobes and a crocheted rainbow hat on a mountain of brown hair. “Can I help you?” he asked.

I stared helplessly at the baked goods. “It looks good, but I actually came in because I remembered this as a candy store from when I was a kid.”

“Van Der Meer’s.” His voice was kind and buttery warm.

“Yes. But you’re too young remember it.”

“My grandma is a Van Der Meer.”

“I wonder if she remembers our family,” Nell said. “They were friends.”

“Want to find out? Come sit down. I’ll get you some tea and a pastry.” He led us to a table and helped us off with our coats, hanging them on a rack near the door.



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