No Place Safe: A Psychological Thriller with a Gripping Twist by Ramona Light

Author:Ramona Light [Light, Ramona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-11-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Although every booth in Winnie’s Diner was taken, only three orders for breakfast had come into the kitchen all morning. Instead of the usual smell of bacon and eggs wafting through the place, the pungent odor of strong coffee prevailed. Peter completely understood the reasoning, as the last thing people wanted at a time like this was food, but still, they had a long day of searching ahead of them, so he wished they’d eat something.

Despite the large crowd, there was no constant hum of chatter that usually accompanied the packed diner. Most of the customers were talking, but only in hushed tones, their shoulders hunched and eyes dropped as they leaned into each other and whispered about the day to come and the tragedy that had befallen their quiet little town.

Peter stood next to Vince Mayfield at the pass, looking out over the somber diner. His twitchy apprentice shuffled uneasily, and Vince’s face had gone beetroot red, making the sea of pimples adorning it all the more prominent. Peter knew by Vince’s demeanor that he was nervous. He had noticed the poor kid reacted like this whenever there was tension or trouble in the air because that was how he was raised, and he likely only knew that whatever had happened must be his fault somehow.

Frankie had been the same growing up, and it got to the point that whenever their father came home from work in a rotten mood, Frankie automatically assumed that he must have done something wrong. Constantly being made to feel like a screw up by your parents leads to the recipient of the criticism believing it to be true. Peter still wasn’t sure of the extent of the abuse Vince was suffering in his home life, but he knew he needed to find out.

“You okay, Vin?” Peter asked.

“Sure, Peter,” Vince mumbled.

He wasn’t okay at all, but Peter knew there was nothing he could do for him at that moment. Right now, his—and the town’s—only concern was finding Lisa Haze. The search the previous night had turned up nothing, and even though nobody was saying it, Peter believed most if not all the people in Rudder Point feared the worst.

It wasn’t like back East, where a kid could run away from home and sleep on the streets if needed. In Alaska, sleeping rough meant dying from the cold, and with winter now in full flow, two nights out in the freezing temperatures that had engulfed Rudder Point would be too much for anyone.

Of course, there was always the chance Lisa was shacked up with a boyfriend no one knew about, but as Magnolia pointed out during their trip home after the search, Sally would surely have known if she did. Still, Peter hoped they were wrong and that any minute, an embarrassed Lisa would walk into Winnie’s with her tail between her legs and a heartfelt apology on her lips.

“Did you know Lisa?” Peter asked, then realized he had referred to her in the past tense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.