Still Here by Amy Stuart

Author:Amy Stuart
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2020-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

Clare throws her cell phone on the bed again and moves to the window. She looks for signs of the ocean through the buildings. Lune Bay feels less like a suburb and more like a village, as Donovan had called it. Clare’s phone pings. It’s a text message from Austin.

I have it on good word that you’ve been released. Can we talk today?

Clare rolls her eyes. Before she can type a response, someone knocks. Clare peeks through the spy hole and sees Somers. She unlatches and opens the door, stepping aside to allow Somers to enter. Somers carries two coffees and a paper bag, a satchel over her shoulder. She spins on a heel at the far side of the room to shoot Clare a deadly look.

“You get some sleep, gunslinger?”

“I slept a few hours,” Clare says. “I feel better.”

“Are you ready to explain yourself? Because I don’t like waking up to voice mails from jail. I don’t like having to catch the earliest flight out.”

“Well,” Clare says, “I don’t like getting arrested.”

Somers hands Clare one of the coffees and a paper bag with a pastry inside. She flops into the corner armchair. Clare sits on the bed and rips a bite off the croissant.

“I had a friend up here send me a copy of your arrest report this morning,” Somers says.

“You have friends everywhere,” Clare says.

“I do,” Somers says. “You’d be smart to remember that. I most certainly do.”

Somers is smiling; she means it in jest, but her tone nonetheless irks Clare, the veiled threat of it.

“The woman’s name is Kavita Spence,” Clare says. “I was at the bar last night with her and Charlotte Westman. Jack’s daughter. They were mixing drugs and alcohol. Kavita was completely out of it. There was this meathead with his friends trying to take advantage of her. Apparently he was an off-duty cop.”

“He is a cop,” Somers says. “He was named in the report.”

“Whatever. He was going to hurt her. And he wouldn’t back off.”

“So you waved your gun around.”

“I overreacted.”

Somers sips her coffee. “That’s one way of putting it.”

Clare sighs. “I found them in the back alley behind the bar. And you know what? The guy called Kavita Kendall. Kendall Bentley is one of the women who disappeared from Lune Bay. Just like your girl Stacey Norton. Kendall’s father’s been searching for her for nearly two years. That’s quite the name slip for that cop to make, don’t you think?” Clare shakes her head. “I don’t know. It triggered me. And now my face is everywhere because of that video.”

“We can work on that,” Somers says. “Do a bit of scrubbing. Germain is already on it. Your name hasn’t been published.”

“You can’t scrub the internet. It’s only a matter of time until my name comes out too.”

“Will you please let me try to deal with it?” Somers asks. “Do you trust me?”

Clare is silent. She looks out the window, avoiding Somers’s stare.

“You really think I might be in on it?” Somers asks. “That I’m some kind of dirty cop?”

“You lied to me,” Clare says.

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.