A Breath Away Read Online Free PDF

Was he a local or a tourist?
    Grady flipped on the siren, tore from the Redbud Café and headed toward the ridge. Cutting across town, he took all the side streets because he didn’t want any of the nosy townsfolk following. They might interfere with an investigation. If one was required.
    He doubted it. The victim was probably some unlucky vacationer who’d wandered too close to the edge and lost his balance.
    The Great Smoky Mountains rose in front of him as he veered from town onto Route 5. He sped past run-down chicken houses and deserted farmland, through the valley, then steered onto Three Forks Road to wind up the mountain. Sweat beaded his forehead and he cranked down the window of the squad car, cursing the stifling summer heat and his broken air conditioner. Thick pines and hardwoods dotted the horizon; blinding sunlight reflected off the steaming asphalt. The smell of manure and wet grass filled the air. He shoved his hand through his hair, his throat tightening as it always did when he passed Flatbelly Hollow, where his little sister’s body had been found.
    The Deer Crossing sign had been vandalized, he noticed, the stop sign from the side road leading to thefishing camp turned the wrong way. The latest graduating class’s graffiti defiled the rocky wall of the rising cliff. Moss flanked the embankment, icy water trickling down the rocks like a small waterfall. The air cooled as he navigated up the mountain, the curves so routine he could have driven them in his sleep. Shadows from the yellow pines cast a murky haze over the ground as he parked at Briar Ridge next to Logan’s squad car. Paramedics stood on the ledge, organizing the lift procedure.
    Logan stalked toward Grady, his sunglasses shading his eyes. “I’ve already photographed the body and surrounding area.”
    â€œGood.” Although Grady would take more photos as backup. He peered over the jagged ridge to assess the situation. The man’s body sprawled facedown on the ledge a few hundred feet below, his arms and legs twisted at awkward angles. Blood splattered the rocks around his head. He wore plain jeans and a ragged T-shirt, nothing outstanding to distinguish him from any other tourist or a local.
    â€œHow did you find him?”
    â€œHiker called in. He was taking pictures of the mountains and spotted him.”
    â€œHe still around?”
    â€œWaiting in the car.” Logan cleared his throat. “Young kid. Poor guy’s pretty shook up.”
    â€œDid you question him already?”
    â€œYeah, said he didn’t see any other cars around, hadn’t spotted a soul until he came to the ledge and found the body.”
    Grady nodded and gestured toward the dead man. “You recognized him?”
    â€œNo.” Logan shoved an evidence bag holding a pieceof paper toward Grady. “But I found this thumbtacked to that pine tree.”
    Grady pulled on gloves, then removed the note and unfolded it. The handwriting was scrawled, almost illegible, but he slowly managed to decipher the words.
    â€œSorry. Killed her. Couldn’t live with the guilt anymore.”
    Killed who? Grady read further, his heart thundering in his chest at the name.
    Darlene.
    Unbelievable. His hands shook as he lowered the note to his side. His hopes for ending the mystery surrounding Darlene’s death had finally come true. Full circle, as Laney Longhorse would say.
    The dead man had confessed to killing his baby sister.
    * * *
    T HE S PANISH MOSS of a giant live oak shrouded Violet in its haven, painting fingery shadows that resembled bones along the sidewalk. Disoriented, she clutched the wrought-iron rail surrounding the tombstones. Her imagination must be overactive. Savannah thrived on ghost stories about soldiers who’d died and hadn’t yet found peace. Ones who lingered between realms, tortured and lost, forever searching.
    But she had never heard voices from the grave before.
    Although this