Crimson Eve Read Online Free PDF Page B

stretched from room to room. Every corner she turned, every door she passed threatened to yield another unwanted intruder.
    With one word, I can make you disappear . . .
    Tanya perched on the edge of her office chair, focusing on her computer screen. On her right sat a cup of tea, still steaming. To her left, beige blinds on the large windows were closed tight. Her desk was neat, every pen in place, the phone angled just so.
    The feigned orderliness of her life.
    Tomorrow loomed unyielding and unsure. But tonight while she had the chance, Tanya would follow the clarion of her conscience . It had begun to blow the minute the hated intruder disappeared out her door. After all these years of complacence, Tanya now felt driven to find the name that had so haunted her: Carla Radling.
    She went to Google.com , typed in her search. Up popped dozens of hits. Tanya sucked in a breath. Could it be this easy?
    She started down the list.
    Apparently, more than one Carla Radling existed. Tanya read the 2003 obituary of ninety-six-year-old Carol Whitamah in Atlanta, Georgia, survived by numerous children, one of them a Carla Radling in Westchester, Tennessee. Mother who was ninety-six . The ages didn’t fit.
    A Carla Radling in Little Rock, Arkansas, currently played in her high school’s marching band. A third in Wheaton, Illinois, age fifty-six, had been elected to city council. This one offered the most hits — Web site after Web site. Tanya skipped over all similar links, praying to find the Carla she sought.
    There — a fourth. Carla Radling, realtor in Kanner Lake, Idaho.
    The town name alone was enough to steal Tanya’s breath. The Kanner Lake, where the famous Edna San had lived and been murdered. Where just six months ago, other fearsome killings had occurred, spinning the town onto TV screens and newspaper pages for a second time. Over a year ago, Tanya had never heard of Kanner Lake. Now, who in the United Stated hadn’t heard of it?
    According to this Carla’s Web site, she was the realtor who’d listed Edna San’s estate.
    Tanya stared at the photo.
    Same glossy black hair, same dark eyes, same lovely face. The eyes that had cried so hard, the face that gazed at her with a trust that shattered Tanya’s heart into pieces.
    Her throat tightened.
    She eased back in her chair, unable to rip her gaze from the picture. Pressed her palms to her mouth. The computer blurred, tears falling on her cheeks. She didn’t bother to wipe them away.
    When she could move again, she pulled pen and paper close and wrote down Carla’s office number. No cell number. Strange. Didn’t most realtors live on their cell phones?
    Tanya’s tea grew cold as she read every Web site that pertained to Kanner Lake realtor Carla Radling. One was a blog at www.kannerlake.blogspot.com called Scenes and Beans. “Life in Kanner Lake, Idaho, brought to you by Java Joint coffee shop on Main.” Java Joint. Tanya remembered the name. It too had made the news last spring after the town’s murders. Carla was listed as one of the blog’s contributing posters.
    For the next two hours, Tanya read the posts from Scenes and Beans.
    Carla rotated with the other bloggers, appearing about every two weeks. Tanya both laughed and cried as she read Carla’s posts. She could see the feistiness she once saw in the teenage girl. At least Carla hadn’t lost that. What Tanya didn’t see, as opposed to most of the other bloggers, was anything about Carla’s past. No mention of childhood, of her teenage years, of anything but the present. No mention, either, of a husband or boyfriend.
    Had the events of years ago cost Carla that?
    Fresh guilt pierced Tanya. What had she done to that young girl?
    She finished reading. For a long time she sat staring at the blue water background of the Scenes and Beans blog. And Carla’s name as contributor — “realtor at your ser vice.”
    With one word . . .
    No matter. It was too late to turn back now. She’d known that the