Cryer's Cross Read Online Free PDF Page A

you’ll never know how much of one item you have left.”
    Kendall stops cold, stands up straight, and glares at him. She puts one hand on her hip and holds a two-pound package of frozen hamburger in the other. “Go force your condescending man-logic on the next house. You can go now.”
    He glares back and doesn’t leave. He works his jaw, like he wants to say something.
    Kendall’s mind flashes to Tiffany Quinn. She glances at the freezer, picturing it full of chopped-up abducted girls, and then looks back at Jacián, whose black eyes are on fire now. A wave of irrational fear moves through her chest, and she tries not to show it on her face. She’s down in the cellar with a kidnapper, nobody else home. “Go away. Please.”
    Jacián’s eyes narrow, then soften. “Fine.” He steps back, turns sharply, and walks up the stairs. Kendall hears his feet and the click of the front door closing.
    She glances over her shoulder nervously as she packs the beef in the freezer. By size and shape. It’s the only way she can stand to do it.
    She rushes through her shower and gets ready. Waits until almost noon for him to show up. And then she calls Nico’s house. Nico’sline is busy. Kendall hangs up and calls the home line instead. Mrs. Cruz answers.
    “Hey, Mrs. Cruz. Nico there?”
    “Kendall! No, haven’t seen him up yet this morning. Leave a message?”
    “Hmm.” Kendall thinks. “We’re supposed to go to Bozeman today. Maybe you should wake him up.”
    “Sure thing. I’ll have him call you in a minute.”
    “Thanks!”
    “Bye, hon.”
    “Bye, Mrs. Cruz.”
    Kendall hangs up and flips on the TV. The news anchor talks about that sixteen-year-old serial killer in Brazil again—the girl who killed twelve people. Wow. Just wait until she tells Nico. Makes Jacián the teenage kidnapper look just a little bit lame.
    Twenty minutes pass, and Kendall grows concerned that Nico hasn’t called. Just when she’s about to call him again, the phone rings.
    It’s Nico’s mother.
    “Kendall,” she says, her voice distressed, “Nico’s not home. His bed is made. There’s no note.”
    Kendall’s stomach jumps into her throat before she can think rationally. “Is his car gone?”
    “Yes.”
    “Okay. Well, that’s good, then, right? He’s probablyjust out somewhere.” Kendall’s tongue is thick. She swallows hard. Breathes.
    “Yes, that’s probably it,” Mrs. Cruz says, and then she laughs anxiously.
    Kendall whispers, “Maybe he went to Bozeman without me.”

EIGHT
    They find the car. It’s not in Bozeman. It’s parked at the school.
    And Nico’s not there.
    After a cursory search through the town and all around the school grounds, Nico’s parents start contacting everybody they can think of, asking if they’ve seen him.
    There is no sign of Nico Cruz.
    Nico’s car engine is cold, and according to Sheriff Greenwood, there are no clues inside. Not in the car, or in the school. Still, they tape off everything as a precaution. After what happened with Tiffany Quinn, it’s never too soon to suspect a missing person. Everybody’s on edge.
    * * *

    When Kendall hears the news about the car, she runs the mile from her house to the school. The car looks so lonely sitting there, surrounded by onlookers. Air crushes her chest. She sinks to her knees, can’t catch her breath. People start crowding around her to see the car, the school . . . as if there is something to see. But there’s nothing. Just a car, a building. Yellow tape.
    “He could be fine,” someone says. “Maybe we’re all overreacting. He’s practically a grown man. Maybe he’s out for a hike.”
    “Maybe he’s hunting back in the woods.”
    “Maybe his car ran out of gas and he pulled in here.”
    “Yes, let’s not jump to conclusions.”
    But the other whispers are there too, growing louder. “Another one. What’s happening to our safe little town? All the children are disappearing.”
    Kendall tries, fails to tune them all