Deadly Memories (Hardy Brothers Security Book 18) Read Online Free PDF Page A

he passed his disdain on to Sophie.
    “I stayed away from the police tape,” Sophie said, choosing her words carefully. “I need to get a statement from Sheriff Morgan.”
    “He’s not giving statements today.”
    Sophie licked her lips. Peter always told her to be nice to law enforcement representatives whenever possible because causing problems for them always resulted in trouble, but this particular deputy rankled her. “So you’re not going to discuss a fatal accident on county property? That should go over well with our readers.”
    It was a gamble, but Sophie couldn’t help but internally smirk when the sheriff took a step in her direction and she realized it would pay off.
    “I’ve got this, Lennox,” Morgan said as he patted his deputy’s back and pointed toward the bridge. “Why don’t you meet with the accident re-creation team and be in charge of that effort.”
    Deputy Lennox didn’t look convinced. In fact, he looked irritated. “Are you sure, sir? I can remove this … woman … without incident.”
    “I’ll handle Ms. Lane,” Morgan said, forcing a tight smile. “We go way back. It will be fine.”
    That was an understatement, Sophie mused. More than a year and a half before Aaron Morgan’s aide got caught skimming from the county coffers. In an effort to keep it quiet, he kidnapped Sophie and was intent on killing her until Grady rode to the rescue. Morgan’s relationship with Sophie had been civil – but stilted – ever since.
    “Ms. Lane,” Morgan said, locking gazes with the comely brunette. “How are you today?”
    “I’m fine,” Sophie replied, matching Morgan’s cold tone. “How are you?”
    “I’ve been better,” Morgan admitted. “We’re not going to be releasing information today. This is a … hard … issue to deal with. We’ll have a press conference tomorrow.”
    That didn’t sound like normal sheriff’s department procedure. Sophie decided to play a hunch and repeat some of the idle gossip she heard from onlookers earlier as she approached the scene.
    “That’s certainly your prerogative,” Sophie said. “You do realize we have to do a story no matter what, right?”
    “I do,” Morgan confirmed, nodding. “I’m afraid there weren’t any witnesses who saw the actual event, though, so you’re probably going to have trouble piecing things together. We only have helpful onlookers who rushed to the car after the fact.” Morgan looked almost gleeful when he said the words.
    “Well, I can go with the rumors the woman at the foot of the bridge told me as long as I attribute them,” Sophie said. She was bluffing. She would never run with unsubstantiated rumors. Morgan didn’t know that, though, and she wanted to push him into telling the truth. “My photographer got photos of the license plate, too, so we can run that and track down the driver.”
    Morgan’s face drained of color when he realized what Sophie insinuated. “You can’t do that.”
    “I can do that,” Sophie argued. “In fact, I’m perfectly within my rights to do that. I’m expected to do that. I can run the license plate the moment I get back to the office.”
    “Ms. Lane, this is a … delicate … situation,” Morgan challenged. “There were fatalities.”
    “I figured that out myself,” Sophie said. “The front window has a big hole through it … one that looks as if a body was catapulted out because someone wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
    “Witnesses near the end of the road report that only one ambulance left the scene in any sort of hurry last evening, too,” she continued. “Three ambulances left without turning their lights on. If four emergency vehicles were called, that means you had four victims. My guess is only one survived, although I have no idea if that’s still the case.”
    “You can’t do this, Sophie,” Morgan said, adjusting his tone so it was pleading instead of smug. “This story is going to be huge.”
    “And I’m going to get it,” Sophie