forgotten (Twisted Cedars Mysteries Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

about. “Why do you think he hid behind that Librarianmomma ID for so long?”
    “I would have deleted the messages, unread, if I knew they were from him. I guess he figured if he could hook me with his story, I would get sucked in. And I did.”
    “Is there any chance he didn’t murder those librarians?”
    “No. He’s the killer. Nothing else makes sense,” Dougal said, his voice dead of emotion.
    She reached for his shaking hand and held it tight. Pain practically radiated off his skin. It had been hard for him to come back to Twisted Cedars, to the memories he didn’t want to face.
    Growing up Dougal had lived with his mother and younger sister, Jamie, in a trailer park on the east side of town. His mother cleaned houses for a living, and he and Jamie often had to fend for themselves.
    But childhood poverty wasn’t what had provided the scars.
    Those came from knowing he had a father who was violent enough to kill. Dougal was obsessed with the fact that he shared fifty percent of his DNA with a man capable of murder, and he was terrified of his own dark side.
    Charlotte believed he channeled those emotions into his stories for a reason—so he would never turn into the sort of man his father had been.
    “Maybe you can do such a good job writing your book your father will end up spending the rest of his life in jail.”
    “Love the idea. But it would be damn near impossible to build a case after almost forty years. There’s no statute of limitations on murder, but I’d bet little, if any, of the evidence will have survived this long. And remember this happened in the seventies. No real ability to do DNA testing, no Internet, hell, crime labs back then were in their infancy. Not nearly as sophisticated as today.”
    “But still. Isn’t he afraid that by confessing to those crimes, he stands a chance of being charged and going back to prison?”
    “Law enforcement would have to find him first. And I’m guessing he values notoriety more than his freedom, anyway.”
    “Sounds like it’s also important to him to establish a connection with you.”
    Dougal’s eyes darkened. “And I’ll be damned if I let that happen.”
     
     

chapter four
     
    day 1 after the accident
     
    j amie Lachlan pulled her car into the Wards’ driveway, feeling more lost than ever after a week-long camping trip that had been meant to give her clarity. Instead, she was wet, dirty and despondent.
    A four a.m. downpour had caused her to pull up stakes and head back to Twisted Cedars.
    But she felt no joy at being here.
    The major changes that define a person’s life sometimes happen in an instant, like a car accident, or a devastating medical diagnosis. From that point onward, life can be measured in terms of “before” and “after.”
    Other changes, equally major, take place over a period of time. Days, weeks, months or years.
    For Jamie, her change happened in a span of one month and three days, the time between marrying Kyle Quinpool and discovering he’d probably killed his first wife.
    In her “before” life Jamie had been a happy, well-educated woman with a good career as an accountant and a handsome, successful husband who loved her very much. Two step-children were part of the package, nine-year-old twins from Kyle’s first marriage to Daisy Hammond. Also part of the deal was a beautiful two-story Victorian, about ten times larger than the park model trailer where Jamie had grown up.
    Very soon after her marriage, however, Jamie had begun to sense Kyle wasn’t the man she’d thought he was. When her brother discovered Daisy’s body buried behind the Librarian Cottage about five miles from town—and she herself had found proof that Kyle had been making withdrawals from his ex-wife’s bank account to create the illusion she was still alive—that hunch had become fact.
    Jamie grabbed her backpack from the passenger seat, then went to the front door. Before she had the chance to knock, Stella was