If She Should Die Read Online Free PDF

eyebrows. “I can’t imagine having ten thousand dollars of my own at nineteen.”
    “Neither can I.” Christine’s parents had left eight hundred thousand in trust for her and Jeremy and a hundred thousand in life insurance. The terms of her father’s will did not give her possession of the money until she was twenty-two, though, and Ames had always kept her on a tight leash where money was concerned. Technically she’d been financially well off at nineteen, but actually she was like a child with a small allowance. This hadn’t been the case with Dara, though, and Ames had grasped at the large bank withdrawal as another sign that Dara had run away and needed the money to finance her “escape.”
    “Ten thousand would have lasted awhile,” Winter was saying.
    “Yes, but not three years.”
    “You don’t think Dara could have gotten a good job,one that paid so well she didn’t have to ask her father for money?”
    “If so, why does each letter come from a different part of the country?” Christine asked. “Besides, she really had no skills to get a high-paying job. And if she’d married a man who was well off, I believe she’d boast about him.”
    “A lover?”
    “You mean a rich sugar daddy? No, she’d boast about him, too, only she’d say they were engaged so she wouldn’t enrage her father.” Christine shook her head. “Nothing about those letters makes sense to me.”
    “You clearly don’t think she’s sending the letters. Does Mr. Prince believe they’re from his daughter?”
    Michael Winter looked at Christine intently. His voice was deep yet with an intimate, sincere quality that made her feel as if she could tell him anything. Christine had nothing to hide, but she reminded herself that she did not know this man, either. Just how truly his voice and gaze revealed his personality was yet to be seen. Until then, she felt she must watch her step for the family’s sake.
    “Ames certainly wants to believe they’re from Dara.”
    “But he doesn’t really?”
    “I can’t read his mind, Deputy.”
    “But you’ve known him for years. Certainly you can make a guess about whether he believes they’re from his daughter.”
    Christine sighed. Ames Prince was a hard man to know, and in spite of her years in his house she felt he held her and Jeremy at a distance. He was fond of them. He’d taken his responsibility as their guardian seriously. He’d always maintained an interest in their activities. He’d been unfailingly patient and kind to Jeremy, whom he liked to have around, especially after Dara disappeared. But he had never in any way been like a father or, at least, like their warm, demonstrative father had been. She knewAmes didn’t love them, maybe because Dara had so jealously hoarded his parental affections. Christine wasn’t sure she and Jeremy felt anything for Ames beyond friendship and gratitude. But she couldn’t say all of this to a man she’d only met twenty minutes ago.
    “Ames desperately wants to believe the letters are from Dara. I think he’s almost convinced they are.”
    “But not quite.”
    She shook her head. “He’s too smart not to realize something is wrong about them.”
    “That’s why he won’t allow them to be tested for fingerprints, isn’t it? He’s afraid Dara’s won’t be on the letters.”
    “Yes, I think so.”
    “What about this farewell note she left the night she disappeared?”
    “That night, Ames only glanced in her room and saw she wasn’t there. None of us actually went in, so we didn’t find the note until the next day. It was on her dresser and said: ‘Time for this bird to fly. Don’t worry.’ ”
    “Signature?”
    “Just
D
.”
    “So you don’t believe she wrote the note?”
    Christine frowned. “The handwriting looked like hers if she was really nervous or in a hurry. But once again, the terseness bothered me. I think if Dara were really running away, she’d say something a lot more melodramatic than ‘Time for