No Escape Read Online Free PDF Page A

me.’
    ‘Give the ’ol boy credit for surviving.’
    ‘Let me check in with my neighbor and let him know I’ll be gone. There’s a fifty percent chance of rain this evening, and if we get grounded the cats will need to be fed.’
    He followed her out the front door. ‘Still watch the weather every morning?’
    Still eat Frosted Flakes in the morning?
The unexpected memory had her pulling the front door closed with a too-firm slam. She turned the key in the lock until the dead bolt slid into place. ‘The first personal reference to our short but brief marriage – the elephant in the room.’
    He stood at the base of the stairs, one foot on the bottom step. ‘I never was good at pretending.’
    ‘Cutting honesty from what I remember.’
    He settled his hat on his head. He tightened and released his jaw. ‘There something between us we need to lance before we get this show on the road?’
    ‘No.’ Emotions tightened and released. She nodded toward the house to her right. ‘I’ll be right back.’
    He studied her a moment. ‘I’ll be in the car.’
    Not sure why she needed to push back over weather and memories of cereal, she hurried, her heels clicking against the sidewalk’s cracked cement, toward her neighbor Ted Rucker’s front door. A couple of quick knocks and the door opened to a tall, lean man with blond hair and horn-rimmed glasses.
    ‘Rucker,’ she said. ‘I’m headed out of town. Could you check in on the cats if you don’t hear from me? I should be back tonight, but you never know.’
    He looked past her to Brody who stood outside his Bronco, arms folded over his chest. ‘Rangers?’
    ‘Ranger Brody Winchester.’ She never discussed cases. ‘I should be back late, but if the weather doesn’t hold, we could be delayed.’
    Rucker grinned. ‘I’ll feed The Three Musketeers. How’s that abscess on Atticus’s side?’
    ‘The antibiotics you prescribed did the trick. Hopefully he’s learned not to tangle with the alley cat down the street.’
    ‘We’ll see. He has a mind of his own.’ He frowned. ‘Safe travels.’
    ‘Thanks again.’
    ‘Hey, when you get back why don’t we get coffee? We’ve been talking about it often enough and never make the time. We can catch up on neighborhood gossip.’
    She laughed, already backing away. ‘Sounds like a plan.’
    When she reached the car, Brody opened the door for her and she paused. ‘You’ve never done that before.’
    ‘I have. Just not for you.’
    No anger. No attitude. Merely facts. Not sure how to gauge his statement, she eased in the car and carefully adjusted her purse as he closed the door. When he slid behind the wheel, the Bronco’s large cab did indeed shrink to a far-too-small size. Large wind-chapped hands shoved the key into the ignition. That hand had gripped a baseball bat like it was a lifeline. That hand had once cupped her breast and ignited a need in her that had taken her breath away.
    ‘It helps that you’re familiar with Smith,’ he said as he fired up the engine and pulled onto the street.
    Swallowing, she considered the road ahead. ‘He was one of the four serial killers on which I based my dissertation. I never spoke to him, of course. My sources were based on law enforcement records and some interviews.’ She’d nearly dropped Smith from the paper altogether when she’d learned Brody had been the arresting officer. Pride wouldn’t allow her to seek an interview with Brody and stubbornness had kept Smith in her dissertation. ‘Is there more I should be aware of?’
    ‘He was a substitute teacher who fancied himself a novelist. The next Poe. He’d sit in his backyard, his burial ground, and for hours work on his short stories and books.
    ‘Born in Texas and graduated from Oklahoma University summa cum laude. His professors and many of the principals and teachers he worked with respected him. When he had a long-term sub assignment, lots of parents raved about him and requested he be hired