Now You See It Read Online Free PDF Page B

the back of his right shoulder. Black outline and red inside, about four inches long.”
    Abernathy pulled out an envelope and extracted matte photos of a tattoo and a strawberry mark fringed by blond hair.
    Tremors began to well up from deep inside her. She clutched Mike’s arm. Her hands shook badly as she stroked the photo of the birthmark. “Yes.” She couldn’t force her voice above a whisper. She lifted her eyes, swallowed to clear her throat. “What happened to him?”
    “Gemma—” Mike began.
    “They do this kind of preliminary ID—with photos—for air crash victims, burns,” she said. She heard her voice rising in pitch, sharpening as the reality washed through her in alternating waves of ice and heat. “Explosions. Right? When that’s all they have to go on.”
    “Gemma—” Mike said again.
    “Ms. Cavanagh, when was the last time you saw your husband?” Olsen inquired.
    Gemma felt as if her head had filled with hot air, pressing, pressing until she couldn’t think. “I’m—last Thursday, I think. Have you told his partner?”
    “Not yet,” Abernathy answered. “We try to notify the next of kin first. His partner is Doug Wheeler, right? He’s running for attorney general?”
    “Yes. Ned is managing his campaign.”
    Olsen tried to get the interview back on track. “You haven’t seen your husband in four days. You didn’t report him missing?”
    She started to say something, but shook her head. The tears she thought wouldn’t come choked her mind and eyes now, when she needed clarity.
    Mike answered. “Ms. Cavanagh and Mr. Carrow are separated.”
    Olsen blinked twice. “For how long?”
    Gemma did absolutely not want to talk about her marital problems in front of Brady. Not that it mattered, but still—she sniffed, willed the tears back. “A month and a half,” she said. “Nearly two.”
    “He hadn’t changed the address on his driver’s license.”
    It wasn’t a question, and Gemma didn’t respond.
    “Planning to move?” Abernathy asked.
    “When the house sells. It’s been on the market for almost a month. The real estate agent is Kari Werner. You can verify the date with her.”
    “We will.”
    Olsen took a less adversarial tone. “Ms. Cavanagh, it would be helpful if you’d let us take the clothes you wore over the weekend.”
    “I’ll get them,” Gemma said before her brother could protest.
    Mike glared at her.
    “It’s okay, Mike,” she said just above a whisper. “I haven’t even unpacked them yet. And the whole backpack was with me at your place when whoever broke in.”
    “Please.” Olsen nodded to Teng.
    As the Kirkland P.D. officer moved to accompany her, Gemma took a deep breath and started up the steps to her bedroom. The smooth wooden banister felt comforting beneath her hand as she climbed, solid and cool. God . “The backpack is on the floor in the master bath,” she said. “All the clothes are in there.”
    “Shoes?” Teng asked.
    “In the closet—the white canvas sneakers.”
    “We’ll need the jewelry too,” she said.
    Gemma twisted off her wedding ring, a three-carat square cut diamond between intertwined platinum rows of channel-set stones. Her skin was white and pruney where the wide band had covered it for five years.
    She rubbed the fingers of her right hand over the spot. “I didn’t know where else to keep it, until everything was final,” she said. She could just hear Ned’s attorney howling if anything happened to that diamond before the settlement was worked out. Besides, she’d never filed anything while she was actually wearing it, but no way was she going to try and explain that.
    “I’ll give you a receipt for everything today,” Teng said, watching her. “You’ll get the ring back when the investigation is finished.”
    Gemma wanted to say, Keep it. I should have thrown the thing away when I kicked the bastard out . She was pretty sure something showed in her expression, but she only said “Thank