Saratoga Woods 02 The Edge of the Water Read Online Free PDF Page B

last, someone in Connor’s family had begun making noises about the fact that Jeff Corrie’s partner in a San Diego investment house appeared to be missing. Not returning phone calls, not answering e-mails, no updates to his Facebook page, mail left languishing in his mailbox, newspapers piled up, no one opening the door when the doorbell was rung . . . Becca found this information by surfing through the latest editions of San Diego’s main newspaper. But
still
no one’s eye had fastened on Jeff Corrie as a person of interest in this matter. He claimed to be as much in the dark as everyone else about Connor’s whereabouts.
    Fat chance, thought Becca. She’d read Jeff’s whispers just before she and her mom had fled, and every one of them said he’d had a hand in getting rid of Connor. Those same whispers also said that Jeff Corrie was more than willing to turn his attention to Becca and her mother if they didn’t play their cards right. So they played their cards all the way up to Washington, getting away from the man. Becca’s mom, Laurel, was still playing them in Nelson, British Columbia, where she’d been heading once Becca herself was on the ferry to Whidbey Island.
    Only . . . absolutely nothing had worked out as they’d planned, and now Becca was looking over her shoulder morning, noon, and night as she waited for Jeff Corrie to show his face yet another time on Whidbey Island. He’d tracked her here once because of a cell phone, because of Derric’s fall, and because of the police. He’d gotten nowhere, and he’d left, but that didn’t mean he’d given up. It wasn’t his way.
    But for now, he had issues of his own in San Diego, which was fine with Becca. Let him stay there and try to answer questions about where Connor was. He’d run out of lies eventually. He’d face arrest and trial and prison and then Becca and her mom would finally be safe. Until then, though, she was on Whidbey Island, waiting for Laurel to return from British Columbia. She’d come back when it was safe to do so. Becca told herself that with every day that passed.
    These were only some of the facts that Derric Mathieson wanted to know about Becca and her life. She couldn’t blame him, but she also couldn’t tell him. This was partly to keep him safe. But it was also partly because his dad was the under sheriff of Island County.
    • • •
    AFTER SCHOOL BECCA was wretched. She’d had one more class with Derric before the end of the day and she’d said before it started, “Let’s not fight, okay?” She’d slid her fingers into his hand so that they could walk together as they always did. But he’d not taken her fingers and his only comment in reply was, “Whatever, Becca,” before he ducked into class. There, he kept his gaze fixed on the teacher, and he’d taken so many notes that Becca figured he was writing everything word for word.
    At the end of class, he was gone before she had a chance to say anything else to him. When she left the room, she saw him at the end of the corridor. He’d been stopped by one of the school cheerleaders for a conversation that involved smiles and laughter, so Becca walked off.
Wretched
didn’t do justice to how she felt.
    She decided not to take the school bus home to her hideaway in the woods. It was up the highway on the route to the next town, but she knew she could get there on one of the public island buses later in the day and that would be fine. At the moment she just needed to be away from all things related to South Whidbey High School, and she knew where to go for the break she wanted.
    It was a very long walk on a very cold day, but Becca figured she could survive it. She’d already survived three snowfalls and countless rain- and windstorms since she’d been in the woods. A walk from Maxwelton Road to Clyde Street wasn’t going to kill her.
    It took more than an hour of hills and forests and fields, and by the end of the trip in the icy cold, Becca was so