Stealing Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

– at the drugstore in town while she attended the local community college. She had wanted to be a teacher.

    Her throat was cut from ear to ear.

    "Goddammit, Ben, you know belter!" The sheriff was furious, and it showed.

    "Like you wouldn't have done the exact same thing?" Ben shook his head. "As convincing as she sounded, Matt, I didn't really believe I was going to find anything. So, yes, I walked within twelve feet of the body. I didn't realize it was a crime scene until it was too late. But I didn't touch her or disturb anything."

    "Why the hell didn't you call me before coming out here?"

    Ben glanced past the sheriff, toward the rear of the barn, where most of the dozen or so deputies Matt had brought were carefully combing the ground. The sun was well up now, and Becky's body had been taken away.

    Her body being zipped into the black bag was a sight he would not soon forget.

    "Ben?"

    "We've been through this, Matt. I didn't want to look like a jackass if I dragged you out here and there was nothing to find."

    "So you came out on your own. Unarmed. What if the bastard hadn't finished his work, Ben? Jesus, she was hardly cold."

    "I wish Ihad found him here. I'm not a twenty-year-old girl."

    "And he might have had a gun. Did you think of that? Did you think at all?"

    Normally Ben wouldn't have allowed his friend to censure him – loudly – in a fairly public arena, but he knew Matt well enough to recognize that the sheriff was badly shaken.

    Before today, the last murder in Salem County had occurred ten years back, when Thomas Byrd had come home early from work to find another man keeping his bed warm. To say nothing of Mrs. Byrd. It had been an entirely understandable crime of passion.

    This crime was everything but understandable.

    "Matt, can we please get past my reckless actions and move on?"

    Mart's mouth tightened, but he nodded.

    "Okay. Now, since you were elected by the good citizens of Salem County to catch criminals, and I was elected to prosecute them, I'd say we have work to do."

    "Yeah." Matt turned his head to look toward the activity behind the barn and scowled. "And the first thing I want to do is talk to Cassie Neill."

    Ben hesitated, then said, "You and your people have to finish up here. Why don't I go get Miss Neill and bring her to the station? I'm very interested in what she has to say."

    Matt turned his scowl to his friend. "It isn't your place to investigate crimes, Ben. Your job starts when I catch the bastard."

    "My job is made a lot easier if I'm involved early on, and you know it."

    "Maybe. And maybe in this case your involvement would be a bad idea. You aren't exactly impartial, are you?"

    "What the hell do you mean by that?"

    "What I mean is that you obviously have a soft spot for your fragile so-called psychic. I won't let you get in my way, Ben."

    It took a moment, but then Ben got it. "Ah, I see. You think Cassie Neill killed Becky Smith."

    "And you obviously don't."

    "I know she didn't." Ben heard the words come out of his mouth and was more than a little surprised by them.

    Matt didn't seem to be. "Uh-huh. And you know that because – "

    "I told you. She doesn't have it in her to kill someone. Especially not like that. Come on, Matt. It takes a particular brand of brutality to cut a woman's throat from ear to ear. Don't tell me you saw that in Cassie."

    "The first thing you learn as a cop is that the most likely explanation is probably the right one. Cassie Neill did a hell of a good job describing a crime scene. I say it's because she'd seen it."

    "I agree. But I don't think she was here."

    "The psychic bullshit. Yeah, right."

    "Matt, try to keep an open mind." Once more Ben glanced past the sheriff at the uniformed people searching for clues, then added quietly, "You know those hunches I used to get when we were kids?"

    "Yeah."

    "Well, I've got one now. I've got a hunch that this is just the beginning." He returned his gaze to Matt's face.

    "And