The Big Gamble Read Online Free PDF Page B

and long curly hair that fell over her shoulders. It was an intelligent face that held a quiet, sincere appeal.
    The telephone rang and Kerney picked up.
    “I thought you might be working late,” Sara said.
    Kerney smiled at the sound of his wife’s voice. “How are you?”
    “Tired of being a pregnant lieutenant colonel in the army,” Sara replied. “Emphasis on the word pregnant.”
    “Protecting the country from known and unknown enemies while having a baby does seem a bit inconvenient,” Kerney said.
    Sara laughed. “The pregnant part is slowing me down and I don’t like it. I have to sleep for two, eat for two, and basically think for two. It’s distracting me from my career path.”
    “Does that mean you won’t be the honor graduate at the Command and General Staff College ceremony?”
    “I will be the biggest blimp of an officer to ever waddle up to the stage and receive that high honor,” Sara said.
    Kerney let out a whoop. “You got it!”
    “You’re first supposed to say that I will look beautiful at the ceremony, pregnant or not. Indeed I did, by two-tenths of a percentage point. And if you’re not here to see me graduate, I’m divorcing you for mental cruelty and emotional abandonment.”
    “You are beautiful,” Kerney said. “I promise to be there. But it’s still a whole month off.”
    “And you won’t see me until then,” Sara said.
    “You can’t break away for a weekend at all?” Kerney asked.
    “I’ve way too much to do. Besides I’m not sure you want to see me minus my girlish figure.”
    “I’ll stare at your chest,” Kerney said.
    “Even that has enlarged a bit.”
    Kerney laughed. “I’ve heard from Clayton in a roundabout way.”
    “Really? Tell me about it.”
    Kerney gave her the facts about the missing person case he’d handled eleven years ago, and Clayton’s discovery of Anna Marie Montoya’s remains.
    “Sometimes fate smiles on you, Kerney,” Sara said when Kerney finished.
    “Meaning what?”
    “Now you have a perfect opportunity to connect with Clayton. Use it.”
    “I tried that before, remember?”
    “You’ve had three, maybe four conversations with Clayton in your lifetime, all in the space of a few very intense days. That hardly constitutes a major effort.”
    “The effort has to be mutual,” Kerney said.
    “You cannot tell me that Clayton isn’t at least a little bit curious about who you are on a personal level.”
    “He hasn’t shown any interest,” Kerney said.
    “Oh, stop it, Kerney,” Sara said. “You sound like a little boy with hurt feelings. Just because Clayton didn’t follow through on a dinner invitation he hastily suggested, after you left him speechless by establishing a college fund for his children, doesn’t mean he’s cold to knowing you.”
    “Maybe you’re right.”
    “So?”
    “So, I’ll try to be a grown-up.”
    “Good. If I were with you, I’d be giving you sweet kisses right now.”
    “As a reward for trying to be a grown-up?” Kerney asked.
    “No, as a prelude to wild, abandoned sex. I’ll talk to you soon, cowboy.”
    Kerney hung up smiling and returned his attention to the Montoya case file. What had he missed in the original victim profile? Unless Anna Marie had been abducted and killed randomly by a complete stranger, events in her life should point to a motive for murder.
    He’d found nothing when the case was fresh, and now surely people had scattered, memories had dimmed, and hard physical evidence—if any was to be found—had vanished.
    Kerney sat back in his chair and inspected the two framed lithographs Sara had helped him select for his office. One, a winter scene with a solitary horse grazing in a pasture, was centered above a bookcase on the wall opposite his desk. The second image showed an old cottonwood in summer, branches dense with leaves. It hung next to the office door.
    At the time, he’d teased Sara about picking out such serene, idyllic images to hang on a police