The Edge of Normal Read Online Free PDF Page A

exercise apparatus and an office area with top-notch computers and displays, all humming like NASA.
    He crosses the room to a metal file cabinet, unlocks it, and quickly finds the file he wants in the second drawer. He locks the cabinet back up, pockets his keys, and opens the file. Barely glancing at the pages, he plucks out a ziplock bag holding a silver flash drive, and slips it into the colorful shopping bag with his old cell phone. He then walks out of the room and down the hall, his boots striking heavily on the hardwood floors.
    The living room has a brick fireplace with a wide hearth, where he sets the file and the plastic bag. Duke has been building fires since he was a boy. He opens the screen, selects kindling and firewood from the stack next to the firebox, and expertly arranges the paper, the kindling, and the logs. He strikes a match and watches while the fire flickers and grows. He waits until it is burning in earnest before adding the cell phone’s receipt and paperwork to the flame.
    After closing the screen, he carries the plastic shopping bag back through the house, through the kitchen, through the mudroom, and out the side door.
    Clouds darken the sky as he walks back to his Chevy Tahoe and sets the plastic bag on the concrete behind the front wheel. Then he climbs inside, starts up the engine, and backs over it. The splintering cell phone doesn’t even register under the treads.
    Back inside the house, he checks that the SIM card is demolished before emptying the contents of the bag into the kitchen trash, where the synthetic debris disappears into a mix of cold coffee grounds and greasy chicken bones. Satisfied, Duke turns his attention to the next problem: Randy Vanderholt.
    Vander-dolt had lied the whole time he was moving Tilly from one house to the other. He pretended he was being hypervigilant, claiming that he was scrubbing and cleaning, and that, as a final precaution, he was tearing out the funky basement paneling and replacing it with fresh drywall. He explained that he was painting everything, all of the interior walls, so that the freshly painted basement wouldn’t stand out.
    Instead, Vander-dolt took shortcuts. His cleaning had been minimal. And rather than gutting the basement, he’d decided to simply wall up the entrance.
    Something only a moron would do.
    This is the risk of working with someone like Vanderholt. Stupid people are generally easy to control, but they create problems when they try to be clever. Sure, Vanderholt had successfully moved Tilly from one basement to the other, but he was inexcusably sloppy. He left evidence behind. And worse, he blatantly and repeatedly lied to the one person he should never, ever offend.
    Fool.
    Duke’s stomach growls, making a sound that approximates his mood. He stomps over to the fridge and rummages around until he has the makings of a sandwich. He slathers a mound of ham with horseradish and crushed garlic, adds slices of pepperjack cheese, then squashes it all between two slabs of bread. He eats over the sink while mulling his options.
    The problem is that Vander-dolt is now behind bars, putting him in a position to cause even more damage. Because any cop with an ounce of brains will see that Randy Vanderholt has the IQ of a toaster. And then it’s a short leap to figuring out that the moron had some help.
    Clearly, the first order of business is to get to the dolt before some smart cop convinces him to start talking. That won’t be easy, but Duke knows plenty of easily manipulated people in and around the jail. Guards. Inmates. He can pull some strings.
    He recalls a recent conversation with an impressionable cousin—a longtime guard at the jail—and his mouth twitches a smile. Pedophiles are known to suffer all kinds of trouble behind bars. No one will be surprised if Randy Vanderholt bleeds.
    The girl, however, poses a more difficult problem.

 
    FIVE
     
    The closer Dr. Ezra Lerner gets to Jefferson City, the worse the weather