The Mountain's Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

disappearing.”
    “That must be awfully hard on the people here.”
    “Some of them.”
    “I’m glad you’re here. I’m sure Lonna will want to talk to you.”
    “I’d rather deal with her than the Feds.” He winked.
    I took a deep breath and prepared to change the subject, but Lonna walked in.
    “Coffee’s ready,” I told her.
    “Thanks.” She held out her hand to Knowles, who stood up so quickly he bumped the table, and his coffee sloshed. She ignored it and smiled. “Lonna Marconi, it’s nice to meet you.”
    “Bud Knowles, sheriff,” mumbled the red-faced man. I hid a smile as I wiped his coffee with a dish towel and poured him a little more.
    “It’s so nice of you to stop by,” Lonna said as she sat and crossed her long, slender legs in full view. “Is this a social visit?”
    “More or less. Just wanted Miss Fisher to know she could call on us if she needs anything.”
    “How kind of you.” Lonna smiled at me. “Joanie, isn’t that kind?”
    “Very.”
    “Now, Mr. Knowles, you came at a good time. I was just thinking about how to get in touch with you.”
    She was turning on the deep charm now. I hoped she remembered our earlier conversation and would ask the questions I wanted too. I took a deep breath and attempted to calm the resentment building in my chest at her usurping the situation. Not that I had been doing spectacularly, but there were some things I wanted to know.
    “Yes, ma’am?” asked the sheriff.
    “I’m with DFCS”—as I had, she avoided mentioning she was also a licensed P.I.—“and I was wondering what you could tell me about the children who have vanished.”
    Bud had no more information than Matt had given us. When asked about the full-moon connection, he only said, “I don’t believe in that voodoo witch stuff.”
    “Now, Mr. Knowles, I have one more question.” She studied her coffee as though attempting to divine an answer to a long-standing riddle, then hit him with the full force of her gaze. “Do you know what happened to Joanie’s grandfather?”
    Bud looked over at me, and I tried not to betray how eager I was for the answer. He leaned back and laced his fingers over his ample gut. “Well now, we don’t rightly know.”
    “There must have been something,” pressed Lonna. “Fortunes like this aren’t handed over at the mere suspicion of death.”
    “All I know is we found his canoe, life jacket and shoes a little ways down the river. The jacket and shoes had been chewed, and there was some blood, but no body.”
    My breath left me as though someone had punched me in the stomach. Lonna put a hand on my arm.
    “What did the coroner say?”
    “Likely the old man’d had a heart attack and drifted down stream ’til he ran aground, and then wild animals got ’im. I’m sorry ma’am,” he said to me. “I thought that city lawyer would’ve told you.”
    “He didn’t.” I tried to still the welling tears. I hadn’t been close to my grandfather for years, but I had been fond of the eccentric old man. He had been the one steady source of support in my family after my brother died and my parents divorced. Some days I would take comfort in knowing I had a safe haven if I needed it. Now that security had been shattered.
    “If it’s okay with Joanie, I’ll see you out, Sheriff.”
    Lonna and the sheriff both got up and walked out of the room. I held tight to the coffee mug, heedless of the heat scalding my palms, so my hands wouldn’t shake. The image of a black wolf flashed into my mind.
    Has my grandfather been hunted down too? What have I gotten myself into?

Chapter Three
    After the sheriff’s departure, Lonna and I sat in silence and sipped our coffee.
    “Somebody wants you to have this place, Joanie.”
    I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder. “Either that or somebody doesn’t want someone else to have it.” Like Leonard Bowman . As much as he’d been described as a loafer living off his brother’s generosity, he looked