The Past Came Hunting Read Online Free PDF

youth. Now Luke and Matt would bear the brunt of her actions as well.
    She sat upright, drew her knees to her chest and hugged them. On the way home tonight, she’d tried to speak to Luke about curbing his friendship with Matt. But the kid was so pumped about practice, she let him talk. His sullen moods were less frequent these days. Luke was likeable and made friends easily. Still, a special bond already existed between him and the kid next door, and the separation wouldn’t be easy.
    Carl had urged her to tell Luke about her past, claiming that children needed to understand that parents weren’t perfect. Because he hadn’t insisted, she never had.
    Tears welled. She ordered them back. Crying hadn’t solved her problems fifteen years ago, it hadn’t eased Carl’s pain and suffering and it wasn’t likely to help her now.
    Mel straightened and slid out of bed. If sleep wouldn’t come, at least she had options. She eased into her robe and slippers, took a quick peek in at Luke, then wandered downstairs to the basement.
    Immediately the smell of damp earth filled her senses, the soft glow of grow lights bid her welcome and her heartache lessened. Portable space heaters and humidifiers provided the climate for the tiny seedlings breaking through the dirt beneath their protective plastic. The moisture felt good on her skin. And because she doted on these baby plants, and believed it helped, she switched on classical music. She’d even been known to talk to them, much to her son’s laughter and dismay.
    How could he understand? Watching life spring into existence had long filled the void that had gotten her through some desolate times.
    Smiling, Mel set to work checking the soil’s pH for what she hoped would be an outstanding array of Dragon Wing begonias. They’d be the perfect complement to the northern red oak growing out front. Already, she and Luke had spent hours trimming, then digging up the dead Juniper bushes surrounding the property. If the weather stayed decent, they’d repaint the trim and the shutters soon.
    She stopped, suddenly amazed. With tonight’s turn of events, why wasn’t she frantic, packing her bags?
    The point was, she wasn’t. For years, she’d held her head high. She no longer knew how to act or feel like an ex-convict. And Lieutenant Crandall’s biased reminder wasn’t going to make her act like one now. Until the warden’s phone call, where she’d learned of Drake Maxwell’s impending release, she’d all but erased her troubled youth from her mind.
    You are what you believe you are, sweetheart.
    Along with his generosity, Mel treasured her husband’s memory. Thanks, Carl .
    Moving toward the narrow flight of steps, she left the music on. Then switching off the basement’s overhead light, she climbed the stairs and breathed easier.
    A truly evil man had been the factor behind the move to Colorado Springs. The relocation had been emotional as well as exhausting. Joe Crandall might be an ogre, but Mel was fairly certain he wasn’t bad. Let him do his worst. She and Luke would survive. No one was forcing them from their home ever again.

Chapter Four
    “Hey, Max, you asleep?”
    Drake Maxwell stared at a crack in the wall that had begun as a tiny fissure and now ran more than a foot long. He slept on a flimsy fireproof mattress, on a bed bolted to the wall in a never darkened eight-by-ten cell, in a place that reeked of cigarette smoke, piss and disinfectant. He had no money. Everything he owned in this world was in a cardboard box next to the crapper in the corner. Even his dumps were supervised.
    Hell, no, he wasn’t asleep. He hadn’t slept in fifteen years.
    “What do you want, Garcia?”
    “Just wondered if you’re excited, man? One more day.”
    Garcia was a pesky little fucker. Into feelings and all that. Up for parole in six months, he never let anyone on the block forget it.
    “Yeah, man, I’m excited.”
    “You don’t sound it, hombre , you sound pissed.”