The Shadow's Edge Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.”
                  “If not for Devon I don’t know what I’d have done.”
                  I decided the most likely way to win Kat’s support would be to pull out the big guns. “Try and imagine how you would have felt if what happened to my daughter had happened to your son when he was seven,” I said quietly.
                  For the first time she looked at me with a measure of sympathy. “Don’t get me wrong, Jack. It’s not that I can’t understand your need for revenge. It’s just that it was so … horribly violent. I can’t relate to that kind of behavior. Frankly, it scares me.”
                  “I understand,” I assured her. “It scares me, too.”
                  She sipped her coffee, continuing to stare at me in wonder. “How can I help you with your wife?” she asked finally. Her personality seemed to have undergone a rapid and immense change. The flirtatiousness had been replaced by the concern of an intelligent, caring woman.
                  “I’ve heard there was a woman went missing here recently.”
                  “Yeah,” Kat said warily. “I knew her quite well. She worked at the hardware store here in town. Her name was Charlene Lamont.” She shifted in her chair, looking ill at ease.
                  “Any thoughts on what might have happened to her?”
                  Kat shook her head nervously. “Her husband’s a jerk. They had a kind of turbulent relationship. She wasn’t real happy.”
                  “What did she look like?”
                  “Very pretty. A knockout actually.”
                  “Is there any talk around town about what might have happened to her? Any gossip?”
                  “Oh, hell, there’s always gossip in a small town, right?”
                  “What kind of gossip?”
                  I wasn’t sure but it looked to me like a spark of panic flashed in Kat’s eyes for a second. She shook her head in a dismissive manner. “Nothing I’d care to repeat,” she said.
                  “What’s your opinion of the law here in town?” I asked.
                  There was no mistaking the look in her eyes now.
                  It was shock that I had asked the question. But there was also an irrefutable flicker of fear, too.

 
     
     
     
                                                                                                      4
     
                  After we finished our coffees Kat drove off and I walked down to see what Jessup had turned up. I may not have been terribly impressed by what I had seen and heard of him so far but he was, after all, the law.                                           Jessup wasn’t there but RJ Fordham was. “I’m Jack Parmenter,” I told the dark-haired, handsome young guy sitting behind a desk outside Jessup’s office.
                  “Officer Fordham,” he said in a lazy, friendly manner. “What can I do for you?”
                  “I reported my wife missing this afternoon to Chief Jessup. I assume you’re aware of that.”
                  “Right. Callie Parmenter. The Chief is looking into that matter as we speak.”
                  “Has he come up with any explanation for why she would have been out on Thornhill Road, or why she left her vehicle there?”
                  “Sorry, Mr. Parmenter, the Chief hasn’t called in yet. I can’t rightly say.”
                  “When you hear from him, tell him I’m staying at the hotel. I’ll be waiting to speak with him.”
                  “You got it,” Fordham said. As I turned to