Waking the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page A

she didn’t have much trouble keeping up with him. Which was lucky, because he seemed to spare no thought about whether or not she was falling behind. He made his way steadily through the forest without a backward glance.
    She knew from experience they could have started from tougher spots. They weren’t having to hack their way through brambles or scrub brush, the sort of barrier that sprouted so easily in less well-traveled areas in a forest. Which made her think that if they discovered the bodies had, in fact been dumped, the offender wouldn’t have entered this way.
    The old logging road was easily accessible to the highway, for one thing. There was too much risk someone would notice a car turning off this way. Too many questions to answer if they did.
    Of course, she thought, as she jumped nimbly over a rotted-out fallen tree, the cover of darkness would offer protection against detection regardless.
    The forest floor was dense with understory vegetation in some spots, barren but for pine needles in others. The trees were mostly firs, interspersed with some deciduous species, and towered overhead in a fifty-foot canopy. But the spindly trunks allowed brilliant slants of light through. She could think of far worse ways to spend a day than quiet hours strolling through the forest.
    But her mind wasn’t on enjoyment. Nor was it on the man walking surely several yards ahead of her.
    It was on the UNSUB who might have followed a very similar path.
    “How did you happen to find that cave?”
    “I’ve given my statement to Andrews’s office,” Sharper said shortly. His pace didn’t slow. “I’m sure Barnes will show it to you if you ask.”
    Rough edges were one thing. No one was this abrupt without design. Rather than following him over a pile of rocks, Cait detoured around it. Maybe he was the sort who didn’t trust cops. It was a common enough feeling among people she encountered in the course of an investigation. And most of them had a reason for that distrust. She couldn’t help wondering what had caused Sharper’s.
    “How long have you been a guide in the area?” She didn’t bother telling him that his statement had been included in the case file Andrews had given. Given the opportunity, Cait preferred to ask her own questions, in her own way. Sometimes that elicited different details.
    “I grew up around here. Came back and started Oregon Outdoors five years ago.”
    She kicked her foot free of a tangle of ferns. “So you know the area well. Yet your statement said you’d never explored this cave before.”
    He turned around so suddenly she had to apply the brakes to avoid running into him. Whipping off his sunglasses, he regarded her, his expression grim. “I’ve noticed the opening before, yeah. Never bothered finding out if it went anywhere. I’m not into caves myself. And when clients want to go cave exploring, they’re usually satisfied with Sawyer’s Ice Caves or the lava tubes over in Bend. But this client wanted something different. I thought of the place I’d noticed before in Castle Rock and decided to give it a closer look.”
    She studied him calmly, despite the hostility emanating from the man. He wasn’t the type to cultivate that stubble on his lean jaw for effect, so she assumed it was just carelessness on his part. It went with the slightly shaggy sun-streaked brown hair. Was emphasized by the golden lights in his whiskey-colored eyes, which were surrounded by absurdly long lashes.
    Eyes that were shooting sparks at her right now. “If you’re suggesting that I hauled seven skeletons up to that cave, dumped them, and then called the cops on myself, you should have stayed with modeling. At least that didn’t require thinking.”
    She could drop him right there, Cait thought grimly. One well-placed shot to the balls would be adequate payback for that crack. But as satisfying at the action would be, she needed him upright. At least until they got to Castle Rock. “I’m not