Walk in Darkness - A Thriller (Jon Stanton Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF

with sharks until he had witnessed an attack off the coast of Florida.
    The shark had nearly torn off a surfer’s leg not thirty feet out from the beach. Stanton and two other men swam out and pulled the man toward shore. He’d just felt sand under his feet and had begun to walk up the beach when he was suddenly stopped, unable to move any further. Turning around, Stanton saw that the shark had returned and had bitten down on the surfer’s other leg.
    Stanton and the two men had held onto the surfer, digging their heels into the sand. Sharks were sometimes pulled all the way up to shore, unwilling to let go of their prey, but this time they stumbled back as the shark let go, and waited just a few feet away. The animal was waiting for the man to bleed to death.
    Adrenaline had covered up Stanton’s fear to that point, but it hadn’t protected him from that. Stanton had looked the shark in the eyes as it waited patiently for the man to die. The patience had been the most frightening thing; no frenzy of attack … just calmness, a peace with death.
    Stanton began paddling back toward the bonfires on shore. There were no waves. He would come back early in the morning and hope to catch some then.
    When he reached the shore he looked down the beach and saw the lights on at Vanessa’s house, a party just gearing up. He turned the other way toward his building and began to walk.
    After showering he sat on the balcony with his cell phone and dialed Melissa’s number. She answered on the second ring.
    “Hey,” she said.
    “Hey. I missed your call yesterday . Sorry about that.”
    “It’s okay. I saw the news. Are you all right?”
    “As good as can be.”
    “He deserved it, Jon. If anybody did, he did.”
    “He was evil, but I’m having my doubts that we were up there for the right reasons.”
    “Why?”
    “Honestly, I don’t even know. Just a gut hunch I guess.”
    “Your gut hunches are always right. I would go with it.”
    He smiled. That was all he needed to hear. The loss of focus, the confusion, the constant nausea he felt in his gut all went away with a few of his ex-wife’s words. There had been few moments after the divorce where he missed being married as much as he did right now.
    “How are the boys?” was all he managed to say.
    “They’re good. They’re at a sleepover right now.”
    “What? How could you— ”
    “Relax, I know your policy on sleepovers. But it’s a sleepover with my parents.”
    “Oh, sorry. It’s um—”
    “You don’t need to explain. I know why.  I would be a wreck seeing the things you see.” There was a pause in the conversation and she added, “That came out wrong.”
    “It’s okay. I know what you meant.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before speaking again. “I miss you. And the boys. I miss you lying next to me at night and rubbing my back. The way you smell in the morning when I wake you up with a kiss on your neck.”
    “I do too.”
    “Then why can’t we be together? I just don’t get it, Mel. I know you love me.”
    “Of course I love you. That’s not it, Jon. It’s the not knowing. I send you off every day for fifteen hours and I have no idea whether you’re going to come back to me or whether someone’s showing up at my door with an apology and a medal. And you’re gone and I’m supposed to be the strong wife with the two kids just getting by. Well I’m not that, Jon. I can’t be that.”
    “This is the only thing I’m good at. I do so much good here, Mel. More than any politician or doctor or lawyer, I do good.”
    “I know you do, sweetheart. I know. But that’s not you talking; that’s Michael Harlow. You’re a good father, a good husband, a good professor. You still have your counseling license and you’ve never even tried that. I bet you would be a great counselor too. Let somebody else do good for a while.”
    “What do you want me to do? Just quit and dump my cases on someone else?”
    “That’s exactly what