Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place

shore.
    Floating among the degraded greenery of a fall patch of aquatic plants was the swollen figure of a child, a teenager. She was facedown, her blonde hair swirling around her in the water. Her skin looked waxy and white. Patrice craned her neck to get a closer view.
    No, it wasn’t a child, but a woman. She could see a wristwatch and wedding band.
    The boys just stood there, their eyes fastened on the floating corpse.
    “Want me to poke her with a stick?” It was Kevin, her 8-year-old, who she once caught eating canned dog food off the broken end of a hula hoop-with his older brother Brandon urging him on.
    “I’ll get a stick for you,” Brandon said.
    Patrice’s heart was racing just then. She shook her head and gently pulled her brood away from the frothy edge of the lake.
    “Let’s go back to the car,” she said. “I need to call the sheriff.”
    Emily’s cell phone vibrated on her desk and she looked down at the small LCD screen. An electronic envelope rotated across the screen. She had a new text message. She snapped open the phone. It was from Jenna. She knew so even before she opened it. No one else sent text messages to her. Certainly no one over 25 could even work the tiny keys and create a message.
    One of our BZs drowned last night. At the Kappa Chi house.
    Call u tonight. Strange.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    I wanted to take a moment to thank some of the people who have been so amazing with their support and advice as I wrote A Cold Dark Place. Naturally, none of it is possible without the support and love of my family —Claudia, Morgan, and Marta.
    Thanks also to the best thriller editor and the best thriller agent in the business: Michaela Hamilton, executive editor of Kensington, and Susan Raihofer of David Black Literary. What a team you two make!
    I’d like to acknowledge the writers that have been so helpful to me recently. All of the Killer Year members and friends have been great, but I especially want to spotlight JT Ellison, Bill Cameron, and Sandra Ruttan for their wonderful support and partnership over the past year. My Killer Year mentor, Allison Brennan, has no peer when it comes to writing pulse-pounding suspense and encouraging new (even old!) authors.
    Thanks to Kathrine Beck, Tina Marie Brewer, Charles Turner, Bunny Kuhlman, and Matt Phelps for their muchappreciated guidance along the way.
    Finally, to my readers. Thanks so much for following me from true crime to fiction. Your e-mails, letters, and posts on Crime Rant mean the world to me.
    —Gregg Olsen