Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place

detective said.
    “Of course not. Why would anyone need to know? He was their son in every way.”
    “Was Donny adopted, too?”
    Marina dismissed the question with the shake of her head. “Isn’t that always the way? They’d tried having one of their own for ten years fertility clinics, counseling, you name it, they did it. They adopted Nick. They were so happy with a son to love. And bam, a couple years later, Marina calls up and tells me she’s pregnant. On their own. No help from anyone. Donovan, Peg always said, was … Her words stumbled from her lips, “was their miracle baby.”
    Emily opened her notebook and started writing, all the while keeping her eyes riveted to Marina Wilbur and her sodden tissue. She was unsure what this information meant for the Martin case, and what, if anything it meant for the subject that had most of her attention-her missing daughter.
    She was going to get in touch with David and demand to talk to her daughter. Just what kind of relationship had she had with Nick anyway? Could she get in touch with him? Bring him in? Did David realize how vulnerable she was? He had to be warned that Jenna might be mixed up in something very, very dangerous.
    Thursday morning, exact time unknown
    The shack had been silent for almost two hours. Jenna Kenyon had sat quietly, alone in the shadowy building. Wind scraped the roofline and she pulled the cords on her hooded pale blue sweatshirt taut. How much longer would he be gone? She’d tried the doorknob, but it had been locked from the outside. The windows were too high up, and ultimately too small, even if she’d been able to hoist herself up there somehow. Her knee still throbbed. But more than pain, she felt a strange kind of uneasiness. It was fear. It was justified. She was alone in a strange place. Just waiting. Just wondering.
    She heard the doorknob twist and she spun around; a bolt of light from the outside blasted its way inside. The silhouette of a figure stood in the doorway, stark and foreboding. Jenna put her hand to her mouth to muffle her involuntary cry.
    “Sorry it took so long,” he said, “but I had a hard time getting that beater going.”
    Nick Martin held a bag of food and a newspaper in one hand. He was pale and sweaty, but he tried to suck up enough courage so that he could at least appear to be calm. Jenna de served that consideration. He didn’t want her scared any more than she already was. Fear breeds like a virus in a small, confined space.
    Jenna got up to meet him. “I don’t like being left here alone,” she said, taking the bag of food. “I won’t be left alone like that again. Trapped like an animal.” She indicated the lock on the door.
    “I had to do that,” he said. “I didn’t want anyone else finding you”
    Jenna fished through the paper bag, found an apple fritter, and started eating. Nick took the other. He unrolled the paper and set it on the ratty sofa.
    “Made the paper,” he said. He indicated the front page of the Warwick Times. The town was about ten miles from Cherrystone. A headline ran just above the fold:
    BOY MISSING AFTER FAMILY MURDERED
    The article was accompanied by a color photo of the Martins’ flattened house-though it would be difficult for anyone to comprehend that the debris scattered on the image had once been a house. Jenna’s eyes widened. It looked like it had been bulldozed. A few telltale pieces that indicated that the material had once been fashioned into a home, but not much. She started reading and almost at once, her mother’s name jumped off the page. The story said that Emily Kenyon had gone out to the residence after the tornado, only to find that three family members had been shot and the fourth, Nick Martin, was nowhere to be found.
    “I can’t believe your mother would say that,” he said.
    “What?” Jenna hadn’t made it that far into the article.
    “That!” He punched at the newspaper.
    “Hey! Knock it off!” Jenna yelled back. “I can’t read it if you rip it up” She traced the columns of type with her now greasy finger.
    “Of course, we don’t know what happened, but we’re concerned about Nick. We want to find him before any more harm comes to him or someone else.”
    “See right there,” he said. “She thinks I’m the one” His face was red and rage pooled in every fiber of his being. “Goddamn her!”
    “Chill, all right?” Jenna reached her arm around his shoulders, now slumped and shaking. “This isn’t