Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place

mean, we’re not allowed to spec ulate-rush to judge-and everything goes through the lab.” He rolled his blue eyes and smiled.
    Emily started reading, mostly silently, but as she moved through the pages she caught a few choice lines and looked up at Christopher.
    Feel me take off your clothes, one button at time … lingering as they fall to the floor. Your hunger for my touch, insatiable … but I try.
    “Can you believe these women fall for this?”
    “I know. Remember when the Shadow Murderer Bill Canton got married?”
    Emily nodded, a disgusted look on her face. “You mean that Baby Jane-type blonde who went all over TV professing her love.” “
    “Yeah, her love for a man who stalked and killed eight young women and dumped them all over LA like they were garbage”
    I guess Bonnie was that type of woman. Willing to believe anything, do anything, for love.” She looked down and started reading, cherry-picking another line to read aloud.
    … You stare back, longing for us to become one. Your hands slip between my legs …

Chapter Thirty-one
    Monday, 6:45 A.M., Cherrystone, Washington
    Jaws dropped to the floorboards as Shali Patterson climbed aboard school bus number 227. She managed to make it to the bus stop that morning when she found her car missing and a message from Jenna Kenyon. One of the kids she’d smoked with her tailpipe every morning couldn’t resist making note of the occasion.
    “Your ride in the shop, Shah Patterson? Have a seat. Anywhere”
    Shali scanned the front, then the back of the bus. This sucks. Right now, she wanted to strangle her supposed best friend. She found a seat next to a freshman girl and slid next to her.
    Jenna thinks she s got it bad, but she doesn ‘t know what bad is.
    Monday, 9:00 A.M., Seattle
    Christopher Collier’s resonant voice filled Emily’s ears and jolted her like a slap in the face. She nearly dropped the phone. She’d always been an excellent judge of a witness’s veracity. She listened, assessed, and without fail was right on the money when she determined whether or not she could trust someone. She’d believed Tina Esposito when they shared lunch and a smattering of true confessions at Embers restaurant. As far as Emily could see-and her instincts were always flawless Tina was a gracious woman who’d made a horrendous mistake many years ago and suffered for it. Yet she was a survivor, a woman who’d completely extricated herself from Dylan Walker and Bonnie Jeffries. But what Christopher was telling her now indicated all of that was a big lie.
    “Five calls this week alone,” he said. “More when we go back a few weeks. There was even a call from Tina the morning Bonnie was murdered”
    Emily was stunned. “She told me they hadn’t spoken in years”
    “She’s a liar. I’m going to see her,” he said.
    With the cell phone snug against her ear, Emily looked for her cream-colored jacket. “Not without me, you’re not. I can meet you at her place or you can pick me up and we can go together. Your choice.”
    “I figured that. I’m calling from downstairs.”
    Emily managed a smile. Christopher Collier knew her better than anyone. She liked him, trusted him, but she’d had more lapses in judgment when it came to men. Something about last night bothered her, but she’d had too much to drink to be sure about everything that had transpired. Sunlight streamed between a slit in the hotel curtains she hadn’t remembered drawing. In fact, she hadn’t remembered much of what happened after she’d started pouring the Scotch.
    “Chris?” she asked.
    “Yes?”
    “Last night … we didn’t, did we?”
    “God no,” Christopher Collier said. “Do you wish we did?”
    The mosaic of what had transpired the previous evening started coming together. The dinner. The drinks. The revelations. The scrapbook. She noticed that it remained on the desk next to the hotel phone.
    “You left the album,” she said.
    “I know. Bring it when you come downstairs.”
    Five minutes later, Emily was in the lobby. Christopher, looking dapper in a blue blazer and red tie and khakis, was waiting with Starbucks in hand.
    “Vanilla latte?” he said, handing her the hot cup. “I just guessed”
    “You’re a mind reader, thanks”
    A moment later, they were in his Audi-where the scent of cigarette smoke could not be refuted. He saw the look on her face.
    “Yeah, I haven’t quit yet” It was a preemptive strike against Emily’s expected