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Back Blood in the Water
Chapters (82)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY
  54. FIFTY-ONE
  55. FIFTY-TWO
  56. FIFTY-THREE
  57. FIFTY-FOUR
  58. FIFTY-FIVE
  59. FIFTY-SIX
  60. FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. FIFTY-NINE
  63. SIXTY
  64. SIXTY-ONE
  65. SIXTY-TWO
  66. SIXTY-THREE
  67. SIXTY-FOUR
  68. SIXTY-FIVE
  69. SIXTY-SIX
  70. SIXTY-SEVEN
  71. SIXTY-EIGHT
  72. SIXTY-NINE
  73. SEVENTY
  74. SEVENTY-ONE
  75. SEVENTY-TWO
  76. SEVENTY-THREE
  77. SEVENTY-FOUR
  78. SEVENTY-FIVE
  79. SEVENTY-SIX
  80. Praise for Blood in the Water
  81. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  82. Newsletter Sign-up

“You’re eating for two, now,” Cormack pointed out. “And I haven’t seen you eat anything of substance in days.” He took his plate to the sink and rinsed it off.

“What happened to her?” Diamond asked. Cormack had his back to her, but she could see his shoulders stiffen.

“She disappeared,” he replied. His voice was tight.

“That’s really all you know? You never found out more?”

He was silent for a moment. All she could hear was the sound of the water running in the sink. “Nothing that you need to hear,” he said at last.

She put her fork down. All of a sudden she was no longer hungry. “So there’s more,” she said. “And you never told me.”

He turned and looked at her. “You were a kid. Hell, you still are a kid, or would be in a rational world.”

“We’ve never lived in a rational world,” she pointed out.

“No,” he agreed. “No, we haven’t. But I still wanted you to have something to hold on to. I wanted you to have something left of your childhood.”

She took a deep breath. “What happened to her?”

He lowered his head. “They found her,” he said. “Two days after you reported her missing.”

“Where was she?”

“She was in a motel. In Revere.”

“Alive?”

Cormack shook his head.

“I want to know everything.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Tell me.”

“She was on the bathroom floor. There was a needle sticking out of her arm.”

“What else?”

Cormack was silent.

“What else?” Diamond persisted.

“She’d been with men,” Cormack whispered. “Multiple men. She had no clothes on, and they left her there, on the bathroom floor. She’d been there for days when they found her. The place was crawling with bugs. The police called me when they found her, to have me come down to identify her. They could have waited until she was down at the morgue, but they wanted me to see her there.”

“Why?”

“Spite,” Cormack said. “They’d been trying to find something they could arrest me for forever, but they’d never been able to make a case. They knew I was in love with her. They figured if they couldn’t arrest me and make anything stick, they’d find another way to punish me. This was it.”

Diamond took all of that in, turned it around in her mind. “The police hate you that much?”

He shrugged. “Only some of them. I actually work well with others, but for some of them the hatred goes deep.”

“Is it deserved? The hatred?”