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Back Lost Hills Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. Contents
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
  49. About the Author

“I’m certain that he’s the killer,” Eve said.

“Then I expect to see you express that certainty to those reporters.” Lansing got to his feet. “Don’t put on any makeup. It’s important that they see how hard working and tired you are.”

Mom will love that, Eve thought. Lansing walked out and Moffett joined him.

Eve looked at Burnside. “You know I’m right.”

“I already expressed my opinion and he rejected it,” Burnside said.

Duncan nodded in agreement and looked at Eve. “You should have taken the hint.”

“I couldn’t just stand by and say nothing,” Eve said.

“Yes,” Duncan said. “We noticed.”

Burnside stuffed her legal pad into her briefcase and stood up. “The fact is that we have a suspect in custody. The public will be glad to hear it. That’s a win. This press conference will make you a star again.”

“I don’t want the spotlight.”

“But we do.” Burnside smiled at her and walked out.

Eve revised her opinion of Burnside’s integrity. The integrity was there, but it had limitations. It was trumped by her ambition. Burnside was willing to gamble that enjoying the glory today wouldn’t lead to shame next week. It was a raw political calculation and Burnside was probably making a smart bet. If Lansing, Moffett, and Eve went down, Burnside could still come out relatively unscathed, saying she was given a bad case.

Eve met Duncan’s eye. “I’m fucked.”

“Not if you can prove Coyle did it,” Duncan said. “How hard could that be?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The front steps of the Lost Hills station had become a stage. Lansing stood at a wooden podium with a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department seal on the front and faced the lights of a dozen TV cameras and two dozen print and broadcast reporters. Captain Moffett, ADA Burnside, and Eve stood in the background. Eve wondered where the podium came from, if it was kept in a closet somewhere in the station or if Lansing carried it around in his Ford Expedition.

“Based on the evidence recovered at the crime scene and the tireless work of our detectives, under the supervision of Captain Moffett, we’re now certain that Tanya Kenworth and her two children, Caitlin and Troy, were brutally murdered in their Topanga Canyon home on Wednesday,” Lansing said. “This is the tragic, heartbreaking outcome that we all feared.”

He paused, letting the horrible news sink in, but Eve saw it as a cheap ploy to jack up the drama of the moment. She also had the heart-sinking realization that in their rush to the cameras, nobody had bothered to call Cleve first before they told the world his kids were slaughtered. It was one more cruel, insensitive oversight she’d have to add to her list of regrets in this case.