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Chapters (45)
  1. Also by
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Prologue
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Teaser

Aeneas barked once in the background. “Sure. I’ll call the state team and tell them to be ready early. Also, another storm is moving in right now. I’ll follow you along Birch Tree Road until my turnoff. The road to your farm gets better after that, anyway.”

Her chest warmed. “I don’t need backup, Huck.”

“Meet you outside in fifteen minutes. That’s what friends do.” He clicked off.

It was?

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

After a night during which Aeneas barked erratically at invisible ghosts outside, Huck kept his hands easy on the wheel as morning brought more lightly drifting snow. Laurel sat quietly in his passenger side seat as they drove away from their office building, her gaze out the window, her eyes shadowed.

She secured the back of one gold earring. “The Seattle team didn’t find anything interesting in a search of Dr. Rox’s office outside of Seattle. She was a solo practitioner in a small house turned commercial venture, and one of her colleagues had already picked up the patient records pursuant to state law.”

Huck sighed. “Damn, I’d love to get my hands on those patient records.”

Laurel nodded. “As would I, but HIPAA laws prevent that. The colleague will make the necessary notifications to patients and then follow the law as to storage. There’s no way for us to see those, unfortunately.”

She sighed. “Nester is continuing his investigation into her life but hasn’t found any safety deposit boxes or anything else of interest.”

Huck nodded. “I’ll have someone from my team reach out to her colleagues. Maybe they know why she was hiding in the woods. We’ll find out who to call when we get the phone dump.” He glanced her way. “You okay?” he asked.

She started and turned toward him. “Yes.”

Okay. He was learning that she was as literal as a street sign. “Let me rephrase. You have shadows beneath your eyes and look like you didn’t sleep well last night. Did you have difficulty sleeping?” One of Laurel’s good characteristics, and she seemed to have many, was that she wouldn’t find any hidden meanings in his question. Many a woman would be insulted that he mentioned she looked tired. She’d take him at his word.

“Yes.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “I had nightmares last night, which I suffer from sometimes.”

Not for the first time, he wondered who comforted her. He’d met her mother, who was fiercely defensive of her daughter. But there were some serious demons in that woman’s eyes. “We’re friends, right?”

“Yes.” Laurel tilted her head in that way she had as if she were trying to decipher some sort of code or language she didn’t understand. “Why do you ask?”