didn’t make sense.
Even so, Adams stepped out of the office and headed for the back door of the barracks.
He opened the door and stood staring into the early morning light.
He didn’t have to look long or hard.
Sergeant Worthing was crouched with his back against the barracks wall, a burned-out cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
“Worthing, what the hell …?” Adams snarled.
Then he recoiled at what he saw.
At Adams’s eye level was a large dark wet blotch on the wall.
From that blotch, a continuous smear trailed down to where Worthing was crouched.
Then Adams saw the dark hole in the middle of Worthing’s head.
It was a bullet wound.
The entry wound was tiny, but the exit wound had taken off much of the back of Worthing’s skull. The man had been shot dead, standing there smoking an early morning cigarette. The shot had been so clean that the drill sergeant had died instantly. Even the cigarette had remained in his mouth undisturbed.
“Jesus Christ,” Adams murmured. “Not again.”
He looked all around. A large empty field stretched out behind the barracks. The shot had been fired from some great distance. That meant it had been fired by a skilled marksman.
Adams shook his head with disbelief.
His life, he knew, was about to become complicated – and extremely aggravating.
CHAPTER ONE
Riley Paige stood looking out an open window of her townhouse. It was a lovely spring day, one of those storybook days with birds singing and flowers blooming. The air smelled fresh and clean. And yet a lurking darkness kept tugging at her.
She had the strange feeling that all this beauty was somehow terribly fragile.
That’s why she kept her hands hanging at her sides, as if she were in a shop full of delicate china, and a single wrong move might break something lovely and expensive. Or maybe it was as if this perfect afternoon were just a paper-thin illusion that would fall away at the touch of a hand only to reveal …
What? Riley wondered.
The darkness of a world full of pain and terror and evil?
Or the darkness that lurked inside her own mind – the darkness of too many ugly thoughts and secrets?
A girlish voice interrupted Riley’s musings.
“What are you thinking about, Mom?”
Riley turned around. She realized that she’d momentarily forgotten the other people in her living room.
The girl who had spoken was Jilly, the skinny thirteen-year-old Riley was in the process of trying to adopt.
“Nothing,” Riley said in reply.
Her handsome former neighbor Blaine Hildreth smiled at her.
“You certainly seemed to be far away,” he said.
Blaine had just arrived at Riley’s home with his teenaged daughter, Crystal.
Riley said, “I guess I was just wondering where April is.”
It was a matter of some concern. Riley’s fifteen-year-old daughter hadn’t come home from school yet. Didn’t April know that they had plans to go to Blaine’s restaurant for dinner shortly?
Crystal and Jilly grinned at each other mischievously.
“Oh, she’ll be here soon,” Jilly said.
“Any minute now, I’ll bet,” Crystal added.
Riley wondered what the girls knew that she didn’t know. She hoped April wasn’t in some sort of trouble. April had gone through a rebellious phase and had endured a lot of trauma a few months ago. But she seemed to be doing much better now.
Then Riley looked at the others and realized something.
“Blaine, Crystal – I haven’t asked if you wanted something to drink. I have some ginger ale. And bourbon if you’d like that, Blaine.”
“Ginger ale would be nice, thank you,” Blaine said.
“For me too, please,” Crystal said.
Jilly started to get up from her chair.
“I’ll go get some,” Jilly said.
“Oh, no, you don’t need to,” Riley said. “I’ll get it.”
Riley headed straight to the kitchen, rather pleased to have something like this to do. Serving refreshments would normally be the job of Gabriela, Riley’s live-in Guatemalan housekeeper. But Gabriela had the day off and was visiting friends. Gabriela sometimes made Riley feel spoiled, and it was nice be able to fetch drinks for a change. It also kept Riley’s mind focused on the pleasant present.
She poured glasses of ginger ale for Crystal and Blaine, and also for herself and Jilly.
As she carried the tray with the drinks back into the living room, Riley heard the front door open. Then she heard April’s voice talking to someone she’d brought in with her.
Riley was handing out the drinks when April came in, followed by a boy about April’s age. She looked surprised to see Blaine and Crystal.
“Oh!” April said with a gasp. “I didn’t expect – ”
Then April reddened with embarrassment.
“Omigod, I completely forgot! We were going out tonight! I’m so sorry!”
Jilly and Crystal were giggling. Now Riley understood the reason for their amusement. They knew already that April had a new boyfriend, and that she’d probably forgotten all about dinner because she was so preoccupied with him.
I remember what that was like, Riley thought, wistfully remembering her own adolescent crushes.
Pleased that April had brought him over to introduce him, Riley eyed the boy quickly. She immediately liked what she saw. Like April, he was tall, gangly, and rather awkward looking. He had bright red hair, freckles, sparkling blue eyes, and a goofy, amiable smile.
April said, “Mom, this is Liam Schweppe. Liam, this is my mom.”
Liam offered Riley his hand to shake.
“Very pleased to meet you, Ms. Paige,” he said.
His voice had an amusing teenaged-boy squawk to it that made Riley smile.
“You can call me Riley,” she said.
April said, “Mom, Liam’s – ”
April stopped short, apparently not ready to say “my new boyfriend.”
Instead
