A Widow's Guilty Secret Read Free

with.
    That wasn’t Peter.
    “Come on, Peter. Come home. I need to get this over with before I lose my nerve,” she pleaded.
    Only the darkness heard her.
    * * *
    At thirty-eight, Nick Jeffries felt he’d seen it all—and for the most part, he’d left it behind him. As a former fifteen-year veteran detective on the Houston police force, he’d accepted a position on Vengeance’s police force thinking that it would be a walk in the park and that chilling, stomach-turning homicides were a thing of the past. Vengeance, Texas, was one of those sleepy, picturesque little towns people dreamed about while trapped in a rat race, struggling to stay abreast of the bills, the tax man and soul-numbing, time-sapping boredom.
    Apparently that wasn’t the case anymore, Nick thought, looking down at the gruesome discovery made earlier that day by some enterprising geology graduate students. The students had initially been assigned to dig up and catalog several mineral specimens on the private land just on the outskirts of Darby College.
    Instead, what they’d found were three male bodies buried in shallow graves and located fairly close to one another.
    “Three for the price of one, huh?” Nick murmured sardonically.
    The flippant comment was intended for the young man he’d been partnered with but when he looked up, he saw that the tall, baby-faced detective had done a quick about-face and was currently—and miserably—throwing up his breakfast behind the nearest tree.
    “That’s okay, Juarez,” Nick assured the younger man, raising his voice so that it carried. “I did the same thing when I saw my first dead body.”
    It actually wasn’t true. For the most part, Nick Jeffries had practically been born unshakeable, but he thought it might give the young detective a measure of comfort to know that he wasn’t alone or unique in his misery.
    Shaking his head, Nick looked down at the three dead bodies that had been lifted from their graves.
    Three separate, shallow graves—not one. Did that mean there were three separate killers, or just one with an odd reverence for the sanctity of death that had made him dig the multiple graves rather than just toss the bodies one on top of another?
    And why these particular three people? Was it just convenience? The luck of the draw?
    He highly doubted it.
    What did these three have in common with each other, other than being buried out here just off the college campus? Did they all die at the same time, or did they meet their respective ends at different times by the same hand?
    He supposed at least part of the latter question would be answered by the medical examiner after the autopsies were performed.
    He wondered how long that would take and if they even had a medical examiner around here. If not, they were going to have to find one, fast.
    There were times when he really missed being in a city like Houston.
    “So much for this being a sleepy little college town,” Nick said, talking to Juarez as if the man had rejoined him instead of still heaving up his by now meager stomach contents behind a tree. “And let me tell you, if you thought that the media seemed frenzied and out of control when they converged here, asking questions about that Grayson woman’s kidnapping, wait’ll you see what happens when they get wind of this triple homicide,” he predicted.
    With a handkerchief held close to his mouth in case he wasn’t quite finished throwing up what was left of his insides, Jason Juarez, his eyes watering, made his way back to his partner.
    When he looked at Nick, his eyes appeared to be bloodshot, definitely the worse for wear.
    Nick was tempted to tell him to go home, but that wouldn’t solve anything. The kid needed to tough it out, Nick thought. Still, he couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
    “You think that this is a triple homicide?” Juarez asked him.
    It was obvious that the young detective was deliberately avoiding looking down at the uncovered bodies, which had