Flash Read Free

the lid of the bin. In the morning a large truck would come to haul away the contents. The discarded paper, including the shredded pages of the journal, would soon be transformed into something useful. Newsprint, maybe. Or toilet tissue.
    Like almost everyone else who lived in Seattle, Olivia was a great believer in recycling.

1

    The present
…
    Jasper knew that he was in trouble because he had reached the point where he was giving serious consideration to the idea of getting married again.
    His attention was deflected from the dangerous subject less than a moment later when he realized that someone was trying very hard to kill him.
    At least, he
thought
someone was attempting to murder him.
    Either way, as a distraction, the prospect was dazzlingly effective. Jasper immediately stopped thinking about finding a wife.
    It was the blinding glare of hot, tropical sunlight onmetal reflected in the rearview mirror that got Jasper’s attention. He glanced up. The battered green Ford that had followed him from the tiny village on the island’s north shore was suddenly much closer. In another few seconds the vehicle would be right on top of the Jeep’s bumper.
    The Ford shot out of the last narrow curve and bore down on the Jeep. The car’s heavily tinted windows, common enough here in the South Pacific, made it impossible to see the face of the person at the wheel. Whoever he was, he was either very drunk or very high.
    A tourist, Jasper thought. The Ford looked like one of the rusty rentals he had seen at the small agency in the village where he had selected the Jeep.
    There was little room to maneuver on the tiny, two-lane road that encircled tiny Pelapili Island. Steep cliffs shot straight up on the left. On Jasper’s right the terrain fell sharply away to the turquoise sea.
    He had never wanted to take this vacation in paradise, Jasper thought. He should have listened to his own instincts instead of the urgings of his nephews and his friend, Al.
    This was what came of allowing other people to push you into doing what they thought was best for you.
    Jasper assessed the slim shoulder on the side of the pavement. There was almost no margin for driving error on this stretch of the road. One wrong move and a driver could expect to end up forty feet below on the lava-and-boulder-encrusted beach.
    He should have had his midlife crisis in the peaceand comfort of his own home on Bainbridge Island. At least he could have been more certain of surviving it there.
    But he’d made the extremely rare mistake of allowing others to talk him into doing something he really did not want to do.
    â€œYou’ve got to get away, Uncle Jasper,” Kirby had declared with the shining confidence of a college freshman who has just finished his first course in psychology. “If you won’t talk to a therapist, the least you can do is give yourself a complete change of scene.”
    â€œI hate to say it, but I think Kirby’s right,” Paul said. “You haven’t been yourself lately. All this talk about selling Sloan & Associates, it’s not like you, Uncle Jasper. Take a vacation. Get wild and crazy. Do something off-the-wall.”
    Jasper had eyed his nephews from the other side of his broad desk. Paul and Kirby were both enrolled for the summer quarter at the University of Washington. In addition, both had part-time jobs this year. They had their own apartment near the campus now, and they led very active lives. He did not believe for one moment that both just happened, by purest coincidence, to find themselves downtown this afternoon.
    He did not believe both had been struck simultaneously by a whim to drop by his office, either. Jasper was fairly certain that he was the target of a planned ambush.
    â€œI appreciate your concern,” he said. “But I do not need or want a vacation. As far as selling the firm is concerned, trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
    â€œBut Uncle