The Shadow's Edge Read Free

mind.”
                  I took a sip of the coffee. It seemed to be the saving grace of the place. “Do you happen to know anybody who might be interested in renting me a car for a few hours?” I asked.
                  She arched her eyebrows. “How far you planning on going?”
                  “Probably not far,” I said.
                  She motioned with a nod of her head to the street. “See that brown Chevette?”
                  I looked over my shoulder at a rusting junker parked forlornly outside the diner’s front window. I nodded unenthusiastically.
                  “Will it do?” she wondered.
                  “I guess,” I said.
                  “It’s yours. Just have it back by six o’clock and make sure the tank’s full.”
                  “You’re a peach, Kat.”
                  She leaned over close to me and half whispered, “Maybe I’ll think of a way for you to return the favor.”
                  I put a five dollar bill in her hand and stood up. “Don’t think too hard,” I said. “I’m a married man.”
                  “Aren’t they all,” she said. She reached into her uniform pocket, then dropped her car key on the counter.
     
                  I had purposely neglected to mention to Kat that I was accompanied by a large, furry canine that tended to shed rather dramatically, but one look inside the Chevette gave me the feeling it would hardly have mattered. The interior of her little gem appeared not to have been the subject of a cleaning any time within living memory.
                  I opened the passenger door for Bix and he obediently climbed aboard. He waited silently while I walked around the car and climbed in beside him. “So, where’s Callie, boy?” I said to him.
                  He turned his head slowly and looked at me with eyes that seemed far too wise for a supposedly dumb animal.
                  I fired up the Chevette. With nothing better coming to mind I drove the streets, hoping I would simply stumble across the pickup.
                  In twenty minutes I had covered every inch of the town. For a while I parked and gave thought to my next move. Without consciously making a decision to do it, I found myself driving out Thornhill Road in the direction of the rural property that had once been owned by little Sophie Crandall’s grandfather - the spot from which she had been abducted. It was the only place I could think of here that linked Callie and me in any way. Back at the time of the investigation into Sophie’s disappearance Callie had been the local police chief. It seemed possible that, if she was trying to reignite a spark from our past, she might regard such a location as one in which we had shared a commonality of purpose. It scared  me a little that I might be right, though, because, if I was, it would seem to indicate she was suffering from serious depression. The Crandall farm evoked memories that were far from peaceful. And the connection to Tanya’s terrible demise was all too evident.
                  The farm buildings came into view from half a mile away. Much like the first time I had set eyes on the place, a little chill rippled through me. Few cases I had been involved in while working with the FBI had summoned such feelings in me and it was impossible to experience these thoughts without reliving in my mind the days when Tanya had been taken from us. I couldn’t imagine that Callie could look upon this place and feel any differently.
                  The vehicle parked off the road some distance past the farm was not clearly identifiable when it first came into view. But as I got closer my hopes rose; I could see it was blue, and then that it was a pickup with a little dent right where Miles had