13 Nights of Horror: The Disappearance of Rose Hillard Read Online Free Page A

you a damn thing.”
    “I’ll split it fifty-fifty with you,” he replied. “You’ve always been nagging me for that, so fine, I’ll swallow the production costs and we’ll split the money evenly. After that… This’ll be the last one, I promise.”
    She stared at him for a moment, as if she wasn’t quite sure whether she could trust him.
    “Consider it a gift,” he added finally. “Put it toward your college fund.”
    “Go screw yourself,” she snapped back at him.
    “So you’re turning me down? You don’t want to end it tonight?”
    “Fine,” she muttered, “fifty-fifty and it ends, period. No second thoughts, no pity chances. It ends, and we never even mention it again. Deal?”
    He nodded.
    “And I am going to look into college,” she told him. “There’s no way I’m gonna spend my whole life sitting around Vantage just so you and Mom can protect me from the big wide world. It’s not natural.”
    “Seems like you’ve got it all figured out.”
    “Great,” she added with a look of total contempt. “I look forward to it. See you at midnight, Daddy .”
    With that, she headed upstairs, leaving Michael to lean back against the wall and close his eyes. Above, Rose could already be heard stomping to her room. Moments later, her bedroom door slammed shut.

Today
     
    “It’s a mess is what it is,” Gorman muttered as he poured himself a glass of whiskey. “If people find out that a thief got into my office, I’ll be a laughing stock.”
    “Who’s going to find out?” asked his wife June as she watched from the doorway. “You’ll just smooth it over, the way you always do. No-one has to know a damn thing. Just keep it under your hat.”
    Gorman winced as he took a gulp of whiskey. As his throat burned, he poured another glass, his hands shaking so much that he spilled as much again. He knew he shouldn’t drink, not after taking so many pain-killers during the day, but he promised himself this would be his last shot of the night.
    “Here,” June added, hurrying over and taking the bottle. With a steady hand, she topped up his glass and passed it to him. “How’s your hip?”
    He nodded.
    “Bad? Is it the cold weather again?”
    No answer.
    “So did you work out yet why someone would break in?” she asked. “Were they after evidence from one of your cases, maybe? I mean, I thought people usually tried to break out of the police station, not the other way around.”
    “It was just…” He paused, fully aware that if he started to tell her the full story, he wouldn’t be able to stop without explaining everything. “It was nothing. I couldn’t find any sign of things being missing, not anything in particular. They just threw everything around, that’s all.”
    “Well there you go, then,” she continued. “It was probably just kids, or someone who wanted revenge for a parking ticket.” She waited for him to reply, but she could see from the look in his eyes that his mind was on something else, something far away. “You know you can tell me,” she added. “You’ve always told me everything, Ben. I’m your wife, it’s only right that you should share your troubles with me, and you know I’m never going to tell another soul. I like being your sounding board. I want to ease your mind.”
    “I can’t be…” He paused. “There are some things I can’t tell you, June, and that’s just the way things have to be.”
    “But -”
    “I’m a police officer. Some things simply have to remain confidential.”
    “I thought you’d never kept a secret from me?” she asked.
    “No you didn’t,” he replied, with a hint of sadness. “You never said anything, but you always knew there were a few things I couldn’t tell you. It was like an unspoken agreement between us. This is one of those things, June.”
    She stared at him for a moment, as if she was trying to read the expression in his eyes.
    “For something to get you this worked up,” she said finally, “I can only