Buried (Twisted Cedars Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free

ago their lives had been upset again when Kyle’s parents separated. Muriel had gone to live in Portland with her sister, while Jim had moved to the apartment above Quinpool Realty. Now the twins had to go to Nola Thompson’s house after school. Nola was a nice enough lady, but she had six children of her own. She didn’t really have the time or energy for two more.
    “I want to help with Cory and Chester as much as I can. But one day I hope to be a partner at Howard & Mason.”
    Kyle tapped his wine glass against hers. “Fair enough. Just thought I’d mention it.”
    * * *
    Books were in Charlotte Hammond’s blood, part of her heritage, the source of her livelihood, and her principle pleasure in life. When she’d finished high school, there had been no question that she would go on to study library sciences. After graduation it seemed just as natural that she should take over from her mother at the Twisted Cedars Public Library, which had been founded by her great-great grandmother back in post-Civil War days.
    For the most part, Charlotte was happy with her fate. She couldn’t imagine a job more suited to her interests. And she was never bored. During lulls in activity levels she could always read—as she was doing now, thirty minutes before closing.
    Charlotte had just started a new mystery series and devoured two chapters before she finally snapped out of the author’s spell. Reluctant to stop reading, she closed the book, and then slipped it into her purse so she could pick it up later at home. She went to the windows that banked the west wall where chairs and tables were arranged next to a display of magazines.
    Ian Rankin had evoked Edinburgh so deftly that she almost expected to see the Scottish city when she looked out the glass pane.
    But the view along Driftwood Lane was familiar. A row of small businesses and restaurants geared to meet the shopping needs of the thousand-odd residents of the town, led to the town square where two cedar trees, many hundreds of years old, grew with trunk and limbs so intertwined you could hardly tell where one ended and the other began.
    Come summer, Twisted Cedar’s population would more than triple with tourists. But right now the town was sleepy, small and safe, tucked in between the ocean to the west, and redwood forest and mountains to the east.
    Charlotte knew no other home. She’d been adopted by the Hammonds when she was only three-months-old, welcomed into the family to provide a sibling to her sister, Daisy. Twisted Cedars had sheltered her all these years. But since her parents’ car accident she was the only Hammond left in town and sometimes she wondered what held her here. It would be different if Daisy came back. But her sister hadn’t been heard from since she ran off seven years ago.
    Kyle had hired an investigator back then. And after the death of their parents, Charlotte had tried again, as the size of the Hammond’s estate was considerable. But both times there had been no luck.
    It seemed Daisy didn’t want to be found, and had either changed her identity, or was living below the radar of modern life. Daisy’s only communication with her old life—if you could call it that—were the regular five-hundred dollar withdrawals she made from the joint account their father had set up for her years ago.
    The withdrawals were made from various ATMs in Sacramento, usually at night, with Daisy wearing a hat and sunglasses that obscured her face from video surveillance. Charlotte had been advised to put a hold on the account, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that.
    Chances were, Daisy really needed that money. And if she was using it for alcohol, or drugs, well, Charlotte only hoped they bought her peace.
    Lots of people in town judged Daisy harshly for falling apart after her children were born, and especially for deserting them. But Charlotte had sat by Daisy’s hospital bed enough to know how much her sister had suffered. Postpartum psychosis was