Cool Shade Read Online Free Page A

Evelyn, of the butt garden.
    "Ricky was my nephew. He used to stay with me when he was little. I didn't live here then. I bought these two houses after my husband passed away."
    Like so many other people, Maddie had spent years devouring media information about Rick Beck. From that, she could recall that he'd had a pretty normal childhood. He'd come from a small town in Nebraska—it very well could have been Chester, Maddie couldn't remember. He'd grown up in an intact family. He'd played with the school band. Captain of his football team. President of his class. Maddie had often wondered how someone from such a traditional background could have written lyrics that contained so much pathos. What had he drawn from?
    Evelyn took the picture from Maddie's fingers and placed it back on the buffet. "Come on. I'll show you something."
    She led Maddie to the basement.
    The steps were wooden and narrow, the cement floor damp and smelling of mildew.
    Evelyn reached up and pulled a string attached to a light bulb that dangled from the ceiling. The light swayed, casting bobbing shadows.
    Maddie hung back. This was giving her the creeps.
    Evelyn crossed the basement. When the older woman realized Maddie wasn't behind her, she stopped, motioning for her to hurry. Then she disappeared into a little room.
    Telling herself there was nothing to be afraid of, Maddie followed.
    A shrine.
    Packed wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-ceiling, with Rick Beck memorabilia.
    Albums. Tapes. Posters. T-shirts. Jackets. Buttons. Mugs. Lights. Stage clothes. Guitars. Microphones. Framed awards. Autographed pictures.
    "My God." Maddie reverently ran her fingers across a T-shirt. "I loved his music," she said in a hushed voice.
    "He's dead."
    "I'm sorry."
    "Killed, you know."
    "Yes."
    "By his manager."
    "His manager?"
    Where was Evelyn going with this? Everyone knew it had been a crazed fan. The madman had confessed on national television. Later, in prison, he'd hanged himself.
    "I thought it was a crazed fan," Maddie suggested, not wanting to set Evelyn off.
    "That's what people were supposed to think. That was Eddie's plan."
    "Eddie?"
    "Eddie Berlin. I tried to tell people Ricky had something on Eddie. He knew something Eddie didn't want to get out. So Eddie had him killed."
    Eddie Berlin. The name in Enid's book.

Chapter 5
    Malfunction Junction
    Maddie put the map aside and stopped her battered Fiat at the beginning of the lane that led to Eddie Berlin's.
    A road to nowhere.
    No gate. Nowhere didn't need a gate. Or a fence. Or an intimidating sign that said KEEP OUT. Those things weren't necessary. People didn't go to nowhere.
    Nobody wanted to go there, Evelyn had explained, trying to talk Maddie out of it. But there were too many weird things going on. Like the Evelyn thing, and the Eddie Berlin thing, and the Enid thing. Maddie was beginning to wonder if there was more to her sister's disappearance than a simple spur-of-the-moment, take-off-with-a-new-guy and not-look-back situation. She couldn't help but feel that Eddie Berlin just might be a clue to the whole mess. And to be honest, she was curious about Eddie Berlin.
    Hot.
    It had been hot when she’d left Arizona, but in the desert it was a dry heat. The kind of heat that dehydrated your eyeballs and shrunk your skin until you looked like a piece of beef jerky.
    This… this was smothering.
    So wet .
    A steambath.
    In Arizona sweat immediately evaporated. In Nebraska it just pooled. It ran down your neck, your spine, between your breasts, and it stayed there.
    Maddie let out the clutch and accelerated, easing the little car up a road that had more potholes than a minefield had land mines. Twenty yards in, tree branches smacked the windshield and tattered green leaves stuck to the car's wipers and metal trim. She could feel thick-stemmed weeds scraping the floorboard under her feet. The steering wheel, when she hit a deep rut, was wrenched from her hands.
    Should have left the car at the end of the lane and