Hidden in the Shadows Read Online Free Page A

he replied sardonically. They had reached his SUV, and he hit the button on his key fob to unlock it. “I’ll have to give you a rain check on the other.” He expected her to make another joke, but to his surprise, she just smiled.
    “Sheriff, I’m going to hold you to that.”

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    Maria had just finished folding a load of clean laundry when her phone rang Monday evening. When she saw Ethan’s number on the screen, she frowned.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey, I’m sorry to bother you at home. Do you have a minute?”
    “Sure, what’s up?” she asked as she grabbed a soda from the fridge.
    “I need a big favor. I wouldn’t ask if Beth weren’t involved. My parents were just over here, and well, I guess it’s better if I just show you. Are you in front of a computer?”
    “I can be.” She hurried upstairs and into her home office. With a tap on the space bar, she woke her computer up. “Okay, I’m ready.”
    He rattled off a website address. When the site came up, the startling image of Beth embracing another man filled the screen. The caption “Love is in the air,” scrolled below the image, and several people had made comments about the image in an area underneath it.
    “Oh, wow. That’s Raven Lynch, right?” Maria asked.
    “It is.”
    Raven was a local businessman who owned Leroy’s upscale art gallery. He was also completely out-of-the-closet, openly gay.
    “I don’t understand what someone’s trying to do here, Ethan. I mean, everyone knows Raven’s gay. This is almost funny.”
    Ethan’s sigh echoed over the phone. “Yeah, that was our first reaction, too, but my parents were not amused. Beth’s been crying for two hours now.”
    Maria’s heart sank. “Oh, no. Surely your folks didn’t think this was real?”
    “I’m afraid so. I hate to ask this, but can you see what you can find out about it for me? Off the clock?”
    “Absolutely.” She was quiet for a moment. “I’ve heard of the place that hosts this forum. It has a nasty reputation for being slow to respond in removing user-posted content. If you’d like, though, I can start the process to have this post pulled from the site.”
    “That would be wonderful. I’ll owe you big time for that.”
    “No, you won’t. We’ll consider it a fair exchange for that advice you gave me the other night. Besides, I can’t call myself your friend and just let this stay up there.”
    After they hung up, Maria settled into her office chair and started digging through the forum. The audacity of the post infuriated her. It came too close to the attacks perpetrated against Beth last year that had led to her being shot and nearly killed. Maria knew the similarity had to be weighing on Beth and Ethan. They’d struggled so hard to get where they were now. If there was any way she could help with this slander, she’d do her damnedest to pull it off. It was the least she could do. 
     

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    The first sign Wyatt had that something out of the ordinary was going on was when Tara Michaels-Lewis, a local business owner, called 911 early Tuesday morning. She reported that her ex-husband had shown up at her house drunk, gun in hand. Ethan was dispatched, along with Deputy Wes Mason, but since Wyatt was nearby, he responded as well. When he arrived at the scene, Tony West was sitting on Tara’s front porch. Tony had a whiskey bottle in one hand and a pistol lying on the floor beside him.
    “Tony, what’s going on here?” Wyatt asked as he, Ethan, and Wes approached the man with caution, guns drawn.
    Eyes bleary, the man raised his gaze to Wyatt. “She won’t have me. She lied and told me she’d take me back, but now she won’t have me.” He lifted the nearly empty bottle and drained it the rest of the way. “Stupid bitch. I never should have married her to begin with.”
    “Why don’t we go somewhere to talk about this, Tony? Maybe we can figure out what’s going on.” Wyatt spoke