In Safe Hands Read Online Free

There was no plate number, no way she could identify which deputy had tossed a human-shaped bundle into the back of a squad SUV, and no certainty that there was, in fact, a dead body currently being transported who knew where. All she had was some indistinct video footage of a dark form putting something into an SUV.
    If she called either her dad or Chris tonight, they’d think she was imagining things. Worse, they might believe she’d expanded the boundaries of crazy-town, adding delusions to her current phobia. Her father would look at her with angry, helpless eyes and scratch his beard. In the short time he’d be staying at the house before leaving for another installation job, conversation would be infrequent and awkward. Daisy cringed at the thought.
    Chris, on the other hand… Daisy wasn’t sure what he’d do. He’d been acting so squirrelly lately, and he might use this as a sign that he should stop telling her about his cases, especially the one revolving around the headless guy found in Mission Reservoir a couple of months ago. Worse, maybe he’d stop visiting her altogether.
    Her breathing quickened, becoming harsh and shallow, and she closed her eyes. Daisy imagined hiking on a rocky trail, winding higher and higher until she reached the summit. In her mind, she turned around and could see the entire county spread out beneath her. The jagged edges of the lower peaks, furred with evergreens and aspen, smoothed into the flat plains. A distant herd of pronghorn grazed, and a pair of hawks circled in the impossibly blue sky. Daisy’s heart beat faster, not in fear of the expansive space, but at the sheer beauty of it all. After a few minutes, her breaths came slow and even, and she allowed her eyes to open.
    Carefully, she placed her phone back on the bedside table. Maybe there was a way she could investigate on her own. The Simpson Star , the weekly local paper, would be online at noon. She could check the section where the emergency calls and responses were posted. If a deputy had been sent to number 304, it would show up in that week’s “Sheriff’s Report.” In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to check if any missing-persons reports had been filed recently.
    Instead of logging on to her laptop, though, she sat on her bed, shifting until her back was against the headboard. Pulling one of her pillows out from under her hip, she wrapped her arms around it. As she stared at the window across the room, she hugged the pillow and tried not to think about dead bodies, murderous deputies…or how desolate her life would be without Chris in it.
    * * *
    The flames followed the line of gasoline, lighting the fumes with a whoosh . Tyler grinned. That was his favorite part, when the fire went from the tiny flicker of a lighter to a ravenous monster intent on consuming an entire building. Heart pounding, he watched as the pile of cardboard caught fire, red and black crawling around the edges of each piece before the yellow flames appeared, growing until they almost touched the garage rafters.
    Tyler coughed, eyeing the thickening layer of smoke. As much as he wanted to watch the fire close up, it was time for him to leave. Breathing was getting harder, and the owner—or a neighbor—would notice the smoke and flames. That meant the big red trucks would be arriving soon…and so would his father.
    A twinge of guilt ran through him as he moved toward the side door, the one not facing the house. Tyler had promised he’d quit, and he’d tried. It was just such a rush—the roar of flames, the crash of a collapsing structure, the spreading glow as tree after tree ignited in an ever-widening circle, all because of him. He’d created that destruction with some accelerant and a flick of his lighter. It was tempting to tell everyone at school, all those kids who thought he was nothing—when they even thought of him at all. Tyler wouldn’t tell,