In The Forest Of Harm Read Online Free Page A

knife, a couple of tubes of aging oil paint and a small sketch pad. Also nestled amid the art supplies were two tattered ticket stubs to
Dances with Wolves
and a photograph of four college girls grinning from a bright red London phone booth.
    â€œLook!” Alex pointed at the photo. “That’s us and the Willis twins! I haven’t seen them in years . . . this paint box goes back a long way.”
    â€œ
We
go back a long way, Alex,” Mary reminded her, closing the box and shoving it between the tent and the sleeping bag. “I’ve lost count of all the crazy trips we’ve taken together.”
    â€œWhich reminds me.” Alex frowned. “You want to tell me why we’re going camping in North Carolina? We haven’t camped since college.”
    â€œWhy shouldn’t we go camping? It’s a wonderful way to spend a vacation.” Unconsciously, Mary fingered Wynona, tucked deep in the pocket of her jeans.
    â€œMary, I know you. I know what you like to do on your vacations. Your idea of fun is art galleries and book-stores and having hot coffee rolled in on a cart from room service. In all the years I’ve known you, never once have I heard you yearn to go sketch the piney woods of North Carolina.” Alex slammed the trunk and turned to face her. “So. What’s up?”
    Mary looked at her oldest friend standing tall—shading her china-blue eyes against the sun, fully utilizing the lighthouse beam of a gaze she’d perfected in law school. She sighed, knowing that she was standing before the one person who could read her like an eye chart. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “I want to go back to Little Jump Off.”
    â€œWhat?” Alex looked as if she’d just been doused with a bucket of cold water. “That store where your mother was killed?”
    Mary nodded. “I need to see it again.”
    For a moment Alex stood speechless, all the joy drained from her pretty face. “But why?” she finally asked. “All that happened so long ago.”
    Mary shrugged. “I just need to do it, okay? It’s like until I come to terms with all that, I’ll stay stuck
here
.”
    Alex studied the strong, confident woman who stood before her and remembered the Mary Crow she’d met twelve years ago, when an elegant older lady in a linen suit had literally pushed a trembling, denim-clad teenager with a battered white suitcase into her college dorm room. “Why, hello, dear,” the old lady had said in that soft Atlanta drawl that bespoke money and power and roots that stretched back to when Oglethorpe founded the colony. “I’m Eugenia Bennefield, and this is my granddaughter, Mary Crow. You two are going to be roommates!”
    Oh, no we’re not
, Alex had thought. At the time she had been unable to imagine rooming for ten minutes with this quaking Mary Crow. Today she couldn’t imagine living her life without her. Since that moment they’d met in their dorm room, Mary’s quiet, unassuming
groundedness
had become an emotional safe harbor that she sailed into on a regular basis.
    â€œDid you tell your grandmother you were going up there?” she demanded, lifting an eyebrow.
    Mary shook her head. “I didn’t want to get Eugenia riled up—she reads too many mysteries as it is. Anyway, Alex, I just want to look around. After we go to Little Jump Off, I’ll totally devote myself to having fun.”
    â€œPromise?”
    â€œScout’s honor.” Mary raised her right hand.
    â€œWell, okay.” Alex sighed, only too aware of how stubborn Mary could be. “I’ve never been able to stop you from doing anything else you were determined to do.”
    â€œThanks.” Mary smiled.
    â€œCan I ask just one more question?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou’re not planning on reopening any old murder cases, are you? Joan’s edgy enough about this trip.