In the Shadow of Death Read Online Free Page A

Squamish was only completed three years ago.”
    â€œAnd did he tell you that there are still occasional rock slides on that line?” Jodie asked.
    Maggie shook her head and laughed. “No. He kept that bit to himself.”
    â€œDon’t worry. It’s been fairly dry lately, so there shouldn’t be any problem. The train gets into Williams around seven in the evening. It takes about twelve hours.” She started to refold the map. “But Kate will be there to meet you.”
    â€œYou been up to your sister’s?” Nat asked.
    Jodie nodded. “Last fall. I must admit it’s beautiful, if you’re into space, cows and horses. I prefer the city myself.”
    â€œWhat about your sister?” Nat asked. “How’s she coping with the great outdoors?”
    Jodie laughed. “Quite well, considering . . . ”
    â€œConsidering what?”
    â€œConsidering she’s twenty-eight and still a bit of an airhead.”
    â€œAirhead?”
    â€œBeing the youngest in our family, she was spoiled rotten. Then when she was barely out of high school, she ran off to Montreal and married this low-life loser. Thank God, my father managed to step in and have the marriage annulled.”
    â€œHow did Kate feel about that?”
    â€œRelieved. He’d begun to knock her around. Put her right off marriage, for awhile, that is.” She picked up a silver-framed photograph and handed it to Maggie. “This is a recent one of her. You can see she’s very pretty.”
    The photograph showed a young woman, blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing jeans, a red plaid shirt, and western boots. She was holding the reins of a chestnut mare, but she was standing several feet away from it. “She doesn’t look twenty-eight,” Maggie commented, handing it back.
    â€œNo. And Doug, her new husband, is a good eighteen years older,” Jodie said ruefully. “She’s gone from one extreme to another.”
    â€œYou don’t like this one either?”
    â€œMmm. There’s something about him . . . ” She shrugged. “But I will say this, if you’re looking for a peaceful vacation, they can provide it.”
    â€œThat’s just what I want,” Maggie replied, picking up the map.
    Later that evening in the downstairs suite, Nat drew Maggie toward him. “I’m really going to miss you. I just wish I was going with you.”
    â€œI’m going to miss you, too,” she answered, kissing him. “But at least you’ve got Henny.”
    â€¢ • •
    IT WAS EARLY Thursday evening, and Maggie stood beside her bed and surveyed the pile of clothes that still had to be crammed into her suitcase. She reached down to pick up her slippers and saw one of Emily’s toys lying next to them. It squeaked as she picked it up, and she realized with a pang how much she was going to miss the independent, unpredictable creature. She glanced at her watch. Almost six thirty. She’d have to scoot if she was to make it over to Harry’s by seven. She had already prepared the cat carrier for the journey, so all she had to do was find the elusive animal, who naturally had disappeared as soon as she saw the carrier emerge from the closet. By the time the chase was over, both Maggie and Emily were completely frazzled, and the cat continued her protest right across town to Maggie’s old home on Kerrisdale’s Elm Street. If the cat’s protests were unnerving, so were the unwanted memories that came back to her while she waited for Harry to answer the doorbell.
    She followed him along the familiar hallway and into the dining room, where she set the carrier down and released the frantic animal. Emily immediately ran into the kitchen and sat staring at the cupboard where her food used to be kept.
    â€œYou see, Margaret,” Harry said, pulling out a chair at the dining room table for her. “Emily is pleased to be