Sorrow Road Read Online Free Page B

Terrace was on his patch—she had to tread very, very lightly. She’d probably have to let a surrogate do the gentle probing.
    â€œSurrogate” was a euphemism for Rhonda Lovejoy, her assistant prosecutor, who specialized in just this sort of sideways, not-quite-official errand. Rhonda’s roots in the region ran so deep that when she asked questions, people just assumed she was collecting contact information for a family reunion. It was easy to forget that she worked in the Raythune County prosecutor’s office.
    Didn’t Rhonda have a cousin or two up in Muth County? Bell was almost sure of it. She recalled Rhonda talking about a branch of the Lovejoy clan that had shifted northward, following a rumor of jobs, as prospects in Acker’s Gap had steadily dwindled. Maybe Rhonda could, under the guise of visiting her relatives, stop in at Thornapple Terrace and have a look around. Nothing overt. No big deal. And then maybe, if the opportunity presented itself, Rhonda could find a chatty employee and hang out long enough to ask about Harmon Strayer’s fate.
    A cell ring tone sliced into Bell’s thoughts. It was the ring assigned to her twenty-one-year-old daughter, Carla—Adele’s “Hello”—and so, with fingers that felt paralyzed with cold despite the protection of gloves, Bell fished the phone out of her purse with extra urgency.
    â€œSweetie?”
    â€œHi, Mom.”
    â€œIs everything all—”
    â€œFine. It’s fine . Why do you always ask me that, first thing? It’s like you’re expecting to hear that I’ve screwed up.”
    â€œNo, I…” The conversation needed a reset. Bell changed directions. “It’s snowing like crazy here.”
    â€œHere, too. Has been for hours. CNN says they might shut down Reagan National. Dulles, too.”
    Carla lived with five roommates—and an untold number of mice and other anonymous freeloaders—in a tilting, fraying three-story house in Arlington, Virginia. Before that, she had lived with her father, Bell’s ex-husband, Sam Elkins, in a condo in Alexandria. She’d spent her senior year at a private school, transferring from Acker’s Gap High School after the terrifying night when she almost died at the hands of a killer whose real target was Bell. Carla had decided to postpone college for a few years, a decision that Bell found keenly disappointing, but she capitulated after sensing Carla’s resolve. Pick your battles, was the advice everyone had given her. Made sense—for moms as well as for prosecutors.
    â€œAre you home?” Bell asked.
    â€œYeah. Just watching the snow from my bedroom window. Can’t even see the pavement anymore. How about you?”
    â€œActually, I’m standing in the parking lot of a bar in Blythesburg. Getting ready to head home. Met an old friend for a drink.”
    â€œMom, come on —hang up and start driving. That’s what you’d be saying to me.”
    â€œYou’re right. I would.” Bell turned around and opened the Explorer’s door. “Kind of nice, though. Being out in it. Peaceful.” She scooted in and pulled the door shut.
    â€œPeaceful, my ass. Go home, Mom. It’s a long way from there back to Acker’s Gap. With the snow, you’re looking at an hour or more.”
    â€œSurprised you remember.” Bell started the engine, wanting to warm it up before she headed out. She’d have to wait, anyway, for the wipers to shove aside the snow that had congregated on the windshield.
    â€œOh, I remember all right. And I also remember almost skidding down the mountain when I was driving back home once with Kayleigh Crocker,” Carla said, naming one of her best friends from Acker’s Gap High School, a young woman whose wildness had continued into adulthood. Bell knew that because, as a prosecutor, she’d had several encounters in court with Kayleigh Crocker