The Ex Who Glowed in the Dark (Charley's Ghost) Read Online Free

computers. He had me coding while I was still in grade school.” Dawson’s lips tilted upward in a small sad smile at the memory.
    “Coding?” Amanda repeated. “Like in The DaVinci Code ?” Instead of clearing things up, Dawson sounded goofier with every word.
    “Writing source code for computer programs. You write it in English, then you compile it to machine language and—”
    Amanda held up a hand. She could tell Dawson was going off into a language that might as well be machine code for all it meant to her. He did that a lot, assumed she understood everything he said. “Got it. You were writing computer programs at an early age. Go on.”
    “Mom worked at a bank. She taught college before Grant and I came along, but she liked the short hours at the bank so she could spend more time with us.”
    “They sound like wonderful people. I’m sorry you lost them so young.”
    Charley snorted. “I can’t believe you’re really falling for this garbage.”
    Amanda made a note to remind Charley that she’d been naïve enough to fall for his garbage and marry him.
    “My parents were wonderful,” Dawson agreed. His eyes became moist, but he wiped them with the back of his hand and continued. “Looking back, I think they got a little quiet and secretive in the last few months, but I didn’t really notice at the time. I was only eighteen. I’d just graduated from high school and was excited about going on to college. I was a selfish kid, completely involved in my own life.”
    He sounded as if he thought eighteen was very young and very long ago, but if his parents died two years before, he could only be twenty now. Three years younger than the identification he’d given her when he applied for the job as her assistant. Then or now, one time or the other, he’d deceived her. She’d have sworn he was always honest, incapable of deceit. Second time she’d got that wrong about somebody, and the first one still haunted her. Literally.
    “One evening Mom and Dad went to a play. Grant and I were supposed to go too. We had season tickets for all of us, and usually we went together. But that night Grant wanted to stay home and play some online game with his buddies. I made fun of him for wanting to play a little kid game.” Dawson bit his lip. “I didn’t mean it. I was just being a rude big brother. But I told Mom and Dad I’d stay home with him. It was a musical, and I didn’t really want to go either. So they went without us, and on the way home, their car ran off the road and crashed. There wasn’t a lot left of the car, but the police found evidence of a bomb.”
    Amanda’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Dawson! I’m so sorry!” She still wasn’t sure about the false identities and the kidnapped brother, but she heard the sincerity and sadness in his voice when he spoke of his parents’ deaths.
    Charley harrumphed but said nothing.
    “The police came to the door and told us. They offered to send over a counselor, but Grant and I didn’t want a stranger in the house. Grant kept saying it wasn’t true, they’d made a mistake. He was nine then, just a little kid. He ran into their room and started throwing things around, looking everywhere, like he was going to find them in the closet or under the bed. I tried to calm him, but then he opened Dad’s briefcase, and there was an envelope addressed to Mom that said, To be opened in the event of my death. ” He paused and swallowed. “I opened it and found a key to a safe deposit box along with a letter telling her what to do if anything happened to him. In that letter he said he was talking to the authorities, but he wasn’t sure he trusted the guy. He said the safe deposit box contained cash and new identities for Mom, Grant and me in case something happened. I guess he hadn’t counted on Mom being killed too.”
    Dawson took a tissue from the box on the desk and blotted his eyes. Amanda found her own suspiciously moist.
    “In his letter Dad gave