Twirled Bond (Holly Woods Files, #5) Read Online Free

fifteen years ago this weekend, they said. Her parents are holding a candlelight vigil for her at the church this year.” He scratches his head. “The news anchor said they do it every year, but because it’s been fifteen years, they’re asking everyone to come along. Apparently the police mocked up time-lapse photos of how she’d look now and all that stuff.”
    “Daniela Russo.” The memory of a raven-haired little girl instantly comes to my mind, and my heart pangs.
    “You know her?”
    “I did. We went to school together—we were best friends. I remember when she went missing. We’d just started high school.” I look down at the sticky notes in front of me and rip one off the small, bright pad. “How strange they’re making a fuss now.”
    “Was she kidnapped or something?”
    I shrug and meet Carlton’s gaze. “Who knows? Nobody was ever convicted of anything. We all assumed that, after a couple of years, yeah. She’d been kidnapped and killed somewhere far away, but there was no evidence of it. She literally went out one night and disappeared into nowhere.”
    “That’s kinda scary.”
    It is. No doubt. But, if he really wants to see scary, he can walk in on Nonna showering.
    I shudder just thinking about it.
    “I don’t think she’ll ever be found,” I say after a long moment of heavy silence. “I think it’s been too long. Unless she’s actually alive and comes back or something.”
    He raises his eyebrows. “Don’t you have hope?”
    “What for? I’d rather think the worst and be proved wrong than live in hope of something every day just to be crushed.”
    “You’re so cynical.”
    “You say cynical. I say realistic.” I sip my coffee and smile. “Don’t you have work to do instead of insulting me?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then why are you still here?”
    “I’m on a break.”
    “Carlton, it’s not even ten a.m. You’ve been here for an hour. Unless your break involves you in your car, on the way to Rosie’s to bring me cupcakes, your break is over. ”
    He grins and stands up. Before he leaves, he turns back to me. “Hey,” he says, making me look away from my laptop. “If I did that, like, six times a day, would I get six breaks?”
    “Yes. But you’d also get the bill from my doctor when I’m inevitably treated for obesity. And I’ll yell at you instead of my treadmill.”
    “Once a day works for me.”
    Works for me too. Not gonna lie.
    Silence descends through my office, broken only by the sounds of my breathing. Sighing, actually.
    I haven’t heard anything about Daniela for at least five years. If I’m honest with myself, and I always am, I’d forgotten about her and the situation. I didn’t even know her parents were still in town, but obviously, they are.
    Fifteen years.
    Wow.
    Time really does fly, doesn’t it?
     

     
    “Daniela Russo?” Drake frowns, tapping his pen against the file he’s working on. “Dark hair, pretty short, your grade in school?”
    “Yeah. You have to remember her. She was one of those larger-than-life people.” I swing my feet up onto his desk, even as he gives me a disapproving glare. “But, now, I’m wondering if you were at the academy when she went missing.”
    I narrowly miss the flying pen cap he launched in my direction.
    “I’m three years older than you, Noelle. It’s not that much.” A scowl forms on his face, his dark brows furrowing with mock annoyance.
    At least, I think it’s mock. I hope it’s mock.
    “I remember when she went missing,” he says. “The whole town started a week-long search party. Didn’t the school shut down for three days so the teachers could help?”
    Now, my brows furrow. Did it? That seems drastic.
    He stares at me flatly. “Yes, it did. I remember you moaning to Trent because Daniela was a troublemaker who’d probably just run off to spite her mom, even though she was one of your best friends.”
    “Damn,” I say under my breath. Of course he’d remember that. “I was kind