Silent Creed Read Online Free

political clout and arming herself with positive sound bites to win a reelection campaign that had quickly tightened and become messy.
    There was a time when her Colombian-born husband—no, ex-husband. She needed to remember that. She couldn’t chance mixing that up again. There was a time when George Ramos, with his Hollywood good looks and his charms, had been a guaranteed vote-cincher. But now . . .
    Thirteen years of marriage. How could she not have known that he was running drugs? Not just running them! For God’s sake, he was the head of a Colombian cartel’s southeastern territory in the United States. His upcoming trial could derail her entire career if she wasn’t able to change the narrative somehow.
    She had done everything she could to publicly show that not only had she done the hard and painful thing of seeing to it that her husband—
damn it, ex-husband!
She had seen to it that her ex-husband—and the father of her two children—had been indicted. There would be no favors, no exceptions, absolutely no help from her during his trial. In fact, she would see to it that he got the harshest sentence possible. As a United States senator, she still had enough influence in her home state to make sure George Ramos paid for his crimes.
    But none of that would be possible if she wasn’t able to find some positive optics to help her win reelection, and that’s what she hoped this congressional hearing would do.
    She elbowed her way up the final stretch of steps and made it through the doors without having to make a comment and, more important, without hearing a single derogatory slur hurled at her. A good start to the day. Yes, crazy that no one calling her a drug whore or
puta
was enough to count as a good day.
    Ellie’s chief of staff joined them in the entrance, taking his usual place, walking alongside her. His greeting was curt. Instead of a customary cup of coffee, he handed her a folded piece of paper without breaking stride.
    There were too many people around for her to ask about it, especially after he had taken such pains to hand this message to her without attracting any attention. And because she didn’t trust her reaction to not attract attention, she’d need to wait. But she already knew her good start had just been upended.

5.
    Haywood County, North Carolina
    C reed had left behind a sunny, warm day to plunge down into bruise-colored gray that made the afternoon look like night. The pilot managed to land before the lightning kicked up again. Creed asked Isabel Klein how long it had been raining.
    “It hasn’t stopped.”
    Creed had worked the aftermath of three hurricanes, helping to search for survivors as well as those who weren’t so lucky. Weather could often be your biggest adversary during a search. Rain and wind affected scent by dispersing it. Temperature added more challenges. Heat helped advance decomposition, but hot and humid weather could wear down a dog and the handler. September in North Carolina should be manageable. He had checked the forecast to see seventies during the day and fifties at night. The rain could change both.
    Landslides brought a bunch of other challenges. It might seem counterproductive to want the rain to continue, although a mist would be preferable to this downpour. But as soon as the rain stopped and the dirt and mud began to dry, it would be like hunting for scent through concrete. Last year he’d spent six days in Oso, Washington, after a landslide that claimed forty-three lives.
    During the drive to the site, Creed and Bolo sat in the backseat. He’d connected the safety belt through the dog’s harness but kept a hand on Bolo’s back. The downpour made it impossible for Creed to get a sense of the local terrain. When he glanced at Bolo, the dog’s nose was pressed against the opposite window, as if he were trying to do the same thing.
    The two of them had worked together in similar weather. The rumble and occasional crash of thunder didn’t