the dead girl (BREAKDOWN Book 1) Read online

  Laney Holt breezed by Dana’s table with an order of fries and a bottle of flavored water then dropped into a seat at Nolan’s table.

  He didn’t look happy to see her.

  Gauging by the level look she laid on him, she wasn’t happy to see him either. “I still need your DNA,” Laney told Nolan.

  Dana didn’t deliberately listen but, when people seated three feet from you talk, unless you cotton-stuff your ears, you can’t help overhearing their conversation.

  “Why?” Surprise flickered through Nolan’s eyes. “You’ve got your killer. Word’s out all over the lake Vinn Bradshaw confessed.”

  Laney finished chewing a fry, swallowed and then sipped from her water bottle. “Paperwork,” she said.

  “You want my blood to check off a box to make sure your case sticks?” He shot her a resent-laced look of disgust.

  “Exactly.” Her lips curved in a smile that never touched her eyes.

  “And?” He pushed.

  “And a witness saw a man fitting your description running away from Sylvia Cole’s house the night she was murdered. Chief McCabe wants no loose ends.”

  “I don’t care what McCabe wants.” Nolan frowned. “You clowns get a description that fits half the men around here and naturally you come after me.”

  Laney’s voice stiffened, but her expression appeared as calm as it had before the tension between them rocketed. “This clown is trying to eliminate you as a possibility, Ikard.” She tilted her head. “Wait a second. Are you saying it was you?”

  Silence.

  Laney bit into another fry, let the silence stretch, yawn, settle. Finally, she asked, “Did Sylvia tell you she was planning a vacation to Venezuela?”

  Dana’s heart rate sped. She kept her nose down and her gaze focused on her papers. One night after Yoga class at the Community Gathering Center, Sylvia had told Dana about that trip. A few weeks ago, Sylvia had even come to Dana’s cottage to see her mask collection. They’d talked for a few hours. Before Phoenix and coming to Shutter Lake, Dana had loved to travel. She’d spent her summers exploring, including three trips to Venezuela.

  Nolan answered Laney. “Sylvia didn’t tell me anything about any vacation anywhere. We didn’t talk much.”

  “So was it you—running away from her house that night?”

  “No.”

  As if she hadn’t heard him, Laney went on. “There’s one thing I don’t understand.” She polished off her last fry, took a long draw on her water. “Why did you climb out of the window instead of leaving through the door?”

  No answer.

  She dusted the salt from her fingertips with a paper napkin. “I get that Shutter Lake is a small community and maybe you two didn’t want to broadcast your intimate relationship, but…the window?”

  “I told you.” Nolan’s jaw tightened and he leaned forward in his seat. “Sylvia and I were friends back in school. It was a long time ago. You knew her. That woman had no interest in a relationship with me or anyone else. She was as independent as people come.”

  “Just in it for the sex. Got it.” Not one to cower, Laney leaned in, spoke to him nearly nose to nose. “So you went out the window to show her you’re independent, too. Uh-huh. Well, that makes perfect sense.” Her sarcasm couldn’t be missed. She scooted back her seat then stood up. “You’ve got twenty-four hours to come to the station and handle that DNA sample.”

  “Or what?” he said, his voice a sharp and cutting tone Dana had never before heard him utter. “No. You know what? Forget it.” He glared up at Laney. “You want my DNA, get with my lawyer.”

  “You have a lawyer?” Laney bared her teeth in a would-be smile. “Does he have a name?”

  “Morris Barton.”

  Her smile turned genuine. “Ah, here’s a tip. You might want to start looking for a replacement. Barton is Vinn’s lawyer.” She turned. “Twenty-four hours, Ikard.”

  Nolan didn’t draw a breath until Laney exited the door of Stacked and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

  Muttering and agitated, he finished his meal.

  Dana ordered a cup of coffee, studied her papers with her mind whirling, and waited.

  Finally, Nolan left and, when the door closed behind him, she phoned Laney. “You need to come back to Stacked right away.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Just get back here as fast as you can.” Dana caught the waitress two steps away from Nolan’s table. “Don’t touch anything.”

  The startled waitress jerked back and darted a worried look at Dana. “What?”

  “Don’t touch anything on that table.” Dana hated this. But Vinn’s whole future could ride on what happened next, and no one was going to rob him of it. Not on her watch.

  Scant minutes later, Laney entered Stacked and rushed straight over to Dana. “What’s wrong?”

  “I told you on the phone, nothing is wrong.”

  Laney stilled, parked a hand on her hip. “Then why am I here, Dana?”

  “On TV, I saw an investigator going through a person of interest’s trash. The can wasn’t on his property, it was at the curb, waiting for the collector. He said once trash is abandoned, it’s legal for him to look in it for evidence. Is that true?”

  “Well, yes,” Laney said, looking a little bewildered. “If it can be proven that it wasn’t contaminated.”

  Dana rubbed an itch at her earlobe, tugging it. “Meaning, no one else touched the abandoned trash?”

  “Right.”

  Dana nodded toward Nolan’s table. “Well, Nolan Ikard abandoned his trash at that table and left Stacked. His DNA is on that fork and glass.”

  Laney’s eyes narrowed. “Has anyone—“

  Dana cut in. “The waitress delivered his food, but since he abandoned the trash, the table and departed, no one else has come near that table. It’s untouched,” Dana said. “I’ll swear to it.”

  Laney nodded, appreciation lighting her eyes. “Let me grab an evidence bag.”

  Dana pulled the Ziploc from her purse. “Here you go.”

  A smile curled Laney’s lips. “How long has that puppy been in your purse?”

  Good question. One Dana couldn’t answer. “Not a clue.”

  “Best use mine, then.” Laney retrieved a bag and gathered the evidence. She turned to the waitress. “You can clear the table now. Thanks for waiting.”

  Dana gathered her papers and put them back into the sheath, then dumped the file into her tote.

  Laney stepped over to her, the filled evidence bag in hand. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Why did you do this?” Laney’s sunglasses rested parked atop her head.

  “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. An opportunity arose, so…”

  “You seized it. I see.” Laney faced Dana squarely. “You’re convinced Vinn is innocent.”

  “I know he is innocent, Laney. Just as I know, until the real murderer is behind bars, I have three hundred other kids still in jeopardy.”

  “How do you know Vinn’s confession isn’t real? You’re a school principal and a psychologist, for heaven’s sake. You know better than most that given the right circumstances anyone can kill.”

  “Yes, of course, I do. But Vinn didn’t. For those same reasons, I know that, too,” Dana said quietly. “I just can’t prove it.”

  “I hear an unspoken yet on the end of that remark.” Compassion crossed Laney’s face and settled into a frown. “Dana, you want to protect your students. I get that. I want to protect them, too.”

  “Of course, you do.”

  “Well, then. Let’s do what we do best. You are the pro at the school, so I won’t try to run it, and I’m the pro at police work, so don’t you try to run my investigation, okay? Just do your job and let me do my job.”

  “Sharing a few notes, but I wouldn’t dream of interfering.”

  Laney cleared her throat. “Course not.” She backed up a step and checked her watch. “If I hurry, I can
get this to the lab before the press conference.”

  “Don’t forget girls’ night out. Wednesday night.”

  “Seven o’clock. The Wine and Cheese House,” Laney said. “I’ll be there.” She stopped and looked back. “Did you remind Julia?”

  “She’s on my list,” Dana said. Julia Ford, a former investigative journalist who now wrote a weekly column for The Firefly, their community newspaper, which also ran in The Sacramento Bee, tended to forget. Actually, trying to forget is what had brought her to Shutter Lake—not that anyone knew it, and those who did, like Dana, were sworn to secrecy on the subject. “I told Ana, too,” Dana added. Dr. Ana Perez ran the medical clinic. She was single like the rest of them and she might be able to offer valuable insight on Vinn.

  “Sounds good,” Laney said, then rushed out the door on her way to the lab.

  Dana gathered the rest of her things. With luck, she could catch Thomas at his office. If anyone could get Chief McCabe to let her in to see Vinn, it’d be the mayor. One way or another, she had to get in to see Vinn.

  If Thomas Jessup’d had half as much trouble calming the community as she’d had calming her staff, students and their parents, they both could use a soothing word, a quiet dinner and a stiff drink. Maybe two…

  Want to keep reading? Order your copy of so many secrets by Vicki Hinze now by clicking here!

  The BREAKDOWN Novels

  (Best read in order.)

  the dead girl by Debra Webb

  so many secrets by Vicki Hinze

  all the lies by Peggy Webb

  what she knew by Regan Black

  DON’T MISS

  If you enjoyed the dead girl, please consider leaving a review so other readers can find it, too.

  Read Laney’s short read: the story of the event that forever changed her life, no looking back, by clicking here.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DEBRA WEBB is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 150 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency and the Shades of Death series. She is the recipient of the prestigious Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense as well as numerous Reviewers Choice Awards. In 2012 Debra was honored as the first recipient of the esteemed L. A. Banks Warrior Woman Award for her courage, strength, and grace in the face of adversity. Recently Debra was awarded the distinguished Centennial Award for having achieved publication of her 100th novel. With this award Debra joined the ranks of a handful of authors like Nora Roberts and Carole Mortimer.

  With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood when her mother bought her an old typewriter in a tag sale. Born in Alabama, Debra grew up on a farm and spent every available hour exploring the world around her and creating her stories. She wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn’t until she spent three years working for the Commanding General of the US Army in Berlin behind the Iron Curtain and a five-year stint in NASA’s Shuttle Program that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Since then she has expanded her work into some of the darkest places the human psyche dares to go.

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  For more information on Debra and her books visit www.debrawebb.com.