Read Online No Escape by Meredith Fletcher - Free Book Online Page B

he’d sat in an immersion tank for over seven minutes before breaking free of his shackles. He was well short of other magicians’ time, but anytime a feat like that was done, it was impressive. The pay channels had eaten it up. Another time, he’d levitated himself in an effort to get out of a notoriously haunted house that burned down around him while malign spirits tried to keep him within the fire. Lauren didn’t believe in malign spirits, but the performance had been nerve-racking all the same.
    No one knew what Gibson would do next.
    “He doesn’t like to repeat himself.”
    Heath didn’t say anything to that.
    “You could be wrong, you know.” Lauren spoke pointedly, getting her words across like hammer blows. “You’re focusing on Gibson because he was in a photograph with Megan. The whole time you’re doing that, telling Inspector Myton that Gibson is Megan’s killer, the real killer could be getting away.”
    Heath’s clean-shaven jaw bunched, and the muscles stood out in sharp relief. His words were soft. “Gibson is the killer, Miss Cooper. Maybe if more people believed me, we could put him where he belongs more quickly. Either way, I’m going to get him. You can bet the farm on that.”
    “There’s nothing to tie Megan to the White Rabbit Killer.”
    He hesitated. “Yeah, there is. Two days ago, Inspector Myton received a black card with a white rabbit embossed on it. The Kingston police just aren’t telling anyone yet.” He looked past her. “You should go back to your mom. She probably needs you.”
    Looking over her shoulder, Lauren checked on her mother and saw that most of the family members had gone. She couldn’t just leave her mother sitting there at the gravesite. Hurting and feeling guilty about being gone so long, she turned back to address Heath.
    Only he wasn’t there. He was already several long strides away from her, moving with deceptive speed through the graveyard.
    Lauren considered going after him, but she didn’t know what else to say. He was set on his course, and there was nothing she could do to break him of that.
    He’s not your problem. She concentrated on that, then turned and walked back to rejoin her mother.

Chapter 6
    “Y ou need to eat, Lauren. I can fix you something if you’d like.”
    “I’m all right, Mom. You should rest. Or, if you’re hungry, I can make you something.” Lauren perched uneasily on the edge of the couch in the living room where she’d spent the best years of her life. She didn’t know what to do with herself. She was exhausted from the funeral, but she knew she couldn’t rest. Thoughts of Megan’s murder and Gibson kept whirling around inside her head. And Atlanta, Georgia, detective Heath Sawyer was in those thoughts way too much for any degree of comfort.
    “No, honey. I’m fine.” Her mother didn’t look fine. The days since Megan’s murder had sapped energy from her that she didn’t have to spare. Her skin was pale and blotchy. Now that they were back home, at the house where Lauren had finished growing up in, her mother had taken off her wig, pulled on a crocheted cap to cover her bald head and sat in her favorite chair.
    The television was blank, but the street noise drifted in through the closed windows. Outside, children played in yards, celebrating the arrival of summer and the end of school. Lauren didn’t have many of those memories of playing in the neighborhood at that age. She’d been older when she’d arrived, but she could remember the other, younger kids in the neighborhood doing that. Whitman Park was only a couple of blocks away.
    Lauren sat on the couch and felt alone. As heavily medicated and as tired as her mother was, she was barely there. The pain between them was so raw that it couldn’t be touched.
    After a little while, her mother slept in the chair. Unable to sit there any longer, Lauren got up quietly and retreated to the kitchen to fix a cup of tea. It felt good going in the kitchen,