Brenda Novak - Dead Silence (Stillwater Trilogy)

BRENDA NOVAK

DEAD SILENCE

To Donna Hayes,

Publisher and CEO of Harlequin Enterprisesa savvy, classy woman. Most readers never know the people who work so hard behind the scenes to make it possible for an author to share her stories with thousands, sometimes milions, of readers, but writers know them and appreciate them. Thank you, Donna, for navigating the tricky waters of publishing so wel.

Its great to have someone I trust at the helm! (Thanks, too, for supporting so many charitable causes, including my annual online auction to benefit diabetes research at www.brendanovak.com.)

The happiest women,

like the happiest nations, have no history.

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans,

English novelist, 18191880)

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Grace Montgomery puled to the side of the narrow country road and stared at the rambling farmhouse in which shed grown up.

Even in the heavy, blanketlike darkness of a Mississippi summer night, with only half a moon grinning eerily overhead, she could see that her older brother kept the place in good repair.

But that was al sleight of hand, wasnt it? Things werent realy what they seemed. They never had been. That was the problem

why shed promised herself she wouldnt come back here.

The yelow light gleaming in an upstairs bedroom winked out. Clay was going to bed, probably at the same time as he did every night.

Grace couldnt understand how he could live alone out here. How he could eat, sleep and work the farmonly forty paces away from where theyd hidden their stepfathers body.

The warning chime signaling that shed left her keys in the ignition sounded as she got out of her smal BMW. She hadnt planned to venture onto the property. But now that she was here, she had to see for herself that even after so many years there was nothing to give them away.

Her cotton skirt swayed gently against her calves as she walked down the long drive. There was no wind, no sound except the cicadas and frogs, and the crunch of her sandals on gravel. If shed forgotten anything, it was the quiet in this part of the state and how brightly the stars could shine away from the city.

She pictured herself as a young girl, sleeping on the front lawn with her younger sister, Moly, and her older stepsister, Madeline. Those were special times, when theyd talked and laughed and gazed up at the black velvet sky to find al those twinkling stars staring right back at them like a silent promise of good things to come. Theyd al been so innocent then. When Madeline was around, Grace had had nothing to fear. But Madeline couldnt stick by Graces side every minute. She hadnt even realized she should. She stil didnt know what it was like for Grace back then. Shed been at a friends house the night everything went wrong.

Despite the humidity, Grace shivered as she came upon the barn.

Set off to the right, it lurked among the weeping wilows and poplars. She hated everything associated with the old building. It was there shed cleaned out the stal of the horse her stepfather wouldnt let anyone but him ride. It was there shed gathered the eggs and fought with the mean rooster who used to fly at her in an attempt to gouge out her eyes. It was there, in the front corner of the building, that the reverend had kept a smal office where he retired to write his Sunday sermonsand to delve into that locked file drawer.

The smel of moist earth and magnolias brought it al back too vividly, causing her to break out in a cold sweat. Curving her fingernails into her palms to remind herself that she was no longer a powerless girl, she immediately steered her thoughts away from the reverends office. Shed promised herself shed forget.

But she certainly hadnt forgotten yet. Despite her best efforts, she couldnt help wondering if that stifling room was stil untouched.

Except for what the reverend had kept in his file drawer, the office had been left intact, as if he might someday reappear and want to use it. Her mother had insisted theyd be foolish to change anything.

Shed driled it into al of them, except Madeline of course, that they must continue to refer to the reverend in the present tense. Folks in town were already suspicious enough.

Stilwaters residents had long memories, but eighteen years had passed since the reverends sudden disappearance. Surely after so much time Clay could dismantle that damn office.

A deep voice came suddenly out of the dark. Get the hel off my property or Il shoot.

Grace whirled to see a man at least six foot four inches tal, so solidly built he could have been made of stone, standing only a few feet away. It was her brother, and he had a rifle trained on her.

For the briefest of moments, Grace wished hed shoot.

But then she laughed. Clay was as vigilant as ever. Not that she was realy surprised. Hed always been The Guardian.

What? Yal dont know your own sister anymore? she said and stepped out of the buildings shadow.

Grace? The barrel of the hunting rifle dove toward the ground and he twitched as though tempted to gather her in a hug. Grace felt a similar response, but made no move toward him. Their relationship was toocomplicated.

God, Grace. Its been thirteen years since you left. I barely recognize you. You couldve gotten yourself shot, he added gruffly.

She said nothing about that brief cowardly impulse: One bulletcould end it all.

Realy? she murmured. I wouldve recognized you anywhere.

Maybe it was because she thought of him so often. Besides, he hadnt changed much. He stil had the same thick black haireven darker than Gracesthat swirled up off his forehead. The light, enigmatic eyes that looked so much like her own. That same determined set to his prominent jaw. Hed put on a few more pounds of muscle mass, maybe, which made her feel smal at five-five and a hundred and twenty pounds. But his bulkier size was the only difference.

I expected you to be asleep, she said.

Saw your car pul up out front.

Wouldnt want to let just anyone go creeping around out here.

If he heard the taunt in her voice, he didnt respond to it. Except to glance furtively toward the copse of trees that served as a marker for their stepfathers grave.

After a stilted silence, he said, Living in Jackson must agree with you. You look good.

Shed been doing quite wel in the city. Until George E. Dunagan, Attorney-at-Law, had asked her to marry him. When, for the third time, she couldnt say yes, even though they both knew she wanted to, hed finaly broken off the relationship. Hed told her he didnt want to hear from her until shed seen a therapist and resolved the issues of her childhood.

Shed tried visiting a therapistbut counseling hadnt helped. There were too many realities she didnt want to examine. Others she wanted to share but couldnt, not with a therapist or anyone else, including George. Although George had recently relented and started caling her again, Graces problems stil stood between them.

She hoped that wouldnt be true for much longer. Either shed overcome the past or the past would overcome her. She couldnt know how it would al end. She could only promise herself that she wouldnt return to her life in Jackson until shed come to terms with what had happened in Stilwater.