Read Dead Right for Free Online

mother and brother she loved so dearly—at least in the beginning, before he got beyond the circumstantial evidence that led everyone else to blame the Montgomerys.
    â€œNo. But thanks.” She glanced at her watch. It was nearly nine. “I’d better go.”
    â€œMaybe you should discuss this with Clay,” Grace said.
    â€œI’m sure Mr. Solozano has already purchased his plane ticket.”
    â€œWhere will he be staying?”
    â€œHere, in the guest house.”
    â€œYou don’t even know him! Is that a good idea?”
    â€œIt’ll be fine,” Madeline said.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with having him stay at the Blue Ribbon Motel?”
    â€œHe’s from L.A.”
    â€œSo?”
    Madeline wasn’t about to stick Hunter Solozano in the aging motel located next to a trailer park of ramshackle mobile homes. Besides giving him something else to look down his nose at, it’d cost her more money, and Madeline sort of liked the idea of having her P.I. so close. Then she could be sure he was working and not watching pay-per-view at her expense. “He comes highly recommended.”
    â€œMaddy—”
    â€œAfter I meet him, if I think there’s any threat, I’ll make some adjustments,” she interrupted.
    â€œO-kay,” Grace said, but her reluctance was evident in the way she drew out the word. “And you really think this guy will make a difference?”
    â€œI’m sure of it. Talk to you later.” As Madeline disconnected, she realized that she was putting an inordinate amount of trust in Hunter. She could be setting herself up for a big disappointment. But every investigator who’d recommended him had done so in the most glowing terms. And she needed to believe he would bring her resolution at last.
    It was odd, though. Even thoughts of ultimate success made Madeline nervous. She supposed, deep down, she was more terrified of the truth than she’d ever wanted to admit. Even to herself. She knew almost everyone in town, so chances were good she’d also know her father’s murderer.
    Â 
    Clay stared out his kitchen window at the barn where it had all started. The sun peeked from behind the clouds, giving the hulking structure a long, ominousshadow that stretched across the yard, reaching almost to the chicken coop.
    Unfortunately, the shadow of the man they’d buried behind it stretched even farther. Clay had been only sixteen the night everything went wrong. Yet those events continued to haunt him.
    Twenty damn years… And he knew that what had happened would still bother him after sixty years.
    Shaking his head, he let his eyes shift to the front of the barn. After his sisters had left for college and his mother had moved to town, he’d converted the stables that had once housed the reverend’s mean horse and a couple of boarder horses into a large open area where he could restore antique cars. But the section that had once been Lee Barker’s office sat dark and empty. Clay had no plans to use that space; he never even went in there. It evoked too many memories of the man he hated more than he’d ever hated anyone.
    Clay clenched his jaw as he imagined his stepfather standing at the window of that office, watching carefully to be sure the farm chores were done to his specifications. Once Irene had married the reverend, Clay had become little more than a slave. But what Barker had done to Grace was far worse….
    â€œYou’re never inside this time of day. What’s wrong?”
    Turning, Clay saw his wife come into the room. He’d been expecting her. She helped out at their daughter’s school every Tuesday but was usually back by noon.
    â€œGrace called,” he said, his gaze lingering on her as it always did. Just looking at Allie’s wide brown eyes, smooth complexion and ready smile soothed him.
    Only she wasn’t smiling now. He could tell by the way she put her