Read Eden in Winter for Free Online

notepads. Then a thin, tight voice said, ‘Hello again, Adam Blaine.’
    He knew this voice before he saw her darting at him from the side – Amanda Ferris of the
National Enquirer
 – her sharp, birdlike gaze filled with venom, her black hair cut short. ‘Still working?’ he enquired pleasantly. ‘I was worried you’d been fired.’
    Her mouth twitched in an angry, reflexive smile. Two months before, unknown to the authorities, Adam had deployed her and the tabloid’s money to ferret out the evidence against Teddy, then used the information to protect his brother – leaving Ferris without a story, and threatening her with a lawsuit if she printed her suspicions. But now she wasback, perhaps on probation, fuelled by the desire for retribution to expose Adam before she lost her job.
    ‘I wasn’t fired,’ she shot back. ‘However hard you tried.’
    ‘How nice for you,’ Adam said, and began walking. ‘But I wasn’t really trying. If I had, you wouldn’t be here.’
    ‘But I am. And I think you’re still busy covering up a crime. Actually, several crimes. Do you remember the break-in last June, at this same courthouse?’
    ‘Why would I?’
    ‘Because I think it was you who broke into Hanley’s office. You read all the files on your father’s death, then rearranged all the puzzle pieces to protect your family from a charge of murder.’
    Over his shoulder, Adam laughed softly. ‘Print that one, please. I’d like some money to build my own McMansion on the Vineyard. Another monstrosity in Chilmark, only in worse taste. If that’s possible.’
    Ferris shook her head. ‘I’ll wait until I have more – including what happened in the courtroom today. With some reverse engineering of your uncle’s story, I’ll figure out where you fit in. Maybe even including what you
really
do when you’re not attending to your family’s very special needs.’
    He turned to her on the lawn, his face and eyes hard. Instinctively, she shrank back a little. ‘And then?’ he enquired softly.
    She stood straighter. ‘Assuming you don’t kill me?’
    ‘For the moment.’
    Her lips compressed and then she spat out the words. ‘I’ll go to George Hanley and the police, then to Carla Pacelli. I don’t know which will make the better story.’ She paused a moment, then added in a lower voice, ‘Perhaps Carla willvisit you in prison. Far more likely, she’ll despise you as much as I do. Your father may be dead, but you’ll never outrun his shadow. He was far too big a man.’
    The words cut to his core. But he did not show this, or any reaction at all. Impassive, he resumed walking to the car, recalling all too clearly the actions that, more than any others, could yet entrap him.
    *
    It had begun on a warm June evening, weeks before.
    To assure his solitude, Adam had taken the ladder down to the beach below the promontory where Ben’s broken body had been found. Pulling out his cell phone, he called a former colleague for the second time that week.
    ‘I’m out of answers,’ Adam said curtly. ‘How do you get me into the courthouse?’
    ‘Not sure I can,’ Jason Lew replied laconically. ‘Even the standard security system you describe is difficult to beat. Cut the power, you trigger the alarm. And you’re also dealing with cameras inside, right?’
    ‘Yes. I’ve got the locations memorized. I also know where the control panel is – a room just off the entrance.’
    ‘That’s what I need.’ Lew paused, signalling his reluctance, then said more slowly, ‘I’d have to pose as a service guy and insert a receiver. That will connect to a switch that shuts the system down from the outside. Pushing the switch is your job.’
    ‘My leave’s running out,’ Adam told him. ‘So I don’t have much more time here. How long do you need on your end?’
    ‘Two days to build the receiver, then a day trip to the Vineyard. Say three nights from now you can go in. Assumingthey don’t spot me as an imposter,