Read Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place for Free Online Page A

herself on a large piece of Formica countertop from what had once been a seventies-era kitchen. It annoyed her that the Spokane tech was taking over the scene. She moved closer, to claim her turf.
    Mark Martin had been a handsome man, in good physical condition for someone in his early fifties-lean and muscular. He worked for the local power utility as its chief engineer and was known to bike the dozen miles to the office in the summer. His curly silvering hair was matted with mud. His blank eyes stared into nothingness.
    “Let’s shoot stills and video and get him with his wife,” Emily said, kneeling by the body and studying every inch of its battered form.
    Peg Martin’s body was already ziplocked and ready for the ambulance and the ride to Spokane where she’d be processed as if she were nothing. Not the bake-sale lady. Not the woman who did everything for the community whenever anyone asked. Peg was an apparent murder victim. Emily looked at Mark Martin’s battered and nearly sanded-off skin. He had on boxer shorts and a single sock. He might have had on a shirt, but it was gone with his arms.
    She was sure he, too, had been the victim of a gunshot wound. A scenario played in Emily’s mind. It was a familiar one. She’d worked at least three cases of similar presentation back in Seattle. She thought about the position of the wounds and whether or not they were dealing with a murder/suicide. She hadn’t heard there were any problems between the Martins. She had checked. There had never been a single domestic violence call from their residence to the sheriff’s office. Not a single one. They had seemed a happy couple, though they did tend to stick to themselves. Peg did her school stuff like a trooper, but Mark was a more introspective type-the typical engineer.
    “The kind that snaps,” Emily said to herself.
    A gentle breeze blew from the north, picking up a little dust and fiber. The scene was not really the type to yield much in the way of trace forensics. A tornado had likely stripped away any scraps of evidence. The processing going on now was more about documenting that everything had been done properly when the defense got Emily on the stand. She doubted it would ever get that far, though. It seemed like the shooter was dead. The only question was where were the boys?
    Emily caught the loose tendrils of her long ponytail and stuck them behind her ear. The wind blew harder. It seemed that time stood still. People were frozen in their duties, digging through the debris, ferrying a body bag to the second victim. Even the flashing lights atop the cruiser seemed to become still. Her heart stopped, too. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something she didn’t want to see.
    She knew they had to be there.
    Where else could they be?
    “Please, no,” she said softly as the world started to crank back into action, at first in a stop-start fashion like one of those old school filmstrips. Then faster. Then finally at normal speed. She turned her attention to a chunk of drywall with some obvious blood spatter. It was about ten feet from where she stood.
    “What is it?”
    The voice was Jason Howard’s. The earnest deputy could see that Emily was frozen in her tracks. Stiff. Intent on something in the remains of the house.
    “He’s over there,” she said, indicating the drywall.
    Jason walked closer, but didn’t see what Emily had discovered.
    “Help me move this,” she said. The pair bent over and lifted the chalky board. It was like turning a rock at the beach to see what might scurry out to get away from the exposure of the light of day. Yet nothing moved.
    “It’s Donovan, I think. Maybe Nicholas,” she said. “I saw the tips of his fingers”
    “Jesus, Detective,” Jason said, remembering how touchy Emily had been. The boy was in jeans and a button-down shirt. Remarkably, he was intact. Even his face, which struck Emily as resembling his mother’s so much that it was disconcerting, was