Free Silver Falls by Anne Stuart Page A

bed together, and it was…pleasant. No fireworks or earth moving, but very nice, despite David’s almost virginal shyness. And the next morning he’d asked her to marry him.
    She might have said no, until she looked at Sophie. Unlike her amazon mother, Sophie had never been particularly sturdy, and she was looking almost frail, her pale skin translucent, and on impulse Rachel had said yes, anything to get Sophie out of the city that was now synonymous with death. The accelerated math program had been the icing on the cake, clearly this was meant to be.
    The sun had been shining the day they’d arrived in Silver Falls, Washington. As far as she could tell it hadn’t been seen since.
    And now this safe place seemed suddenly dangerous. Tessa and Jessica looked too much alike. They’d both been molested and strangled. Though Tessa’s body had been found in the Bay, and Jessica had been tossed over the waterfall at the head of the mountain that loomed over the small town like a gargoyle.
    If that wasn’t bad enough, Jessica wasn’t the first. There had been others. The Sentinel printed the timeline, and Rachel read it over with grim fascination. The first was more than twenty years ago—just before David’s mother had been killed. The next was four years later, then a stretch of safety for seven years before another young, blond woman had died. And since then, nothing. Until a few days ago. Around the time when Caleb Middleton had returned to town.
    It had to be coincidental. Didn’t it? Except hadn’t he himself said it wasn’t?
    Suddenly the house felt oppressive, smothering. There was only a light mist today—liquid sunshine, David used to say playfully. For the next seven hours Sophie was safe at school. She had clear orders not to leave until Rachel picked her up, and she had no choice but trust Sophie’s good sense. Sophie was far from docile—there were times it was clear she thought Rachel was the fragile one, but in fact the two of them were alike. Strong-minded and not prey to bullshit. But she also loved her mother enough not to worry her by failing to follow orders. At least, she hoped so.
    Rachel shoved two of her cameras into the gypsy bag, grabbed her raincoat and headed out the door. She was tempted to drive until she found sunshine, but the likelihood of getting back in time to pick up Sophie was remote. For now she just needed to get away from everything and everyone, into the dark, forbidding woods that surrounded the town. It wasn’t like she was in any danger. The local victims had all been a decade younger than she was, with long, straight blond hair and no curves. No one was going to have any interest in a curvy redhead with a temper.
    She headed east, toward Silver Mountain. She was wearing her hiking shoes—she could climb upto the falls and look out over the valley. Maybe from that height she’d see sunshine somewhere in the distance.
    By the time she parked her car at the start of the trail the rain was coming down a little more enthusiastically, pelting the thick canopy of leaves overhead. She had no intention of letting it slow her down. In the four months they’d been living there she’d learned that if she waited for a sunny day she’d never leave the house. The ground was slippery beneath her feet, but she moved carefully. She’d hiked all over the world, with Sophie strapped to her back and her cameras in her hands. This puny little mountain wasn’t going to be any kind of challenge.
    There was something oddly liberating about climbing. Even with the muddy terrain beneath her feet and the wet branches slapping at her, her spirits began to rise. The water from Silver River was rushing down the hill, and she realized she’d never seen the waterfall that gave the town its name. She had more than enough time to make it up there and be back to pick up Sophie.
    The rain came down more heavily, and she