Free Where Evil Waits by Kate Brady Page A

authorities dug, they would only find the history the Bureau had created for him.
    He started across the kitchen, pulling Kara to a bar stool at the island. He could think of a scenario or two in which he wouldn’t mind having Kara Chandler and a pair of handcuffs in the same room. This wasn’t one of them.
    Luke produced a key from his pocket and Kara lifted their wrists so he could unlock the cuffs. He didn’t.
    “Aidan,” he said, not taking his eyes off Kara, “explain to your mother this wouldn’t be a good time to turn stupid.”
    “Mom—”
    “Are you threatening me, Mr. Varón?” she snapped.
    “I’m stating a fact. When I threaten you,
querida
, you’ll know it.”
    She held his eyes but a swallow convulsed in the hollow of her throat. A slender throat, pale and smooth, and leading to things beneath her blouse Luke had already seen. That ought to be the farthest thing from mind, but standing this close, catching the same sweet whiff of perfume that had captivated him in the alley just a few hours earlier, he found it difficult keeping his mind on the reason she was here.
    Maddie had no such issues. She shot him a perturbed glare, then slipped around behind him, carrying a large canvas bag.
“Señor?”
    “Estoy listo para tú,”
he said. “I was just making sure my guests don’t get any wild ideas.” He tossed a glance to Aidan. He was ninety percent sure his actions with Kara had been harsh enough that the boy wasn’t going to do something stupid. Ten percent not.
    He stuck the key in the lock of the handcuffs. Kara rubbed her wrist.
    “Comienza con el niño,”
Luke said to Maddie.
    “Start
what
with the boy?” Kara snapped, and Maddie unzipped her bag. Glasses, a comb, and a couple pairs of scissors.
    “Darken him up and cut his hair,” Luke said. “Give him a tattoo. You ever wanted a piercing, kid?”
    Aidan looked dumbstruck. Luke picked up Kara’s macramé bag and dug inside. “Madelena will give you both a new look. It’s what you paid me for, right?” he said, coming up with the stack of bills. Twenty thousand dollars. She’d been ready. He went back into the bag and found a wig and makeup. She wasn’t completely unprepared, just mostly. He gave the wig a once-over and dropped it in the trash can. “Madelena can do better. You’re first, Aidan. There’s a bathroom back there.”
    Aidan looked at his mother, who nodded. “It’s what we were going to do anyway.”
    He didn’t like it, but followed Maddie to the back. Luke waited until they were out of sight, then picked up the pillowcase. Andrew’s sunglasses, Penny’s scarf, and what else? She said she’d been getting anonymous gifts for a year, and cards.
    He emptied the pillowcase onto the granite island. Knutson came within earshot and positioned himself so he could see.
    “Tell me about these things,” Luke said. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
    Kara stood and placed the items in a certain order, lining up one of the greeting cards with each. She picked up a pearl necklace on the far left. “This was the first thing I got. It came two months after Andrew died—there are dates on all the cards. I found it wrapped in gift paper and left on my front porch.”
    Luke looked. A standard greeting card, like those that would come in a box of stationery. The picture on the outside was a pastoral watercolor of a horse grazing in a field with wildflowers at its feet. On the inside, just a single word hand-printed in angular, black capitals: TRUTH.
    “ ‘Truth?’ ” he asked.
    “I don’t know. I didn’t understand, either, but after a while I let it go. Then, a few weeks later, same thing—a box on my doorstep. It was this, a woman’s watch.” She pushed it toward Varón, then handed him the card. It was like the first, except the horse was a different color and he nipped at grass growing beneath a split-rail fence. It had still probably come from the same box. Inside, the card read, TRUTH.
    Luke frowned