Free Hush by Carey Baldwin Page A

in a row.” He didn’t have a clue what Beckett did on Castle, but he was in for a penny already. “So we’re going to stop a killer and find Simone and Bobby by using petrified poster board, colored pens and…your knowledge of television crime shows? Have I got that right?”
    Hurt welled in her eyes. Instantly he regretted his sarcasm. Beneath her cheerful facade, Anna was terrified, and with good reason. Her sister was missing. Mere hours ago a gunman had ambushed them. And now, while Anna was busy keeping a stiff upper lip and trying to make the best of dire circumstances, he was busy acting like a jackass because she didn’t kiss him good morning. It was time for him to get his head on straight and be the man she needed him to be.
    “Hang on a minute.” He hurried to the bedroom and back, then laid his pistol on the table next to the murder board. “You know anything about guns?”
    “A little. Daddy used to keep them. He took me target shooting a few times.”
    “So maybe you can show me how to work a murder board, and I’ll refresh your memory on how to work a firearm. Okay?”
    “Okay.” She used the back of her hand to wipe a dab of moisture from her cheek.
    After removing the clip and making sure there was no bullet in the chamber, he handed her his empty gun. “This is a semiautomatic pistol, an HK 45. This is the compact model, so you should be able to handle it. Ten bullets in the magazine.”
    She held out her hand.
    “Careful.” He placed the clip in her palm.
    With the gun pointed safely away, she snapped the magazine in place.
    “That’s good,” he said, impressed by the no-nonsense way she handled the weapon.
    Beaming under his approval, she said, “I remembered how to load a pistol.”
    “Here.” He put his hands over hers and showed her what to do next. “Now you’re cocked and locked. All you have to do is flip the safety off and you’re ready to roll.”
    She set the gun back on the table and pulled a red pen from the jelly jar. “My turn. Let’s make a timeline. We’ll add anything that comes to mind, whether we think it’s important or not.” Then she wrote: Sunday afternoon—Simone and Bobby go missing .
    That didn’t seem quite right. “I think we should start the timeline earlier. After all, something important must’ve happened beforehand, leading up to Simone’s disappearance,” he said.
    “You’re right. Let’s go back at least to Saturday night and your welcome home dinner. We can backtrack further if we think of something.” Glancing up, Anna caught him staring. “Why are you looking at me that way?”
    “I was just thinking how pretty you look when you catch your bottom lip between your teeth like that.”
    Sweet Jesus, Charlie. Never say anything like that out loud again.
    Her face lifted in a full-on smile.
    Maybe just once more …
    But it was too late.
    She was all business again. “What do you remember happening at the dinner party?”
    Wanting to keep the mood light as well as do justice to his own role in this simulated Castle-Beckett crime-fighting exercise, he conjured an answer by rubbing his forehead. “Nate and Simone were happy as clams. He gave her an emerald necklace, and then that picture of Catherine Timmons came on the news.”
    He leaned his elbows on the table. This murder board thing might actually work. “Write that down. Catherine Timmons was found dead. Gunshot wound to the head…just like Megan.”
    Anna got it all down, and then her hand flew to her mouth. “I completely forgot about the letter.” She added the word LETTER in all caps. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but Simone was worried. The letter was addressed to Nate in a woman’s handwriting.”
    “What woman?”
    Anna shook her head. “I don’t know. I practically ordered Simone not to open the envelope. I told her to give it to Nate.” She looked up, wide-eyed. “I wish to God I’d opened that letter with her.”
    As well as he understood