Always Time to Die: A Novel

407 Pages·2005·11.82 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Lowell

A L W A Y S
T I M E
T O D I E
EE LL II ZZ AA BB EE TT HH LL OO WW EE LL LL
For
Eric and Miranda
The future is yours.

QUINTRE
M
ALE DE
LL LINE
ESCENT
Contents

QUINTRELL LINE
PROLOGUE
The cutting edge of a winter storm made the old house sigh and moan as…
ONE
Two men squinted against the wind and stared down at the quintrell
family…
TWO
Carly may had been raised in the Colorado Rockies, which meant that
she…
THREE
The Duran family lived on the outskirts of taos, beyond the tourist area…
FOUR
Andy Quintrell v reached for another beer, only to have his father take…
Five
Carly walked down a hallway in the old castillo home. With each step
she…
SIX
Dan shut the weathered door of the taos morning record behind him. He…
SEVEN
Carly glanced around the clean, worn reception area of the taos morning…
EIGHT
The writing was in the erratic faint scrawl of a man at the end of his…
NINE
Carly murmured into her collar as she bent over the microfilm
reader…
TEN
“Thank you, missy,” josh said, reaching for the sandwich melissa
moore…
ELEVEN
Carly’s stomach growled.
TWELVE
At the back of the quintrell house, Dan parked his truck, got out, and…
THIRTEEN
The kitchen door shut behind carly, leaving her literally out in the cold…
FOURTEEN
Carly tried not to think about anything on the bumpy ride to Taos. She…
FIFTEEN
Carly struggled out of a nightmare of gutted rats and blood spurting in…
SIXTEEN
Josh quintrell hung up the phone and rubbed his forehead.
SEVENTEEN
Carly flipped quickly through photographs, placing them in a kind of…
EIGHTEEN
Dan put another sheet on the glass bed of the scanner, punched the
button…
NINETEEN
The sheriff’s temporary office was a lot newer than the tourist part of…
TWENTY
“What about Jim Snead?” Melissa asked, resting her hip casually
against…
TWENTY-ONE
As carly climbed down the steps of the sheriff’s temporary quarters, the…
TWENTY-TWO
Lucia heard the rumble of her husband’s big ford expedition, the slam
of…
TWENTY-THREE
Melissa opened the front door. “hello, dan, carly.” Though she hadn’t…
TWENTY-FOUR
The governor’s mansion had been designed to invite visitors to be
comfortable…
TWENTY-FIVE
Dan glanced around his rental house. It looked like a photographic…
TWENTY-SIX
Dan stretched his left leg and kneaded muscles that wanted to knot up…
TWENTY-SEVEN
Melissa covered her face while the helicopter settled onto the small pad…
TWENTY-EIGHT
The house phone rang, waking Dan from a restless sleep. By the time
the…
TWENTY-NINE
Jeanette dykstra’s lips moved but no sound came from the TV Screen…
THIRTY
Melissa made her final rounds of the house, checking that outer doors…
THIRTY-ONE
A bleary-eyed Dr. Sands confirmed what everyone already knew:
Sylvia…
THIRTY-TWO
“What do we have so far?” Carly asked, looking at her checklist.
THIRTY-THREE
Governor Josh quintrell shifted on the metal folding chair. His
expression…
THIRTY-FOUR
Thanks to bad weather in new hampshire, the governor’s plane had been…
THIRY-FIVE
They hadn’t been on the road very long, but Carly knew she’d throw up
if…
THIRTY-SIX
Winifred ignored the sluggishness of her body and mind, strength lost…
THIRTY-SEVEN
Carly awoke with the first light slipping past the curtains into Dan’s
bedroom…
THIRTY-EIGHT
Dan parked in front of his parents’ house, next to the old car they had…
THIRTY-NINE
“Why can’t I come with you?” Carly asked. “why should Gus have to
run…
FORTY
SNOW lay sparsely along the narrow road. The housing was a
combination…
FORTY-ONE
Carly stretched, then bent over the microfilm reader and went back to…
FORTY-TWO
Carly pushed against the plywood, holding it in place while Dan
hammered…
FORTY-THREE
The winter sun was gone from the sky, leaving only the faintest tinge of…
FORTY-FOUR
The nightscope makes it easy. Good thing. The cold is taking the feeling…
FORTY-FIVE
Carly smacked her hands together. Even inside lined gloves, her fingers…