Three Can Keep a Secret Read online

  He was glad the man was dead, though; gladder still that he’d been murdered. Even a man as hard as Paul Canfield had found this former comrade-in-arms to be a heartless, manipulative bastard.

  Not that he hadn’t done good work. Or hadn’t made them all a pile of money. Canfield would give him that much. The son of a bitch could work the system—he and his sugar daddy Harold LeMieur. Talk about having friends in the right places.

  Canfield placed his hands on the arms of his chair and painfully struggled to stand, pausing at the end of the process to take a breath. He’d read about Marshall dying days ago—admittedly from natural causes, according to the one early report that he’d read. Now it was Scott’s turn.

  Canfield shuffled over to the bookcase beside his fireplace and stood before an elaborately framed glass box sitting on a shelf at eye level. He turned on the special light switch on its side, filling its interior with an attractive golden glow.

  There they all were—youthful, vibrant, full of vitality and promise. The young bucks of the party’s conservative wing, complete with glasses raised. Less ideologues than opportunists, this particular group had used the cause as a cloak to pad their pockets and quench their appetites. The Catamount Cavaliers—the elite of the elite, as they’d seen themselves.

  He scanned the several photographs surrounding the dark purple lapel pin that he’d had mounted in the middle of the box, right over a copy of the group’s tongue-in-cheek rules. He studied Scott’s face, Marshall’s, his own, and the others’. Three of the four pictures featured women, their gaiety touched—he thought now—with perhaps a hint of apprehension.

  They’d had good reason for that, he reminisced. People would have a fit today, if they knew what the Cavaliers had been all about. He smiled at the memories that brought to mind.

  The doorbell rang, straightening his back and creating a scowl.

  At this hour?

  He turned away from the display and headed slowly for the cabin’s entrance, turning on the porch light as he opened the door.

  Before him stood a slight, white-haired woman, younger than he by a few years, with an embarrassed smile on her face.

  “I’m so sorry to bother you,” she said. “But my car stopped running, a mile down the road. I don’t know why. I was so happy I saw your light through the woods.…”

  She left the thought unfinished, no doubt expecting Canfield to follow up with an invitation for her to at least use his phone to call for help.

  But he didn’t, true to nature. He just stood there, watching her face, his forehead furrowed.

  “Could I come in?” she asked. “I don’t have a cell, and I ought to call a wrecker or someone.”

  Reluctantly, he stepped back and widened the door, asking, “Do I know you?”

  She looked up and smiled as she entered.

  ALSO BY ARCHER MAYOR

  Paradise City

  Tag Man

  Red Herring

  The Price of Malice

  The Catch

  Chat

  The Second Mouse

  St. Albans Fire

  The Surrogate Thief

  Gatekeeper

  The Sniper’s Wife

  Tucker Peak

  The Marble Mask

  Occam’s Razor

  The Disposable Man

  Bellows Falls

  The Ragman’s Memory

  The Dark Root

  Fruits of the Poisonous Tree

  The Skeleton’s Knee

  Scent of Evil

  Borderlines

  Open Season

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ARCHER MAYOR, a New York Times bestselling novelist, is an investigator for the sheriff’s department, the state medical examiner, and has twenty-five years of experience as a firefighter and EMT. He lives near Brattleboro, Vermont.

  VISIT HIS WEB SITE AT WWW.ARCHERMAYOR.COM.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THREE CAN KEEP A SECRET. Copyright © 2013 by Archer Mayor. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.minotaurbooks.com

  Cover design by Ervin Serrano

  Cover photographs: road by Tom Jacques Photography/Getty Images; Mark Owen/Arcangel Images

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Mayor, Archer.

  Three can keep a secret: a Joe Gunther novel / Archer Mayor. — First Edition.

  pages cm

  ISBN 978-1-250-02613-2 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-250-02614-9 (e-book)

  1. Gunther, Joe (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Police—Vermont—Fiction. 3. Murderers—Fiction. 4. Burglars—Fiction. 5. Brattleboro (Vt.)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3563.A965T47 2013

  813'.54—dc23

  2013016673

  e-ISBN 9781250026149

  First Edition: October 2013