Nightfall Read Online Free

he was simply reverting to the name his ancestors used."
    "Is it true?"
    "Not as far as I know. But Sean adjusts reality to suit his own purposes. You're Richard Tiernan, aren't you?"
    There was a quality of stillness to the man that was unnerving, despite the fact that he'd stopped his advance. "Guilty," he said.
    If he'd been looking for a conversation stopper he couldn't have chosen a more effective one. Cassidy felt a shiver of pure, superstitious panic wash over her, and then she fought back, hating the feeling, the sense of oppression he brought out in her.
    "Really?" she said brightly, buttoning her blouse, realizing with perverse disappointment that he didn't even notice. "I gathered you were insisting on your innocence."
    His faint smile should have warned her. "Merely a figure of speech. I didn't realize you were familiar with my case."
    She shrugged, refusing to be intimidated. "Actually, I'm not, compared to most of the world. I don't like horror stories, and I was never fond of Stephen King."
    "If you think Stephen King is frightening, you should try reality some time."
    "I try to avoid it. At least, Sean's version of reality. Life doesn't have to be that unpleasant."
    "Sometimes there's no escape."
    The conversation was getting odder by the moment, the two of them, conversing in her father's deserted kitchen about death and murder when they hadn't even been introduced. "It's none of my concern whether you butchered your wife and children," she said, her own words shocking her. "I don't want to hear about it."
    "Don't worry, I wasn't about to confess," he said in a cool, meditative voice. "You're right, it's none of your business. Unless, of course, I felt the sudden urge to repeat my heinous crime. After all, we're alone in the apartment, and your father won't be back for hours."
    "Are you threatening me?"
    "I'm suggesting that you might benefit by being a little less trusting."
    "I don't trust you, Mr. Tiernan," she said briskly. "I'm not an idiot. I just don't think you're going to take a gun to me. If you've been around Sean and haven't resorted to your murderous ways, then I'd think I'd be relatively safe."
    "Maybe I only like to kill women," he said. "And it was a butcher knife, not a gun."
    Chicken grease wasn't the best choice on an empty stomach. Cass wondered for a moment what would happen if she threw up, right in front of the rumpled elegance of Richard Tiernan. Probably nothing. He looked like a man who didn't faze easily.
    "Did you do it?"
    There was nothing pleasant in his cynical smile. "Ask your father," he said.
    "Sean doesn't have a great allegiance to the truth." She moved then, reaching behind her to switch on the overhead lights, flooding the room with brightness. It dispelled the physical shadows. It didn't dispel the emotional ones.
    "So I've noticed," Richard said. "What about you?"
    "Oh, I worship the truth. The one benefit of a typically dysfunctional upbringing—I always say what I think and I never lie."
    "I'm not so sure I think that would qualify as a benefit. Lies can be quite useful."
    "I'm sure they can." She sounded starched and repressive, like the old maid Sean frequently accused her of being. At least she didn't sound frightened. "What are you doing here?"
    "Didn't you realize? I'm living here."
    She should have known. It was just the sort of thing Sean would do, give houseroom to a convicted murderer and then fail to tell his daughter about it. "For how long?"
    Tiernan shrugged. "Until they send me back to jail, I presume. Your father wants my help on his newest project."
    "A book proving your innocence?"
    His smile was no more than a faint curve of his mobile mouth. "That would seem logical, wouldn't it?"
    "You're not very optimistic about staying out of jail. What if your appeal works?"
    "I won't be holding my breath." He moved away from her, heading toward the refrigerator. "Does your father know you're here yet?"
    "I met him as he was leaving."
    "And he didn't tell you I