seconds. Are your phones still out?”
Daisy nodded. “At least, they were. I’ll check again. But you come with me, both of you.”
The phones were still out.
Reardon wrestled with his choices. “My car’s down there next to yours on the back road. But I don’t want to leave you two alone while I go back down there.” He paused, then added, “I guess I could take you with me.”
“I’m not leaving Lynne,” Molloy said, shaking with cold now that her clothes were saturated again. “And Toni, wherever she is.”
“Me, either. Besides,” Daisy added, “going all the way back down there would take you forever. You have to do something now! Find Toni. Find whoever hurt Lynne.”
Making up his mind, the officer moved toward the hallway. “Look, you both stay right here, okay? I’ll just take a quick look around, check on your friend in the attic, see how she is, so I’ll know what to tell the paramedics when I call them. Then I’ll go back to the car and make that call.”
Chief will chew me out for coming in here without back-up, Reardon told himself. But he didn’t see what choice he had. He couldn’t leave these girls here alone, and they were in such bad shape, they’d slow him down considerably on his trek back down the hill to the car. If the girl in the attic trunk was in as much trouble as they’d said, time was critical here.
Officer Jonah Reardon had seen with his own eyes what someone, who must have been very, very angry, had done to Dr. Milton Leo’s skull.
I guess I’m not as brave as I thought I was, he told himself wryly when he noticed his gun hand shaking as he moved up the first few stairs toward the second floor.
When he got to the second floor, he went to the open window and yanked it shut, locking it, knowing he was probably messing up a decent set of fingerprints. But he had a feeling there were plenty of other prints around this huge old place.
He found nothing on the second floor beyond various sizes of muddy footprints that he assumed belonged to the girls. The third floor was equally empty, and his stomach churned uneasily as he opened the door to the attic stairs. If the guy was still in the house, and he hadn’t been on the first, second or third floors, how many floors did that leave? Only one. The attic.
He could be down in the cellar, he thought, as he opened the attic door.
The girl in the trunk looked bad, but she was breathing. Whether she lived or died, it seemed to him as he stood at the trunk feeling her weak, thready pulse, depended upon how soon he could make that call and get an ambulance out here. Would they even be able to get through? They’d better, he thought grimly, or we’re going to have another death on our hands.
She moved then, one wrist, and only slightly, and made a sound that was half-groan, half-whisper.
If she awoke and saw the gun in his hand, she would be terrified. Laying it down on the bedspread covering her, he bent over the girl. What had they said her name was? Linda? Lynne, that was it. “Lynne?” he asked, checking her pulse again. “Lynne, can you hear me?”
He did hear the creak of a board behind him, it wasn’t as if he didn’t hear it, and he straightened up and reached for the gun, just like he’d been trained to do, but the bedspread was slippery, and so was the gun.
It slid out of his reach. It slipped and it slid on the old, faded chenille bedspread and then it was gone, disappearing into the dark depths of the trunk, and there was no time to dig down deep for it and pull it out. No time, because something made a whooshing sound behind his right ear and then something very, very hard hit the side of his head and his body flew to the right, crashing into a dress form and knocking it to the floor before he collapsed on top of it, A jagged piece of metal from the broken form drove itself into his chest as he landed.
Just before his eyes shut, Jonah Reardon saw again Dr. Milton Leo’s crushed skull and thought,
Daisy nodded. “At least, they were. I’ll check again. But you come with me, both of you.”
The phones were still out.
Reardon wrestled with his choices. “My car’s down there next to yours on the back road. But I don’t want to leave you two alone while I go back down there.” He paused, then added, “I guess I could take you with me.”
“I’m not leaving Lynne,” Molloy said, shaking with cold now that her clothes were saturated again. “And Toni, wherever she is.”
“Me, either. Besides,” Daisy added, “going all the way back down there would take you forever. You have to do something now! Find Toni. Find whoever hurt Lynne.”
Making up his mind, the officer moved toward the hallway. “Look, you both stay right here, okay? I’ll just take a quick look around, check on your friend in the attic, see how she is, so I’ll know what to tell the paramedics when I call them. Then I’ll go back to the car and make that call.”
Chief will chew me out for coming in here without back-up, Reardon told himself. But he didn’t see what choice he had. He couldn’t leave these girls here alone, and they were in such bad shape, they’d slow him down considerably on his trek back down the hill to the car. If the girl in the attic trunk was in as much trouble as they’d said, time was critical here.
Officer Jonah Reardon had seen with his own eyes what someone, who must have been very, very angry, had done to Dr. Milton Leo’s skull.
I guess I’m not as brave as I thought I was, he told himself wryly when he noticed his gun hand shaking as he moved up the first few stairs toward the second floor.
When he got to the second floor, he went to the open window and yanked it shut, locking it, knowing he was probably messing up a decent set of fingerprints. But he had a feeling there were plenty of other prints around this huge old place.
He found nothing on the second floor beyond various sizes of muddy footprints that he assumed belonged to the girls. The third floor was equally empty, and his stomach churned uneasily as he opened the door to the attic stairs. If the guy was still in the house, and he hadn’t been on the first, second or third floors, how many floors did that leave? Only one. The attic.
He could be down in the cellar, he thought, as he opened the attic door.
The girl in the trunk looked bad, but she was breathing. Whether she lived or died, it seemed to him as he stood at the trunk feeling her weak, thready pulse, depended upon how soon he could make that call and get an ambulance out here. Would they even be able to get through? They’d better, he thought grimly, or we’re going to have another death on our hands.
She moved then, one wrist, and only slightly, and made a sound that was half-groan, half-whisper.
If she awoke and saw the gun in his hand, she would be terrified. Laying it down on the bedspread covering her, he bent over the girl. What had they said her name was? Linda? Lynne, that was it. “Lynne?” he asked, checking her pulse again. “Lynne, can you hear me?”
He did hear the creak of a board behind him, it wasn’t as if he didn’t hear it, and he straightened up and reached for the gun, just like he’d been trained to do, but the bedspread was slippery, and so was the gun.
It slid out of his reach. It slipped and it slid on the old, faded chenille bedspread and then it was gone, disappearing into the dark depths of the trunk, and there was no time to dig down deep for it and pull it out. No time, because something made a whooshing sound behind his right ear and then something very, very hard hit the side of his head and his body flew to the right, crashing into a dress form and knocking it to the floor before he collapsed on top of it, A jagged piece of metal from the broken form drove itself into his chest as he landed.
Just before his eyes shut, Jonah Reardon saw again Dr. Milton Leo’s crushed skull and thought,
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