LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

caught a glimpse of her red Infiniti and started walking toward it when a hard pointed object jabbed her in the back. At first she thought it was a branch that had fallen off one of the trees. A second later, she realized it was the barrel of a gun.

      A deep voice said, “Don’t move or turn around.”

      She ran a few feet, then got tangled up in her feet and fell. What appeared to be a man’s shoe came down on the right side of her face.

      Carolyn’s hands were free, but she couldn’t move her head. All she could see was the man’s shadow on the pavement, but she could tell the majority of his weight was on his left leg. If she could hit him hard enough at the back of his knee, he would topple and she might be able to escape.

      As she began to raise her arm, he stomped on it. “Help!” she screamed now that he’d moved his foot off her face. “Police! Call the—”

      “Shut the fuck up!”

      Carolyn’s purse was no longer on her arm. She had no idea how far away it had landed. She patted the ground with her hand, desperate to find her gun.

      “I told you not to move, bitch!”

      There was something distinctive about his voice. Did she know him? Was it an accent? It sounded muffled, as if he was speaking through a handkerchief or scarf. Then again, there was something about his voice that seemed mechanical, like an automated voice or someone talking to you over a speakerphone.

      “I warned you to stay out of this. Now I have to kill you.”

      The noise from the gunshot was deafening.

      Carolyn waited for the bullet to sear its way into her flesh. Nothing happened.

      “Where’d he go?” a voice called out from a distance.

      Feet slapped against the pavement. The sounds got louder, then stopped. Brad’s face loomed over her. He knelt down on one knee, gasping as he tried to catch his breath. “Are you hurt?”

      “I’m not sure,” Carolyn said, the panic returning. What if the bullet had severed her spine? That could be why she didn’t feel anything. “Did he shoot me?”

      “We have to get out of here,” Brad said, yanking her to her feet. “He may still be around. Stay down.”

      They bent over at the waist and weaved in and out between the cars until they came to Brad’s black Viper. Except for the custom paint on the exterior, the car looked as if it had been driven off the showroom floor. Brad had modified it for the racetrack, however, but occasionally drove it to work. Fixing cars up and selling them was one of the ways he supplemented his income. He hit the button on the key fob and unlocked the doors, then shoved Carolyn inside. As soon as he fired up the big engine, he tossed his cell phone to her.

      “Call 911. The suspect didn’t return my fire, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t armed. Tell them to have two or three units roll code. They can find the spot if they look for your red Infiniti.”

      Carolyn made the call, then disconnected. “My purse. I have to go back for my purse. He can find my address, and my gun is in there.”

      “Only an idiot would stop to pick up your purse.” Brad stomped on the accelerator and sped out of the parking lot. He raced down a side street, then took a sharp right into an alley. “Call the PD back and have someone meet us over here. If Mary Stevens or Hank is on duty, get one or both of them to respond. Whoever attacked you must be the bastard who killed Veronica.”

      Carolyn’s face and arm were throbbing. The strange feeling she’d experienced after she’d heard the gunshot must have been numbness. Either that or raw fear. She looked around, but she hadn’t been paying attention. She didn’t have time to put on her seat belt, and she’d been jostled around inside Brad’s speeding car. “Where we are?”

      “We’re in the alley behind S. Hill Road.” He stopped the car and turned off the ignition. “The house numbers are on the trash cans. Shit, I can’t read them. Wait, I’ve got it. It looks like 954. Tell them I’m driving a black Viper with a yellow racing stripe. They can’t miss it.” Once she completed the second call, he asked her, “Did you get a good look at the guy?”

      “Not with his shoe in my face,” Carolyn told him, messaging her arm. “Promise me you won’t say anything to Marcus. He was pressuring me to quit my job even before Veronica was murdered.”

      “Now you know why I’m single,” Brad said. “Tell him he can’t have you all to himself. We need you. You better make sure you know what you’re getting into, Carolyn. This guy sounds selfish.”

      “Because he doesn’t want me to get hurt?” she argued. “That’s ridiculous. Marcus is one of the most generous men I’ve ever known.”

      “Hey, just remember I warned you. Rich men have a tendency to be demanding. You’ve been on your own for a long time. I can’t picture you kissing up to any guy. Well, me maybe, but I’m not in the running.”

      “God, am I going to have a bruise on my face?” She reached for the visor, thinking it had a mirror, then remembered that the Viper wasn’t a luxury car.

      “Let me take a look at you.” He turned on the interior light, then placed his finger under her chin.

      They were so close, Carolyn could feel his warm breath on her face. At one time, they had loved each other. He linked eyes with her, cleared his throat, and then turned away. “You’re going to feel like a train wreck tomorrow, but you’ll be fine. If there’s a bruise, you can cover it with makeup.”

      “You saved my life.”

      “Don’t humor me,” Brad told her. “As a marksman, I suck. I don’t think I could have hit the guy if he’d been standing a foot away wearing a neon target. I got terrible news from the doctor the other day.”

      “My God, are you sick? Why didn’t you tell me?”

      “I didn’t want anyone to know.”

      Carolyn put her hand on his shoulder. “Please, Brad, I’m your friend. You don’t have some kind of disease, God forbid.”

      “I need glasses.”

      Carolyn knew him well enough to know he wasn’t joking. “Do you realize how incredibly vain you sound? You’re forty years old. Since you don’t seem to realize it, youth doesn’t last a lifetime. A few years down the line, and you’ll need a lot more than glasses.”

      His eyes expanded. “Not Viagra.”

      Carolyn laughed. “You guys finally have something to be embarrassed about now. Women have been trying to be something we aren’t for years. We’ve worn push-up bras, false eyelashes, fake hair, and that was before women closed out their Christmas accounts and spent the money on plastic surgery. Why won’t you need Viagra, Brad? I want to hear this one.”

      “I just won’t,” he said, a stubborn look on his face. “You’ve slept with me. Do you think a guy like me would ever need Viagra? I’m a machine, man. I’ll never lose it. My dad’s still going strong and he’s almost eighty. Men in my family don’t have those kinds of problems.”

      “Someone just tried to kill me, and you’re worried about glasses and Viagra. Give me a break, Brad.”

      They saw the headlights of a vehicle. “Call the PD and see if that’s them behind us,” he said. “We’re a sitting duck if it’s the guy who jumped you.”

      Before Carolyn could punch in the numbers, Hank Sawyer pulled up alongside them in his unmarked unit, speaking to them through the open window. Even now that he’d slimmed down, he still sat in the car the way a heavy man would, spread out and slouched. After they told him what had transpired, she said, “His voice sounded strange, Hank.”

      “In what way?”

      “At first I thought I knew him. Now I’m not sure. His voice was muffled, as if he were trying to disguise

Скачать книгу