To Die For. Sharon Green

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СКАЧАТЬ to make too much noise. Animals were notorious for not caring how much noise they made, and that, along with the barking of the other dogs, clinched it. Some human was out there, and at that time of night it couldn’t possibly be a friend or neighbor.

      But it could be a police patrol, sent by Mike Gerard to keep an eye on her. Poking around to be sure she was all right shouldn’t sound like that, but it was still possible. Maybe she ought to go and take a look…

      “But I think I’ll call and ask first,” she muttered, reaching for the bedside telephone. “They’ll know at headquarters whether anyone is supposed to be out here.”

      She would have preferred calling Mike Gerard rather than some stranger at police headquarters, but there was no need to bother the man over a false alarm. And that was what Tanda hoped it was, nothing but a false alarm…

      “Police headquarters, Sergeant Walters,” an official voice announced from the other end of the line. “How can I help you?”

      “Sergeant, this is Tanda Grail, out on Old Stage Road,” Tanda replied. “I’m involved with Lieutenant Gerard over that murder this morning, as well as my brother’s murder a week ago. Can you tell me if Lieutenant Gerard left orders for officers to check my house during the night? I hear someone out there, but I’ll feel silly if I charge out to confront a couple of police officers just doing their job.”

      “I’ll check on that, Ms. Grail,” the man’s voice said, no longer remote and indifferent. “But please don’t talk about charging out and confronting. If someone is out there…Well, we’d rather you didn’t. And are you certain there’s someone there? Could it be an animal, or an unlatched door swinging?”

      “No to both,” Tanda answered. “I might not be sure, but my dog is. It’s definitely not an animal, and definitely not a door.”

      “Then hold on for a moment.” Tanda expected to be switched to hold, but the sergeant just put a hand over the mouthpiece of his phone. She could hear the mutter of voices in brief conversation, and then the sergeant was back. “Ms. Grail, there were orders left for you to be checked on, but the unit assigned to do the checking isn’t currently near your house. We have them on their way now, and they’ll be there in a few minutes. Please stay inside until they knock on your door and announce themselves. Do you understand?”

      “Yes, I do understand, and thank you,” Tanda said automatically before hanging up. Once the connection was broken, she realized she could have stayed on the line until the patrol unit arrived, but what was the point? If whoever was out there broke in, having a cop on the other end of the line wasn’t likely to keep her from being killed.

      Tanda ran both hands through her hair, trying to fight off the creeping numbness of fear. If it wasn’t the police out there, it had to be the murderer. The idea of it being someone else, just at this time, even an ordinary burglar, was too far-fetched to consider. Another muffled clank came, telling the nearby world that the person was still out there, and the sound did something strange to Tanda. It made her realize that her brother’s murderer was in reach, the person she wanted so badly to find. Was she just going to sit here and tremble, forgetting about what had been stolen from her? Wasn’t there something she could do to make sure the man didn’t get away?

      Tanda knew there had to be something, and reborn anger drove away enough of the fear to let her get out of bed. Robby was still growling softly as she began to throw on clothes, and that bolstered her courage even more. Between her and her dog the murderer would be outnumbered, and once the police got here, the nightmare would be over. An outcome like that was worth taking a chance for, more than worth it.

      It didn’t take long before she was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sneakers, and Robby was beginning to be calmly excited. The dog knew they were going out after whoever was making that noise, and he was ready to do his job. If the intruder tried to run away, so much the better. Robby would be right behind him, and more than able to run him to ground.

      Tanda turned out the light in the room before easing the door open, wishing she had Robby’s serene confidence. She was determined to do whatever she could to catch the murderer, but that didn’t mean her fear was gone. Slipping out into the dark of the hall was hard, but turning on a light was out of the question. If the person outside realized she was awake and coming after him…

      Yes. Tanda dropped that line of thought quickly, paying more attention to making her way toward the front door. She’d briefly considered going down to the cellar and confronting the intruder directly, but had dismissed the idea as impractical. The new lock on the cellar door in back was on the outside; even if it hadn’t been, she didn’t care for the idea of opening the bolt on the door in the house leading down to the cellar. Just because the sounds seemed to be coming from outside, that didn’t mean the man hadn’t managed to get inside. Meeting a murderer face-to-face indoors seemed fractionally worse than meeting one outdoors, and whether or not that was true, it was still the way she felt.

      So she edged through the kitchen and on toward the living room, grateful for the kitchen’s night-light and wishing the living room had one, too. After tonight she’d make sure it had one—assuming nothing happened to keep her from seeing to it.

      “Stop that!” she whispered to herself almost soundlessly. “Of course nothing will happen. You’ll just have to be very careful…”

      And stick close to Robby. Tanda was aware of the dog despite her nervousness, or maybe even more because of it. He’d stopped in the living room to her left, momentarily unmoving, which made her stop as well. It was almost as though he was listening to something, and she’d never seen him do that before. A tracking dog isn’t in the habit of listening…

      And then he did what he was in the habit of doing, something that nearly made her jump out of her skin. With the sort of baying bark he used when he was almost on the quarry, Robby loped directly toward the front windows. Tanda was so startled she banged into the coffee table, bruising her legs and nearly falling. She had no idea what had made Robby do that—until she realized the banging at the back of the house seemed to have stopped.

      “He’s coming around to the front!” she whispered, suddenly frantic. “If I don’t get out there before he reaches the door—”

      Then there would be nothing to keep the man from coming in when she opened the door. And she had to open the door, or the opportunity to catch her brother’s killer would be gone. Understanding that helped Tanda to ignore the pain in her legs as she stumbled around the coffee table, and by the time she reached the front door Robby was beside her. Taking courage from his presence she flipped on the porch light, flung the door open and charged outside—

      Only to see nothing and no one. Her heart pounded like that drum people always talked about, and it took a moment to realize that part of the noise she heard wasn’t from that. Someone was in the woods and running, definitely away from the house, and Robby stood quivering and staring in that direction. Tanda dashed back inside, got the flashlight from the table near the door, ran back out and told Robby, “Find ’em!”

      The dog took off like a launched rocket, the command freeing him to do what he’d been waiting and longing to. Tanda yelped and ran after him, all the excitement having made her forget that the dog wasn’t on a lead. If she didn’t really move she would lose him, especially in the dark. When he reached the quarry—and he would—she fully intended to be right there.

      Happily the flashlight was a powerful one, and Tanda was able to glimpse Robby as well as hear him. The woods were more than nighttime-quiet; with two people and a dog running through them, night birds and small animals were keeping silent and playing invisible. Tanda knew these woods well enough СКАЧАТЬ