Detective Carson Ryder Thriller Series Books 4-6: Blood Brother, In the Blood, Little Girls Lost. J. Kerley A.
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Название: Detective Carson Ryder Thriller Series Books 4-6: Blood Brother, In the Blood, Little Girls Lost
Автор: J. Kerley A.
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Приключения: прочее
isbn: 9780007535170
isbn:
Bullard dropped to the floor, gasping. Every eye turned to the action. No one moved. After a few seconds everyone went back to work as if nothing had happened. Two dicks grabbed Bullard under the arms and ushered him from the house, not gently.
Shelly returned to worrying and watching the investigation progress. Records and photographs found in the upstairs apartment showed the corpse was that of Julie Chase, a forty-two-year-old accountant for Morgan Stanley. A stairway connected the up- and downstairs. The connecting door was open.
“There’s blood spray into the stairway,” one of the dicks said. “Like the vic heard something down here, came to check.”
“Got taken down when she walked in?” another asked.
“Slammed.”
“So where’s Folger?” Waltz asked.
No one said a word. The crew moved to Folger’s bedroom and Forensics began bagging the bedclothes for inspection for hairs, semen and other physical evidence. At the same time the print techs were pulling latents from the headboard.
I winced, cleared my throat, looked at Waltz. “I, uh, suspect y’all might find a few of my fingerprints around the place, Shelly. Probably a little something on the sheets as well.”
Every head turned to me.
I retreated to the stoop. The techs had stopped talking to me, the dicks regarded me with wary eyes. Waltz stepped outside a few minutes later. His eyes were steady, hard.
“Four million women in this city and you hit on Folger?”
“If the past week has told you anything about me, Shelly, you know it didn’t fall like that.”
He rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. “Sorry. It’s a shitty day, it’s been a shitty week. You’re both adults and it’s none of my business.”
“It surprised us more than anyone. There’s about five more sides to her than most people see.”
“She’s one smart girl. Tries to hide it, be one of the guys, but I’ve been around intelligent people. It’s in the eyes, something you can’t describe …” His voice trailed away.
“We’ll find her, Shelly.”
“What’s with the we? You’re officially a suspect. You’re done in the department. Nor can you leave town. You’re in limboland until you’re cleared.”
“A suspect? That’s nuts.”
He looked at the sky and scratched his chin. “Let’s see … a missing woman. Everything in her life was hunky-dory until she got a new boyfriend a day ago. How do you do things down in Mobile, Detective Ryder?”
“I’d be suspect number one,” I said. “Maybe two and three as well.”
“Then you know what to do.”
I left my prints with one tech. Gave another a cheek swab for a DNA sample. I couldn’t do anything on Folger’s disappearance, and couldn’t hang around the cop shop, so I went back to the hotel. Waltz called an hour later, his voice low, verging on bitter.
“Hairs and fibers at the scene. It’s Ridgecliff. Looks like he got interrupted while abducting Folger, killed the tenant. We checked every resident on the block. No one saw a thing, of course. The guy across the way thought he saw a cab lingering outside the place a few times in the past week. A cab in New York City, there’s a clue.”
“What do you want from me, you bastard?” Alice Folger said.
“I need you to take off your panties and hose.”
Alice Folger glared up at her captor. He stood above her with a bright knife as she sat on the floor with her fingers laced behind her head. She appeared to be in the home of someone with money, the floors polished wood, the furniture tasteful. There was art on the walls and in curio cases. The only light was coming from a dozen or so candles arrayed in the three rooms she could see.
“Fuck you,” Folger said.
Her captor nodded as if understanding, then his arm became a blur, the knife slashing an inch from Folger’s eyes.
“TAKE THE GODDAMN THINGS OFF!”
Glaring defiantly through her terror, Folger wriggled from her trousers, slid off hose and panties, leaving a hand over her pubis.
“Stand up.”
She stood, hand in place. Knife tight in his palm, the man circled her, staring at her legs and buttocks. She closed her eyes, tried to still her racing heart. The man stepped behind her.
“Open your legs.”
She put her feet a few inches apart, knees shaking.
“WIDER!”
She stepped out further and heard the floor creak at her back. It sounded as if he was crouching and studying her. After a long minute he walked out in front of her and pulled a folded brown bag from his pocket, bending to grab the garments on the floor. He stopped, frowning. His eyes scanned the room until seeing a broom in the corner. He grabbed it, using the handle to push the clothing into the bag. He rolled the bag shut, flashing a glance at her crotch.
“Get something over that before the smell makes me sick.”
“I can put on my pants?”
“Either that or weld a plate over your … thing.”
Folger almost gasped with relief. She pulled on her trousers with shaking fingers.
When I arrived at the hotel, I patted my jacket for the electronic key, but it seemed to have disappeared. I recalled my stop for coffee, how I’d slipped the jacket off. It seemed the slippery plastic card had fallen out.
I’d run back inside the shop for a couple of minutes to grab a refill, leaving the jacket in the adjoining chair, but a thief would simply have taken the jacket. The card was probably laying beneath the chair, useless without the room number.
No harm done. I had the deskman generate a second key.
Sickened by events I hid in my room and wondered why Jeremy had targeted Folger. It was apparent that at some point when Jeremy was following me, he had seen Folger. She had flipped his switch.
It was my fault. I hadn’t figured he’d tail me.
What did he have planned for Folger? Was she already dead? And why had he killed СКАЧАТЬ