Read Online A Door in the River by Inger Ash Wolfe - Free Book Online Page A

querulous. “She killed him … didn’t she? With that … gun.”
    “I don’t know, Cathy. Tell me, did you see the gun?”
    “No. It happened very quickly.”
    “Did wires shoot out of it? Did you see any wires?”
    “I don’t know. She was standing there and next thing, I woke up in the bathroom.” Her eyes landed on Hazel’s and they were empty and haunted now. “You knew something, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted a second autopsy.”
    “I didn’t know anything, Cathy, honestly.”
    “Why didn’t you warn me?”
    “I just … I was doing my job. I didn’t think I was right, but I had to look into it.”
    “Well, I guess you were right.” Hazel put her hand in Cathy’s. Cathy grasped it.
    “Can you describe her?”
    “She was dirty. Like she’d been crawling through fields.”
    “How old was she?”
    “Young. Twenty. Twenty-two. She had an accent.”
    “What kind of accent?”
    “I’m not sure. She didn’t say very much. Maybe Swedish. Or German. Her eyes were like an animal’s, like a raccoon in the street.”
    “Do you know how long you were in the bathroom?”
    “Over an hour. I woke up, I don’t know how long after she hit me, and she was still in the house … I heard her on the floor above. So I stayed where I was. She was throwing things around. And then she left and I stayed in the bathroom for another half-hour before I came out.”
    “Did you go upstairs?”
    “I stayed in the kitchen.”
    Wingate had gone out and now he returned with a doctor in a white smock. “I’m Dr. Morton,” he said. “How can I help you?”
    “I want you to discharge Mrs. Wiest.”
    “Oh,” he said. “She needs to stay under observation. She took quite a conk on her noggin.”
    “This woman is in danger of more than a concussion, Doctor. I’ll keep her safe. But if the person who did this toher is still in the area, you could have a situation on your hands here.”
    “Couldn’t you leave an officer with us? Or a couple?”
    She thought about that for a moment. Then decided against it. “I don’t think so.”
    Morton directed his attention to his patient. “Are you comfortable with this, Cathy?”
    “Where am I going?” she asked Hazel.
    “My house.”
    Cathy Wiest gave her doctor a searching look. He said it was up to her.
    “You’ll take Mrs. Wiest out to my house in Pember Lake and stay with her, please, Detective Constable Wingate?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “Cathy, this is the key,” she said, decoupling one-half of her keychain from the other. “My mother is there. You remember Mayor Micallef?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s who it is, only she’s even more difficult now. Just go on in with James and there’s a guestroom on the second floor. Take a bath if you like, and try to rest. James’ll wake you every couple of hours if you fall asleep to make sure you’re okay.”
    “All right,” said Cathy, and now that everything had been arranged and there was nothing else to do, the energy drained from her body and the remaining colour vanished from her face.
    “And do I have permission to enter your house?” Hazel asked her.
    “Oh. Yes, of course.”
    Dr. Morton left to process her discharge and Cathy got gingerly out of the bed. Wingate left again to give her some privacy while she dressed.
    Hazel helped her get changed. “What did he do?” Cathy mumbled, as if to herself, and Hazel held the woman by the arm to allow her to get into her pants.
    “We don’t know anything yet, Cathy. Nothing. But we’re going to work it out. I promise you.” She got Cathy her shoes. “If I could get a sketch artist into the detachment in the next fifteen minutes or so …”
    “I don’t know how much I remember …”
    “Do you want to try? Before James takes you to my place?”
    She raised her eyes to Hazel. “Okay.”
    She got Cathy’s keys and put her into the car with Wingate. She told him to put Melanie on the sketch artist and get him in quickly to get a rendering