Read Online Alien Heat by Lynn Hightower - Free Book Online Page B

Blake put a hand to her throat. “I don’t know.”
    David leaned forward in his chair. “Why did you do that?”
    â€œDo what?”
    â€œPut a hand to your throat when you said you didn’t know.”
    She took a step backward, though he had not moved in the chair. She looked distracted, her eyes focused and inward-looking in a way that made him feel excluded. He stood up, set his beer can on the floor, moving in close enough to touch her.
    â€œYou know how she died, don’t you, Teddy?”
    She seemed small suddenly. She stepped backward and lost her balance, and he grabbed her arms.
    He expected her to protest, to pull away. Her arms were strong and firm; he felt the tensile strength of her muscles. He felt ill suddenly, like a bully, and he let her go. His fingers left red marks.
    â€œWhen I held her sweater, that day in your office.”
    â€œWhat did you see?”
    â€œI saw a dog. A black dog, a cocker spaniel. The dog was barking, it was snarling, it was going to bite. The baby was crying.”
    â€œWhat baby?”
    â€œI don’t know. He killed the dog with his fist.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œThe clown. I can’t see it all. There was smoke, and an alarm.” Her eyes were wide and faraway. David wanted to touch her shoulder, but was afraid to.
    â€œWhat about the clown? What did he do?”
    â€œHe put his hands on her throat and he choked her. Her eyes got big and her tongue stuck out. He kept on choking her, even when she was dead.”
    â€œWhat does he look like?”
    â€œI told you, he was a clown.”
    â€œHow can you be sure it was a man? Was he—”
    The knock at the door was loud. They both froze.
    â€œYo, David? You in there?”
    Mel.
    â€œYeah, I’m here. Come on in.”
    The expression on Mel’s face told him how odd they looked—pizza carton open on the bed, the two of them close together, the air thick with tension.
    Mel gave David a sharp look, and David took the cue to back away.
    â€œSorry, David, they insisted.”
    David saw the shadowy figure of String, a white-haired man, Jenks, then the boy, running across the room to Teddy Blake. She opened her arms and he ran to her, hiding his head and holding her tight. She held him without hesitation, and David thought sadly that she had an admirable grace with children.
    Arthur would not take it well when she went to jail.
    Because good as she was, she had not been able to resist playing him along—the con woman had been unable to give up the show. The hand to the throat had given her away, she knew what had happened to Theresa Jenks. It was all a nice little scam. The woman, wealthy and vulnerable. Books from the Mind Institute, priming the pump.
    Find the link between Blake and the Mind Institute, and the whole nasty thing would unravel.
    Teddy’s eyes were closed, and she stroked the boy’s head. His sobs were loud and painful in the cluttered dingy room.

ELEVEN
    Outside the captain’s office, the noise level was rising. Someone—David wasn’t sure who—pressed next to the glass, scratching the small of his back with short stubby fingernails.
    The man wore suspenders, suit coat draped over one arm. He was talking to Clements—probably another arson cop. David did not like this man, standing in the homicide bull pen, talking too loud and scratching himself.
    â€œDavid? Are you listening to me?”
    David was not listening. He was too angry to listen. Why should he listen to a long-winded no?
    â€œI’m listening.”
    Captain Halliday snugged his tie up close to his thin, reddish-brown neck. He checked his watch.
    â€œCome on, we’re late.”
    David looked at his feet, saw his shoes were dusty.
    Halliday paused by the door. “Silver, you coming?”
    â€œHow about as a material witness?”
    Halliday sighed, opened the office door. “If you folks will head on out to conference room