Read Online In The Bleak Midwinter: A Special Agent Constance Mandalay Novel by M. R. Sellars - Free Book Online Page A

was covered with a scribble of notes, legible, but obviously
jotted in a hurry. Before she could utter any sort of response to
what had already been said, the sheriff continued. “I want you to
send Joe to the west end of town; tell him the same as Carl, keep
his eyes open. If he sees the car, pull it over, call for backup.
Have Edgar head over to Bremerton’s to help Carmichael. And then I
want you to get the Highway Patrol on the line…”
    When he paused long enough to suck in a quick
breath, Clovis jumped on the chance and interjected a question,
“What’s going on?”
    “A goddamned false alarm, I hope,” he
replied, then grunted hard as he finally managed to force his free
arm through the other sleeve and shrug completely into his coat.
“But right now it sure looks a lot like we’ve got an abduction on
our hands.”
    At his words, Clovis felt her heart slide up
into her throat. The sharp pain of sympathetic fear washed over her
immediately behind the first sensation, causing a strange
hollowness to form deep inside her chest. She imagined it was
probably the empty space where her heart used to be.
    “Are… Are you sure?”
    “Not yet, but it sure looks bad. And, I trust
Carmichael. Something had to set him off for him to have Ruth call
me.”
    “What do you want me to tell the Highway
Patrol?” Clovis asked, croaking out the words past the sudden
tightness in her voice. Still looking at the sheriff, she reached
sideways for the base microphone and fumbled after it with a shaky
hand until she managed to grasp the neck and pull it toward
her.
    “Everything I just told you,” he replied,
turning and starting toward the front door. “And have them run this
John Carter for priors, just to be sure.”
    She shouted after him. “Where are you
going?”
    A swirl of snow streamed inward on the sudden
draft that was created when he tugged the door open with a quick
jerk. He started forward into the storm while calling back to her,
“I’m heading over to the Greenleaf to check on something. I’ll
radio in just a few…”
     
     
     

CHAPTER 6
     
    HARSH light spewed from a pair of
un-shrouded flood lamps and pooled on the parking lot just beyond
Bremerton’s back door. The bulbs themselves angled slightly
downward and were screwed into a fixture that was mounted a few
feet above the top of the opening on the outside wall. The glare
spread outward, throwing itself with singular purpose at the
encroaching darkness.
    Undaunted, the artificial illumination put up
an admirable fight against insurmountable odds, but in the end it
lacked the strength to fully overwhelm the night. Somewhere near
the center of the back parking lot the opposing forces grappled,
blending together in a murky gray skirmish, flanked on either side
by the two sworn enemies, light and dark.
    Deputy Carmichael paused at the threshold and
gazed out into the wide arc of diminishing light created by the
ongoing clash. Fat, crystalline flakes were filling the air before
him, streaming down, diagonally, sideways, and even twisting in
violent, short-lived swirls on sudden gusts of wind. As the frozen
precipitation plummeted toward the ground, it was simultaneously
reflecting the brilliance of the high-wattage bulbs, and casting
oblique, animated shadows upon the already snow-covered surface of
the asphalt.
    Skip had hurriedly walked the interior of the
store, from front to back, calling Merrie’s name as he went, and
identifying himself aloud as well. If the little girl was simply
hiding, he wanted her to know that the police were involved now and
that the game had moved from simply annoying to downright serious.
However, he received no answer from her, and though he had said
exactly the opposite to her mother, he hadn’t really been expecting
one. In his mind, that lack of expectation was supported by what he
found at the back of the store.
    The first thing to catch his eye when he
reached the “North Pole” fantasyland was the angle of the