Read Online Muller, Marcia - [McCone 04] Games to Keep the Dark Away (v.1,shtml) - Free Book Online

bank, one arm
outflung, her body in the water from the waist down. I sucked in my
breath, ran down the rest of the pier, and scrambled over the rocky
bank to her.
    Her flesh, when I touched her wrist, was cool but pliant. I felt
carefully, but could find no pulse. Brushing aside her long dark
hair, I touched the spot where the big artery should have throbbed.
Nothing. I grasped her shoulder, rolled her on her back.
    And looked down into the lifeless face of Jane Anthony.
    "No!" I said. The word sounded loud in the stillness.
    How had it happened? I picked up my flash from where I'd dropped
it next to Jane's body and shone it on her. There was a red stain on
the front of the white sweater. She had not fallen from the pier and
broken her neck. She had been murdered. Stabbed, maybe. Or shot.
    I looked around for a weapon or some other evidence, but saw
nothing. Standing up, I began breathing hard and for a moment was
afraid I'd hyperventilate. Police. I had to call the police.
Remembering a phone booth in front of the Shorebird Bar, I scrambled
back up the bank and started running.
    Of course there was no 911 number. The operator, spurred by the
urgency in my voice, connected me with the Port San Marco Police. I
told them who and where I was, then left the booth. As I waited for
the police to arrive, I resisted a strong urge to go into the bar for
a drink.
    It was ten minutes before I heard the sirens and, by the time the
cruiser pulled up, I had been joined by a crowd of weathered men in
work clothes who had been inside the bar. I climbed into the police
car and directed the officers to the old pier. The crowd followed on
foot.
    I pointed out where Jane's body lay on the bank beneath the pier,
then returned to the cruiser. A plainclothes detective named Barrow
spoke briefly with me and said we would talk more later. An ambulance
arrived, and lab technicians. The crowd grew larger. After a while I
got out of the car and began to pace up and down beside it.
    The compact in Sylvia Anthony's driveway must have been Jane's.
Yes, Jane had gone to see her mother again. But where was Mrs.
Anthony? And why had Jane come here, to the deserted pier? And what
about the fisherman I'd met running down the road? Had he found
Jane's body? Or had he…
    The police had set up floodlights and now they illuminated the
ambulance attendants as they brought the body up the bank. The crowd
moved forward, as if it were one person. The lights' glare picked out
eager faces, eyes greedy for a glimpse of the body. Young and old,
male and female, they all wore expressions of undisguised
anticipation.
    My anger rose as I watched them, and I was about to turn away when
my eyes met a pair of familiar dark ones. John Cala and I stared at
one another for several seconds before he stepped back and vanished
into the crowd.

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8
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    As I
was leaving the Port San Marco police station at a
little after midnight, I saw a plainclothes detective bringing Sylvia
Anthony in. They had located her, Lieutenant Barrow had told me, at a
church bingo game, and by now she presumably had identified her
daughter's body. The police had not been so lucky in finding John
Cala. The fisherman was missing from his usual haunts. Barrow had run
a check on him, and it turned out he had a record, including a
conviction for assault.
    Mrs. Anthony's head was bowed and she clung to the plainclothes
detective's arm. She seemed frail and even older than she had that
morning. When I started over to her, she looked up. Her eyes were
red-rimmed but dry, and the bitter lines I'd seen before were deeply
set on her face.
    She said, "Get away from me."
    I stopped.
    "Get away," she repeated. "If you hadn't come
snooping around here, my girl would still be alive."
    The detective raised his eyebrows, shook his head at me, and
steered her across the lobby toward the squadroom. I watched them go,
then went out to my car. A fine mist hung around the lights in the
parking lot and