Read Online Silence: The Faces of Evil Christmas Prequel by Debra Webb - Free Book Online Page B

discharged. Flew from her hand.
    Jess dove for the Glock. Potter kicked out her right foot. Barely missing a boot to the jaw, Jess scrambled after her weapon.
    Potter lunged at her, threw her body atop Jess’s.
    Marie wailed, her cries rising with the frenzy of the struggle.
    Jess focused on getting to the Glock first.
    Potter grabbed her by the hair and held her back. Jess ignored the pain, stretched her arm as far as she could, her fingertips grazing the grip.
    Potter reached over Jess’s head. Jess elbowed her in the face. The woman howled, released Jess and clutched at her nose.
    Jess snatched up the Glock just as Potter snagged her by the hair again. Ramming the muzzle into her chest, Jess warned, “Get off me!”
    Potter stilled.
    “Get off me,” Jess repeated, her hands shaking with the effort required to refrain from pulling the trigger.
    Potter released her hold on Jess’s hair. She scurried away on all fours and cowered in the corner.
    Getting to her feet, Jess shoved the mass of tangled hair out of her face. She hurried to the cage where Marie still rocked her sister’s body. She’d stopped crying and was humming softly.
    “I told Melvin I didn’t want to know about his sick urges,” Potter railed. “He and Dale could do whatever they wanted as long as they left me out of it.” She hissed a mouthful of curses. “He shouldn’t have ignored my rules. Keeping one at his house was the last straw. I fixed him.”
    Jess didn’t have time to listen to her sick ramblings. She needed to help Marie. Get her out of that damned cage. What she really needed was a phone.
    “Get in the cage.” Jess pointed to the one Potter had tried to force her into.
    Potter didn’t move. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m only guilty of looking the other way.”
    “I guess Pritchard cut his own throat.”
    “He was still feeding them,” Potter ranted. “He had no right doing that. Melvin was the boss. He wasn’t supposed to do anything without Melvin’s say so. I told him to let them die and then we’d bury them.”
    Wasn’t she just the epitome of compassion? “Stay on your hands and knees and get in there. Now .”
    Potter crawled toward the cage. Jess gave her a wide berth until she was inside and then she latched the door and snapped the padlock in place. “Is there a landline in the house?”
    Potter smiled up at Jess. “I cut the line. Threw the phone in the trash. Don’t worry about it, Agent Harris. None of us are getting out of here. We’re all going to die.”
    Jess ignored her but there was no denying the bad, bad feeling that suddenly stirred in the pit of her stomach. “We’ll see about that.”
    She needed keys or bolt cutters to get into the other cages.
    “Don’t waste your time,” Potter said. “They’re all dead but one and she’s on her way out.”
    “Where’s the key to those locks?” She was amazed by how much she wanted to shoot Delia Potter. Save the Commonwealth a pile of money.
    “Threw ‘em away.”
    Damn. “What about bolt cutters?” Jess scrutinized the shelves.
    “There’s a pair hanging over there.” Potter gestured across the room. “Have at it. Take all the time you need.”
    Jess grabbed the bolt cutters and snapped the locks on the cages. She tossed the tool aside and knelt at the door of the cage that held the Duncan sisters. Putting the two in one cage to die together had likely been part of the torture.
    “Marie, let me help you climb out,” Jess urged. The smell of feces and urine was overpowering. Bonita had been dead maybe a day. Rigor had already started to reverse.
    Marie shook her head. “Help my sister first.”
    Jess opened her mouth to explain but Marie interrupted. “She’s my baby sister. It’s my job to protect her...” Her voice broke. “Please, help her.”
    Marie was weak. Her face, particularly around her eyes, was sunken. Her body had that emaciated look. She needed medical attention right now. Holding onto her sister’s body