Read Online Silent Night by Mary Higgins Clark - Free Book Online

promise,” he managed to say.
    â€œI promise, Daddy ,” Jimmy snapped.
    Daddy. Involuntarily, Brian’s hand curled around the St. Christopher medal. He was going to bring this medal to Daddy and then Daddy was going to get better. Then his dad would find this guy, Jimmy, and beat him up for being so mean to his kid. Brian was sure of it. As his fingers traced the raised image of the towering figure carrying the Christ child, he said in a clear voice, “I promise, Daddy .”

10

    A t lower Manhattan’s One Police Plaza, the command post for the Jimmy Siddons manhunt, the escalating tension was visibly evident. Everyone was keenly aware that to make good his escape, Siddons would not hesitate to kill again. They also knew he had the weapon smuggled in to him.
    â€œ Armed and Dangerous ” was the caption under his picture on the flyers that were being distributed all over the city.
    â€œLast time, we got two thousand useless tips, followed up every useless one of them, and the only reason we ever got him behind bars last summer was because hewas dumb enough to hold up a gas station in Michigan while a cop was on the premises,” Jack Shore growled to Mort Levy, as in disgust he watched a team of officers answer the flood of calls on the hot line.
    Levy nodded absently. “Anything more about Siddons’s girlfriend?” he asked Shore.
    An hour ago one of the prisoners in Siddons’s cellblock had told a guard that last month Siddons had bragged about a girlfriend named Paige, who he said was a world-class stripper.
    They were trying to trace her in New York, but on the hunch that she might have been involved with Siddons in Michigan, Shore had contacted the authorities there.
    â€œNo, nothing so far. Probably another dead end.”
    â€œCall for you from Detroit, Jack,” a voice bellowed above the din in the room. Both men turned quickly. In two strides Shore was at his desk and had grabbed the phone.
    His caller did not waste time. “Stan Logan, Jack. We met when you came out to pick up Siddons last year. I may have something interesting for you.”
    â€œLet’s have it.”
    â€œWe never could find out where Siddons was hiding before he tried to pull the holdup here. The tip about Paige may be the answer. We’ve got a rap sheet on a Paige Laronde who calls herself an exotic dancer. Sheleft town two days ago. Told a friend she didn’t know if she’d be back, that she expected to join her boyfriend.”
    â€œDid she say where she was going?” Shore snapped.
    â€œShe said California, then Mexico.”
    â€œCalifornia and Mexico! Hell, if he makes it to Mexico we may never find him.”
    â€œOur guys are checking the train and bus stations as well as the airports, to see if we can pick up her trail. We’ll keep you posted,” Logan promised, then added, “We’re about to fax her rap sheet and publicity pictures. Don’t show them to your kids.”
    Shore slammed down the phone. “If Siddons managed to get out of New York this morning, he could be in California right now, maybe even Mexico.”
    â€œIt would be pretty tough to get a plane reservation at the last minute on Christmas Eve,” Levy reminded him cautiously.
    â€œListen, somebody got a gun in to him. That same somebody may have had clothes and cash and an airline ticket waiting for him. Probably managed to get him to an airport in Philadelphia or Boston, where no one’s looking for him. My guess is that he’s met up with his girlfriend by now and the two of them are heading south of the border, if they’re not already eating enchiladas. And I still say one way or the other the go-between had to be Siddons’s sister.”
    Frowning, Mort Levy watched Jack Shore go to the communications room to await the faxes from Detroit. The next step would be to forward pictures of both Siddons and his girlfriend to the border patrol in