Read Online The Haunted Bones by PM Weldon - Free Book Online Page B

was.
    The smoke did a number on my lungs and I
couldn't breathe. When I finally managed to knock him off, I tried
crawling away, coughing my guts out. He jumped on my back and bent
the arm of my injured shoulder behind me. I yelled out and tried to
reach behind me with my other, but he pushed the injured one up
higher. "Where's the laptop?"
    The gas mask muddled his voice. I coughed
and shook my head.
    He shoved my face into the
floor. " Where is
the laptop?"
    "Devan!"
    No, Julie! Her voice renewed my desire to
protect her. I got my other hand on the floor beside me and used it
as leverage to push my ass into the air with enough force to launch
my attacker backward over my head. I scrambled away and went head
first into the leg of the table. I saw stars for a few seconds and
tried to call out to Julie, to warn her. But my lungs filled with
the smoke.
    There were more footsteps and shouts. Two
gunshots and then nothing.
    I continued coughing as a lay on the floor
beside the coffee table.
    A cool hand touched my face. Jewels coughed
as she knelt beside me. Something hit the floor to my left but I
didn't look as I took her into my arm.
    "I—I tried to shoot him. But I think I
missed. He—he ran back out the door."
    The smoke thinned as it was
sucked through the busted door. I pulled back from her and looked
into her face. Her eyes were red and tears stained her cheeks. "Why
are you crying? You're a cop." *Cough* "You're supposed to shoot the bad
guy."
    "But I was so afraid I was gonna shoot
you!"
    "Brenner! McNally!"
    That was Vale's voice.
    "We're back here, sir," Julie called
out.
    The smoke had turned to a soft haze by the
time Vale appeared like an avenging cop. He helped Julie up as two
paramedics came in with oxygen tanks and slapped masks on both of
us. I managed to stand and stagger out the front door along with
Vale and Julie. Three black-and-whites with lights flashing parked
along the street, another one actually in the front yard of the
complex. That was Vale's car.
    Jewels and I sat down on the back bumper of
the paramedic truck, blankets over our shoulders, sucking on oxygen
tanks. The paramedic took our vitals, gave Vale a report as the
captain neared. Vale asked what happened so I gave him my account,
punctuated by bouts of coughing.
    Julie took a deep breath, coughed. "I heard
noises downstairs. Sounded like someone was breaking the place
apart—and when I opened my bedroom door, there was smoke
everywhere. I thought the condo was on fire. And then I heard
someone yelling but I couldn't understand it. That's when I dialed
911 and said I had a fire and a home invasion. I grabbed my gun and
got to the middle of the stairs." She turned and looked up at me
before she looked back at Vale. "The smoke was clear enough that I
could see someone in a mask beating on Devan. So I distracted him.
That's when you guys showed up and he took off."
    "We're combing the area for him. So you
didn't get a good look at his face?"
    I shook my head. "No."
    "It looks like he took your computer,
Brenner. You have anything else in there? Might want to go back and
see, take inventory."
    "He kept asking me where the laptop was," I
said.
    "But I don't have a laptop." Jewels handed
the medic her tank and mask, and made her way back to condo
entrance. I noticed she wasn't wearing her sling.
    "Devan," Vale said in a quiet voice as the
medic moved away. "We got a match on the DMV records for the car in
the drive-by outside the haunt. We got a match."
    "Oh?"
    "Randall Cahan."

 
     
    Thirteen
     
    "So…whose is this?"
    Mary ignored Auggie as she searched through
files. Whoever's computer this was, it wasn't Devan McNally's. She
pushed the keyboard forward and sat back. "It's not here."
    He pointed to the computer. "You stole
this?"
    She didn't answer.
    "Are you nuts? Turn that off!" He reached
around the back and yanked the power cord out. "Don't you realize
people put antitheft software on their computers now? You go online
with this and