A Wrongful Death by Kate Wilhelm Read Free Book Online

no-nonsense handshake.
    "Please," she said, motioning to the sofa and chairs at the low table. "I thought we would be more comfortable over here." She waited until he was seated in one of the chairs, then asked, "What can I do for you, Lieutenant? I understand you've been looking for me."
    "That's correct," he said. "We have been asked to look into the assault you reported to the local authorities in Coos
    County on November twenty-fourth of this year. Will you please tell me about it?"
    She repeated what she had told the sheriff deputies and then Frank, Janowsky listened making occasional notes. Then he asked, "Who was she?"
    "I have no idea. I never met her before that day, and didn't meet her then, since she was unconscious."
    "Would you recognize her again?"
    "Probably not. Her face was swollen, covered with dirt, mud really, and bloody. Her nose had been bleeding, and a head injury had bled, and was still bleeding when I moved her. Her hair was muddy, wet and also bloody. And she never opened her eyes, so I couldn't say what color they were."
    "But you had seen her before, down on the beach?"
    "Yes, twice, each time at a distance, when she had on a head scarf and a dark rain coat or something. We simply nodded at each other, and I didn't stay on the beach after I saw her and the child."
    "How about down in California, did you meet with her there?"
    Barbara shook her head. "I told you, I never met her, never saw her close until after she had been attacked. I don't know who she is or anything about her."
    "You said her computer had been taken. How did you know she had a computer?"
    "I assumed there had been a computer," she said steadily, although she could feel her anger gathering. He was noncommittal, almost robotic in his way of putting questions, but each additional question seemed to imply disbelief. "There was a computer cable still plugged in, and there was a printer cartridge in the wastebasket. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to assume that there had been a computer and printer to go with them."
    "Did you look in the other room, the one with the other table and chairs?"
    "Later, when Mr. Norris and I went back. That door was closed, the room unheated and there was dust on the table. No one had used that room for a long time."
    "How old was the child?"
    She shrugged. "Little. I don't know how old. I don't know kids that size and age." She held up her hand to estimate height. "Four, five, maybe six, maybe just three. I don't know."
    "Would you recognize him again?"
    "I don't know," she said. "His hair was wet, and he was so afraid, crying. I just don't know."
    "What was he afraid of?"
    "His mother was hurt, bleeding, on the ground in the rain. For God's sake, that's enough to terrify any child." Her voice was tight then, when she demanded, "Lieutenant, what's this all about? What are you looking for?"
    "We think the child may be endangered, and we suspect the woman is, from your account. We're looking for them both."
    "Well, obviously—" She caught a warning look from Frank and curbed her anger and impatience.
    Imperturbably the lieutenant asked, "Is it possible that the child was terrified and trying to run away from something or someone when you caught him on the beach and took him back to the cabin?"
    She shook her head. "I told you. He was looking for help.
    He grabbed my hand and started to pull me back up the trail.
    He said his mother was hurt, and he was crying."
    "What else did he say?"
    "Nothing. Not another word. He was shaking, soaked and freezing, staring at his injured mother."
    "Where could he have found help on the beach if you hadn't been there, or if he hadn't expected you or someone to be there?"
    The first time she had seen them, they had been down at the basalt stacks, scrambling on top of some of the shorter, flattened ones where there were many tide pools. He had been dressed in a yellow raincoat with a yellow hat, and high yellow boots, the kind of clothes she had seen little kids in