A Wrongful Death by Kate Wilhelm Read Free Book Online Page A

Eugene wearing. She told him about it. "From up there you can see past the rocks and stacks, see the next beach with people and a few buildings. I think that's where he was heading that day, but the tide was coming in, and he couldn't have made it all the way before it caught him."
    His questions continued with painstaking attention to the details, and then he asked, "Why did you leave the cabin the next morning?"
    She glanced at Frank and caught his nearly imperceptible shake of the head. "I had rented it for a week only and decided to cut it short by one day since there was the possibility of a maniac in the area."
    "Where did you go?"
    She shrugged. "Nowhere in particular, up the coast."
    "Did you meet up with the woman again?"
    "No."
    His questions went on for another hour until she finally stood up and said, "Lieutenant, I've told you all I can about that incident. What I did before and after it are irrelevant. I suggest that it's time to conclude this interrogation."
    "One more thing, "he said. He opened his briefcase, brought out a folder, removed a picture and handed it to her. "Is that the woman you saw?"
    The woman had regular features, lovely dark eyes and long sweeping dark eyelashes. Her hair was black, shoulder length, thick and glossy looking, with a slight wave. She was smiling. "I can't be sure," Barbara said. "Possibly, but I couldn't definitely say it is."
    "How about this one?" He handed her a second photo, a five by seven, apparently a school picture of a sober-faced little boy with dark curly hair, and the same kind of long eyelashes as the woman's. He appeared to be holding his breath.
    "He looks too young," she said after a moment. "And the boy I saw didn't have curly hair, but it was so wet. Maybe when it dried it would be curlier. But that child looks too young."
    "The picture's a year old, a little more," the lieutenant said.
    He replaced them both, closed his briefcase and stood up.
    "We'll have to ask you to make yourself available for additional questions if it becomes necessary," he said. "Are you planning any more trips soon?"
    "No," she said. "I'll be here."
    He nodded, and didn't offer to shake hands again. She went to the door with him, saw him out of the reception area, then returned and said, enraged, "Good God! They think I'm either in collusion with that woman or that I attacked her! He thinks she may be in danger! Jesus! She was murderously attacked and left for dead or dying!"
    "Simmer down " Frank said mildly and went to the door to the outer office, where he said, "Maria, we could use some coffee in here, and will you see if you can find Bailey. I want him."
    When he closed the door and returned to the sofa, Barbara was pacing furiously about the office. "He thinks the kid was running away, maybe even from me, and I caught him and took him back!"
    When Bailey arrived, Frank got right to the point. "I want everything you can find about that whole family, the ex-husband, his parents and the ex-wife and child."
    Although Bailey often questioned what Barbara wanted, he simply jotted down the names Frank provided, and nodded. He did not ask if there was a paying client in sight, as he often did when Barbara sent him on his quest.
    "And where she was just before she showed up at that cabin, and where she went afterward," Barbara added when Frank paused. To her annoyance Bailey glanced at Frank, who nodded.
    "She might have needed medical attention," Frank said. "That could be a good starting place."
    "She was wearing a lined hooded jacket," Barbara said. "The cut was about here." She indicated a place near her hairline over her eye. "I imagine she had the hood up when she was hit, and it probably saved her life, then came off when she fell. I think she needed stitches, and her face was swollen and discolored down to her jaw line."
    After Bailey left, Barbara said, "Dad, you know this is going to cost a fortune, and I don't have a client."
    "I do," he said.
    Chapter 6
    Barbara had spent most