Busted by Zachary O'Toole Read Free Book Online Page A

he moved her aside, showing the blood-soaked nightgown. His own shirt was bright red from the blood she’d pressed into him.
     
     
     
    “Can you get her to let go for a few seconds? Just so we can get her into something clean?”
     
     
     
    “That okay, princess?” Joe asked. The girl shook her head, violently.
     
     
     
    The paramedic sighed. “I can get some scrubs onto her, but there’s no way I can get the gown off. It’s too sticky, and there aren’t any buttons.”
     
     
     
    “We can cut it off,” her partner said.
     
     
     
    “Go ahead,” Joe said. The nightgown was a mess, and he couldn’t imagine she’d ever want to keep it. “If we can work around the jacket I think it’d be best. Don’t ask,” he said when the paramedic gave him a questioning look.
     
     
     
    The girl giggled a little as the cold shears tickled her skin. It only took a few moments to cut through, but Joe made a quick motion and the paramedic made a second pass. The laughter seemed real, and he figured she could use as much laughter as she could get right then.
     
     
     
    “Sweetie,” the woman said, “we’re going to pull off the fabric, okay? Then we’re going to slip a towel between you and your friend here, and see if we can’t get you cleaned up a little.”
     
     
     
    “You can hold on, princess,” Joe whispered. “Just let me breathe once in a while, right?”
     
     
     
    The girl nodded shyly. Cleaning her off took longer than Joe expected. The paramedics knew what they were doing, but she wouldn’t let go of Joe, not even for a moment, and that made it tougher. It hadn’t helped that the front of his shirt was covered in blood that had dried enough to be tacky.
     
     
     
    Still, she was willing to let one arm go at a time, and they managed to get her clean and in scrubs, with a towel between her and Joe to keep the blood from his shirt from getting back on her. They almost had her letting go when they got interrupted.
     
     
     
    “Joe,” growled a voice from behind him. Detective Russell’s voice. It wasn’t a happy voice. He had to suppress a shudder – he didn’t think his charge would deal too well with that. As it was she tensed up at Steve’s approach. “Who have you found?”
     
     
     
    Joe turned and smiled as best he could. The girl’s arms had tightened back around his neck, choking him a little.
     
     
     
    “Sweetheart,” he said, shifting her so he could breathe. “This is my good friend Detective Russell. Can you say hi?”
     
     
     
    She looked out from the crook of his neck where she was hiding. “Hi,” she mumbled.
     
     
     
    “Who is she, Joe?”
     
     
     
    Joe shook his head. “Don’t know. Found her over next to the building. Behind the rhododendrons.”
     
     
     
    Steve scowled. “Her parents—”
     
     
     
    “I don’t think so,” Joe said. He nudged the bloody remains of her nightgown with his foot. The paramedics had bagged it up and set it on the floor out of the way. “Those were hers.”
     
     
     
    “Jesus,” Steve whispered. An image of the bloody carpet from inside the apartment flashed through his head. “Is she okay?”
     
     
     
    “Physically she looks fine, Detective,” said the blonde paramedic. “A few scrapes from the bushes, but that’s all.”
     
     
     
    “Hey, Princess,” Steve said. The girl looked at him, giving him the first good look at her. She looked familiar, altogether too familiar, like one of the kids he’d seen in the pictures in the apartment. He put on as happy a face as he could manage. He needed to ask her some questions, and there wasn’t a good way to do it. “Can you tell me your name?”
     
     
     
    “Stephanie,” she said.
     
     
     
    “And is your last name McManus?” Steve winced as she nodded. The complex manager had been pretty clear. There was only one McManus family, and as far as the man knew there weren’t any relatives.
     
     
     
    “Can you tell me where your