Countdown by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page A

will have to be. You’re not going to give in.” His lips tightened. “But I’m not going to let you go back there unprotected. I’ve hired a security guard to tail you until Manning’s investigation turns up a reason for that attack. He’ll be waiting at your dorm when you get there.”
    “I don’t care. If it makes you feel better.”
    “You’re damn right it makes me feel better.” He opened the door of the car for her. “No one is going to hurt you.”
    It was too late. She was already hurting. She couldn’t erase the image of Mike lying in that car with the blood pouring from his chest, begging her to help him.
    She could feel her eyes stinging. Not now. Don’t start crying again now.
    The time for tears was over.
             
    P aul.”
    Paul Donnell stiffened and turned around as he was climbing the steps to his dorm. “Jane?” He smiled. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be staying behind in Atlanta. May I help you?”
    “I believe you can.” She reached over and opened the passenger door of her car. “Get in.”
    His smile faded. “I’m afraid you’ve caught me at a bad time. I’m behind in my homework since I took time out to go to the funeral. Suppose I call you tomorrow.”
    “Suppose you get in the car,” she said curtly. “Don’t play games with me, Paul. Do you want to talk to me or do you want to talk to the police?”
    “That sounds like a threat. I’ve been upset enough because I lost my friend, and I don’t need—”
    “Was he your friend? Do you betray your friends, Paul?”
    He moistened his lips. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Do you want me to explain? Do you want me to get out of this car and shout it so that everyone on the campus can hear me? I’ll do it. Mike must have told you that I’m not in the least shy.”
    He was silent for a moment. “Yes, he told me.”
    “He confided a lot of things to you. Because he trusted you. Mike was vulnerable to anyone he thought was his friend.”
    “I was his friend. I resent you—”
    She opened the driver’s door and started to get out.
    “No!” He strode around the car. “If you won’t be reasonable, I’ll have to—”
    “I’m not reasonable.” She locked the doors as soon as he got in the car, and took off. “I’m angry and I want answers.”
    “You have no reason to be angry with me.” He paused. “Just what do you think I did?”
    “I think you set Mike up.” Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I think you worked on him until he was so depressed and scared that he was like putty in your hands. I think you got him drunk and then called me. I think you knew someone was waiting in that alley.”
    “Crap. Look, I know Mike said some weird stuff that night, but he was drunk.”
    “That’s what I believed until it all came together after the funeral and I was wondering why you were so nervous. There were plenty of parking meters available on that street. Why risk being towed off by parking in the alley?”
    “There weren’t any spaces when we got there.”
    “When I got to the airport today, I went straight to the Red Rooster and questioned the bartender. He said that it was a slow night and there were plenty of available spaces on the street when he came on duty at seven. You got there at seven-fifteen, right?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “That’s what the bartender said.”
    “Pull over. I don’t have to take this.”
    “Yes, you do.” But she pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the car. “Talk to me. Who paid you to set Mike up?”
    “No one.”
    “Then you did it because you had a grudge against him?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Then we’re back to square one.”
    “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
    “Bullshit.” She stared him straight in the eye. “You’re scared stiff. I could almost taste it at the cemetery. You weren’t grieving. You were putting on a front because you were afraid someone would suspect the