Doom with a View by Victoria Laurie Read Free Book Online Page B

directly behind us seemed to glow with urgent energy.
    My mind’s eye filled with the image of a chalk outline, and a gravestone that said RIP . “We’re in the wrong house,” I said breathlessly. “The murder didn’t happen here!”
    “What?” Candice and Harrison said together.
    I whipped around and stared angrily at Harrison and instantly I realized he knew the truth of it. “That’s a staged crime scene in there,” I said, yanking my head in the direction of the master bedroom. “The woman who lived here died of natural causes. There was no murder.”
    Harrison’s expression immediately turned to one of shock, but was quickly replaced with a cop’s poker face. “That’s correct,” he admitted. “No one was murdered here.”
    “That is totally unfair!” Candice shouted at him, her hands balling into fists.
    “The real murder took place over there,” I said, pointing to the house behind us.
    Harrison’s cop face was quickly replaced with one of triumph. “Wrong,” he said as a smug smile crept to his lips. “There was no murder. This house belonged to the widow of a former agent. She left this place to the bureau when she passed away quietly in her sleep a few months back, and we’ve been using it ever since as a staging ground to train new recruits.”
    Candice’s face was full of rage. “You mean you purposely brought us to a fake crime scene just to throw her off?!”
    “It beats having her get to a crime scene staged by a murderer out in the real world and pumping us full of false info,” Harrison snarled back. The friction between him and Candice was heating up.
    “You have got to be kidding me,” said Candice, her temper flaring again. “That is total bullshit, Agent Harrison, and you know it!”
    I was about to add to Candice’s comment and tell Harrison where he could stuff it when my radar insisted that I turn around and look at the house behind us again. I did and kept seeing a chalk outline. “Something happened there,” I said again. “Something bad went down in that house right behind us. And it happened recently.”
    “Nothing happened there,” Harrison said, glancing with annoyance at the house I was pointing to. “I told you, this is the staged crime scene.”
    I looked at Candice. “Come on,” I said to her. “Let’s check it out.”
    Without another word Candice and I walked over to the rear door leading to the backyard. “Hey!” Harrison called. “You can’t go trespassing around out there!”
    Candice and I ignored him and walked out the door, my partner making sure to slam it in Harrison’s face. “You’re sure someone was murdered over there?” she asked me as we trudged through the leaves on our way to the other house.
    “I’m positive,” I said. “I mean, I don’t expect to find a dead body, but I want to get close enough to make sure the energy I’m picking up is right.”
    Behind us we heard Harrison yank open the door and begin to chase after us. “I’m serious!” he said. “That’s private property!”
    I flipped him the bird and kept walking. I didn’t care if he was Dutch’s new boss—he’d finally pushed me over the edge. When I got close to the house, I quickly jogged over to the back door and rapped loudly three times.
    Candice stood next to me and rubbed her hands in the cold wind blowing around us. Meanwhile Harrison had come up to us and attempted to grab me by the arm. It was the wrong move in Candice’s opinion, ’cause the next thing I knew, Harrison was twisted around with his nose wedged against the wall of the house and his right arm pulled up at an odd and painful angle behind him.
    “Ach!” he shouted, and tried to twist out of the lock she had him in, but Candice merely pulled up harder on his arm while pushing her body weight into his back.
    “Move a muscle and I’ll break it,” she told him menacingly.
    “You’re assaulting a federal officer!” he shouted at her. “I can put you away for good on just