Obsession Falls by Christina Dodd Read Free Book Online Page B

Summers said she felt terrible that she’d let Taylor’s father drag Taylor into the mountains, just the two of them. She figures he was abusing her, that’s why Taylor was so warped.”
    Taylor wanted to get up then. She wanted to tell them her father had never abused her. The abuse had been from her mother: the constant nagging, the subtle undermining, the resolve to make Taylor into a carbon copy of the prima donna beauty queen that Kimberly Summers Huddlestone had been and was.
    But Logan was sleep-deprived, he had a gun, he would be thrilled to bring her in.
    “That’s rough, but it doesn’t mean she had to become a killer,” Gary said.
    “Exactly. Mrs. Summers is going to be on Dr. Phil, though.”
    Taylor cringed.
    The two men walked toward the door.
    Logan said, “So, you checked the whole house? Did you find anything?”
    “Nothing.” Gary sounded disappointed.
    “We’ll kill the interior motion sensors.”
    Yes! Kill the sensors.
    Logan continued, “Brian is sending a technician out here first thing in the morning to find the electrocuted mouse and fix the damage.”
    “Electrocuted mouse. Okay. Makes sense.” Gary sounded relieved. “Now, tell me more about this Summers chick. What else did your mother find out?”
    Their voices faded as the two men headed out to turn off the sensors. Then the car outside started up, and they were gone.
    She shivered there for another ten minutes. Then she emerged and checked the front door, to make sure it was locked, and the drive to make sure they were gone.
    She had to search this house, find the equipment and food she needed, and get out fast. Get out before tomorrow when the security technician came back.
    And right now, she did not dare contact anyone. Not until she’d investigated every possibility, not until she’d considered every possible response.
    She had to save herself.

 
     
    CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Owning a successful business had taught Taylor to prioritize. So now, she turned on the computer and checked the weather report. A cold winter for the area. Great .
    Next, she Googled how to pick a lock.
    She learned with the right tools and a lot of patience, picking a lock was relatively simple. So simple, in fact, that she would never feel safe behind a locked door again. All she needed were lock picks and a small tension wrench, or she could substitute paper clips or bobby pins, and a small Allen wrench filed down at the end or a flathead screwdriver.
    She rummaged through the desk and found paper clips and bobby pins and a cheap flathead screwdriver. Obviously, Mrs. Renner liked to be prepared.
    Taylor printed out the information on the lock-picking, cleared the history, and shut down the computer. Picking up the Renners’ photo again, she considered the daughter, Cissie. This girl was a midget in a land of giants. She had issues. Best of all, she was approximately Taylor’s size.
    Fine. Taylor went off in search of the daughter’s room. She knew when she found it; the bedroom was trashed. Except it wasn’t. That was the way the kid kept it. The open dresser drawers had barfed clothes all over the floor.
    Cissie was nothing if not predictable. Taylor, meet Miss Rebellious Out of Place Teenager … who reminds you of you at that age.
    A narrow path led to the closet. There Taylor found and acquired a worn backpack, tossed in the darkest corner, a heavy coat, tossed in the other corner, a pair of heavy socks, smelly and balled up and tossed on a shelf, a knit hat, tossed in a tangled pile of computer cords, a pair of ski pants, tossed in the …
    Taylor knew from looking at the bedroom that the girl was so disorganized, the items wouldn’t be so much missed as assumed displaced. Scoldings might follow, but for Taylor, these items were necessary winter wear.
    Taylor dressed herself from the skin out, minus a bra since Cissie had not blossomed where Taylor had filled out. Tucked on the upper shelf, she found a faded Disney princesses sleeping bag.