Storm Season by Erica Spindler Read Free Book Online Page B

stud. You think anybody’s coming out in this shit? It’s just you, me and my friend Mr. Glock.”
    Fear raced into his eyes. He stepped back from the door and she slipped inside. Suitcases, she saw. Packed and ready.
    “Going somewhere?”
    “Vacation.”
    “Tell me about Erik Sundstrand.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Her control slipped a fraction. “Game’s over, Rudd. You used Whitney to obtain information about Sundstrand. She either caught on to you or simply ceased being useful, so you killed her.”
    “You’re crazy! I don’t know--” 
    She totally lost it. She charged him, knocking him backward. In a flash she was on top of him, gun’s barrel pressed to his battered temple. “You tell me the fucking truth or I’ll blow your fucking head off!”
    He crumbled. Started shaking and crying. “I didn’t do it. I swear, I didn’t . . . I liked Whitney . . . it was his idea. I introduced her to him and when he found out she worked for Sundstrand--”
    “Who?” She pressed the gun tighter. “Who is he?”
    “My step-brother Chuck. He hates Sunndstrand. After Wet ‘n Wild closed down, he worked for SunCorp. Only a few months. Sundstrand fired him.”
    Rudd was blubbering now. “All I had to do was try to get some information from her. Pretend to be super-interested in her job. Ask questions.”
    “Why’d he kill her?”
    “She caught me going through her purse. Looking for her SunCorp I.D.”
    “Then what?”
    “She flipped out. Broke up with me.”
    “But you said you talked to her Sunday?”
    “Chuck did. Not me. Arranged a meeting--”
    “Why would she meet him at the river?”
    “He’s my brother. He told her he wanted to talk to her about me.”
    And she’d agreed. Women could be so stupid when it came to men.
    “I didn’t know,” he whispered. “He told me he would patch things up between her and . . . I didn’t know,” he said again. “Until you and your partner came into Spanky’s. Then I confronted him.”
    His voice cracked. “He laughed at me. Called me a pussy and told me if I said anything to anyone, he’d kill me.”
    “But you’re talking now.”
    “I’m not that guy! I’m not . . . like him. He’s got Sundstrand. Not me.”
    “Where does he have him stashed?”
    “I don’t know.”
    She pressed on the barrel. “Bullshit!”
    He was sobbing now. “I don’t, I swear!”
    “Last name?”
    “What? I don’t--”
    “Chuck’s last name! What is it?”
    “Same as mine. Rudd.”

7:45 a.m.
    M.C. DIALED KITT FROM THE Explorer. “I’ve got the kidnapper’s name,” she said. “Chuck Rudd.”
    “Rudd? Wasn’t that--”
    “Bello’s boyfriend’s name? Yeah. It’s his step-brother. He killed Bello when she caught on to them. Brad Rudd swears he doesn’t know where Erik is. Says his involvement started and stopped with Bello. The step-brother lives with his old man.” She rattled off the address. “Go get him. Find out where Erik is.”
    “Wait! Where’s the boyfriend?”
    “Handcuffed to a support in his basement. Waiting for you to pick him up.”
    “What are you doing now?”
    “Acting on a hunch.”

7:55 a.m.
    THE FIRST OF THE SNOW had hit the ground and melted. That had been hours ago. Now, M.C. faced a white nightmare. The snow fell so heavily, she couldn’t see five feet in front of her, let alone drive across town.
    She had an idea where Erik was. And if she was right, he was exposed to the elements.
    “After Wet ‘n Wild closed down, he went to work for Sundstrand.”
    Wet ‘n Wild. A westside water park. Unable to compete with the Parks and Recreation Department’s bigger Magic Waters, it’d gone belly up. She’d driven by the abandoned park just the other day, it’s water slides like hulking skeletons against the gray sky.
    The perfect place to stash a kidnap victim.
    Or hide a body.
    No. Erik was alive. And every minute counted.
    She peered through the windshield, the wipers struggling to keep up. She