The Secret Friend by Chris Mooney Read Free Book Online Page B

his head, the intruder stepped forward, into the street light shining outside the bedroom door. Darby got a good look at his face and her breath caught.

12
    The man’s eyes were completely black, devoid of colour. His facial skin was unnaturally pale, stretched tightly across the bone.
    ‘Stay where you are,’ Darby said.
    The intruder kept walking. Darby backed up into the doorway of the bathroom.
    ‘Emma is fortunate to have someone so dedicated working on her behalf,’ the intruder said. ‘You could be sitting at your new home in Beacon Hill, and yet here you are searching through the dark for answers. I wonder why that is.’
    He stepped into the spare bedroom and gently shut the door as if he was retiring for the night. She heard him click the lock.
    Next she heard a rattling sound – the window, he was opening the window. Why? There must be a fire escape.
    Darby made her way down the spiral staircase. When she reached the living room, she saw a thin sliver of light near the bottom of the front door. The hallway lights were on. He must have tripped the circuit breaker.
    She took the stairs. Marsh was sitting behind the desk, reading a magazine, when he looked up and saw Darby racing down the stairs.
    ‘Where does Emma’s fire escape lead?’
    ‘To the alley around the corner,’ Marsh said, standing. ‘What’s going on?’
    Darby didn’t answer. She was already out the front door, running down the steps and through the heavy snow. Patrol cars were trying to edge their way through the traffic. She ran around the corner, past the ramp for the building’s garage. The alley was empty. Snow whipping across her face, she shielded her eyes as she moved down the alley, the SIG out, ready to fire.
    When she reached the end of the alley she saw the fire-escape ladder rattling in the wind near a dumpster. Fresh footprints were in the snow under the ladder. Darby followed them as they curved to the right onto Arlington Street.
    Cars were stuck in traffic, drivers and passengers gawking at her as she moved into the street, looking through the blowing curtains of snow for the intruder. Darby couldn’t see him. The man with the strange eyes was gone.
    Jimmy Marsh said the electrical box for Emma’s penthouse was inside the walk-in closet. Armed with a flashlight borrowed from a patrolman, Darby pulled back the row of dresses and found the main circuit breaker. She flipped the switch. The lights were back.
    The closet was long and narrow, packed with seemingly endless rows of clothes and shoes meticulously arranged in professionally crafted organizers made of polished oak. The jewellery boxes were actually four small cabinet drawers lined with red velvet.
    In the second drawer Darby discovered an empty space between two stunning diamond necklaces. She flipped to the page in the murder book, found the listing for the contents of the jewellery box. The antique locket and chain was listed between a gold diamond necklace and another necklace with a platinum chain. The necklaces were here; the locket and chain were missing.
    Still, she wanted to see the pictures CSU had taken of the jewellery boxes.
    Darby called Coop. He was still at the lab. She explained what had happened and what she needed. Coop offered to wait at the lab until someone from ID came to unlock the office and retrieve the pictures. He promised to deliver them to the Hale building.
    Tim Bryson didn’t answer his phone. Darby left a message about the missing necklace, hung up and then went to work on the spare bedroom where the intruder escaped. The door was locked, so she had to crawl up the fire escape to enter the bedroom. There was no sign of forced entry on the window. She searched around the floor and through the snow for any evidence the intruder might have dropped.

13
    Walter Smith carried Hannah down the cellar steps. When he reached the door to her room, he switched Hannah to his shoulder.
    The key card was tucked in his front jean pocket. Walter