The Triumph of Katie Byrne by Barbara Taylor Bradford Read Free Book Online

not here, Mom. He stayed with Carly in the wood. That’s where it happened…the attacks on…the girls.’ Katie put a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs, but she didn’t succeed very well.
    ‘Listen to me, Katie,’ Maureen whispered, but it was a harsh whisper. ‘Get Niall on the phone.’
    ‘I can’t , Mom! He’s looking after Carly. He stayed with her just in case the attacker came back. He sent me to the pay phone on the highway to call for an ambulance. They put me through to the police and now they’re all coming, bringing help.’
    ‘Katie, Katie, listen to me. I want you to come home. And immediately. I don’t want you there. Maybe it’s not safe. We don’t know who did this…the person could still be around, couldn’t he? Maybe even looking for you. It was always the three of you, everyone knows that. And perhaps he does. Come home at once. Your father will be here in a moment or so, and he’ll drive down and pick Niall up. Go and get into the pickup, and get yourself home at once. Do you hear me, Katie Byrne?’
    ‘Yes, Mom, I do. But I can’t. I’d like to, but I have to stay here. The barn can’t be seen from the road, you know that, and so I have to wait for the ambulance and the police. I’ll come home once Carly is in the ambulance and going to the hospital.’
    ‘Please come home,’ Maureen begged.
    ‘I’m okay, Mom. Honest. I’ll be home soon,’ she promised and hung up.
    Katie drove down the hill, parked in front of the barn and hurried towards the wood, clutching her flashlight. She walked a few feet down the narrow path and took a deep breath. ‘Niall! Niall! I’m back!’ she shouted at the top of her lungs, pitching her voice as far as she could, as she had trained herself to do for the stage.
    In the distance, faintly, she heard his response. ‘Okay, Katie. It’s okay, I hear you.’
    Swinging around, she returned to the truck and once again drove up the hill to wait for the ambulance and the police. Her head had begun to pound, and she felt sick again, as though she were going to throw up. She took a number of deep breaths, as she so often did when she stood in the wings, willing her stage fright to go away. This nauseous feeling wasn’t caused by stage fright, though, but by genuine fear. What if the killer was looking for her, as her mother had suggested he could be?
    She sat waiting on the highway, but she didn’t havelong to wait. Within the space of five minutes she heard a siren, and a moment later a state trooper’s car came into view. It raced along the highway at breakneck speed.
    Since the state trooper was coming up Route 7, from the direction of Gaylordsville, he had to park on the opposite side of the road; he got out and hurried over to the pickup truck.
    Katie rolled down her window and peered out at him, her face strained, her eyes bleak with pain.
    ‘Are you Katie Byrne?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes, I am. Is the ambulance coming?’
    ‘It should be here real fast. I was in the immediate vicinity, and answered the radio call at once. Where’s the crime scene located exactly ?’
    ‘I’ll show you.’ Katie opened the door, jumped down and led the trooper across the short stretch of barren land. Pointing down the hill, she said, ‘It’s in the wood immediately opposite that old barn down there. My brother Niall’s waiting in the wood. He thought he’d better stay with Carly, to protect her. Just in case the attacker was still around here –’ Katie stopped. Her voice was wobbling and tears had welled in her eyes.
    ‘Take it easy, Katie,’ the trooper said.
    Gulping, she nodded, and endeavoured to get control of herself. ‘Shall I wait for the ambulance while you go down the hill? To show them the way?’
    ‘You won’t have to do that. It’s about to arrive,’ the state trooper answered, cocking his head at the sound ofscreaming sirens. The highway was filled with whirling red lights as the ambulance shot along the road, coming to a halt