Until Dark by Mariah Stewart Read Free Book Online Page A

that.”
    “Well, it doesn’t seem very official.” The elderly woman looked over her glasses at Kendra. “Are you sure you’re with the FBI?”
    “Actually, Mrs. Sims, I’m with the FBI,” Adam told her. “Ms. Smith is a well-known compositor who often works along with the FBI. When we are lucky enough to get her.”
    Mrs. Sims looked at Kendra with no little bit of skepticism.
    “You remember the case of the California carjacker?” Adam asked in confidential tones.
    “Oh, my, yes. That woman with the gun who forced all those people to give up their cars? She went all the way from San Diego to Seattle.” Mrs. Sims gave a shiver. “Shot those people, every one of them, right in the face. Made a body scared to death to drive to the grocery store.”
    “Ms. Smith was the artist who drew the sketch that led to the capture of the carjacker.”
    “You don’t say?” Mrs. Sims regarded Kendra in a new light.
    “If it wasn’t for her, Carol Billingsly would still be out there, stealing cars and shooting people.” Adam leaned close to Mrs. Sims. “Ms. Smith is the best at what she does. That’s why the FBI called her in to work on this case.”
    “Oh, wait till I get home to tell Amelia.” She looked across the table at Kendra. “That’s my sister, Amelia.”
    “Was Amelia with you the night you saw Kathleen Garvey speaking with the man on the sidewalk outside Fanning’s store?”
    “No, no, Ms. Smith. She was at home. Amelia had taken a fall out in the garden a few weeks before—those pesky moles had the ground all uneven. She broke her ankle. I was on my way to the pharmacy to pick up a renewal of one of her prescriptions. Of course, I don’t usually venture out after dark—my eyes aren’t so good in the dark anymore—but the car had spent the whole day down at the Sunoco station having new tires put on, and they didn’t get it back to me till almost six, and ’Melia was in such pain, well, I thought, just this one time, I could drive down to town by myself at night.”
    “Where did you park, Mrs. Sims?”
    “Why, Agent Stark, I parked right out in front of Evans’s, just like I always do. Mr. Evans had the package all ready for me and he was apologizing all over the place that he didn’t have anyone working that night who could deliver the prescription—usually has that Parsons boy driving for him, but he was down with the flu and Mr. Evans doesn’t close up at night till nine, which is way too late because we are in bed by nine every night, don’t ’cha know?”
    Mrs. Sims paused to take a breath and Adam seized the opportunity to continue his interrogation.
    “The pharmacy is right next to Fanning’s?”
    “Yes. It sits right there in the middle of the block. There’s a dress shop on the other side, then Davis’s Market.”
    “The police report says you walked past Ms. Garvey that night.”
    “It wasn’t exactly
past
her. My car was parked at the curb, maybe two cars down from where she stood with that man, and she turned and waved to me when she saw me.”
    “So you didn’t walk by where she was standing, facing her?”
    “No, I was more to her side, on the left.”
    “And did the man turn when she did?”
    “No.” She paused, then said, “Well, not completely. He turned just a little to the side.”
    “So you only saw his profile.”
    “Yes. That’s right.”
    “Was he wearing a hat?” Kendra’s hands reached for her sketch pad and pencil though her eyes never left Mrs. Sims’s face. “Glasses?”
    “No hat, but he did have dark glasses. They covered his eyes all the way down to part of his cheeks. And he seemed to have a lot of hair. It sort of poufed out in the front.” The woman held her hands near her forehead to demonstrate.
    “Like curls, maybe?” Kendra’s right hand moved across the paper.
    “Maybe.”
    “What was the first thing you noticed about his profile, Mrs. Sims?”
    “That he looked like my brother, Andrew.” A hand flew to her mouth.