He peeked his head into Kelly’s room to be sure she wasn’t there. His heart stopped. At first he thought the woman on the floor was Kelly, then he saw the dark hair.
“Dennis! Christ!”
Blood trickled from the woman’s temple. Craig placed two fingers on her throat, feeling for a pulse.
“What is it man? You scared the hell out of me, bellowing like that.”
“Who is she?”
“Oh my God!” Dennis rushed to the woman’s side. “Donna. She’s my secretary.”
“What the fuck happened? Kelly!” Craig yelled again. He tore the room apart looking for her, then ran down the hall searching every room, his chest pounding with dread. When he returned to the bedroom, the woman on the floor was still unconscious. Dennis had a cell phone in his hand, giving someone the apartment address.
“I called 911. The police and an ambulance will be here in a few minutes.”
Craig shoved one hand through his hair, ready to rip it from his head. “What the hell happened here? Where is Kelly?”
“You stay with Donna. I’ll check downstairs to see if anyone saw anything.” Just as Dennis rushed out the door, the woman moaned.
“Take it easy, now. You’re going to be okay.” Craig tried to comfort and reassure her in a calm voice, while dread raged within.
She raised a hand to her temple and Craig grasped it.
“Does it hurt?” What a dumb question. The woman was bleeding, of course she hurt. “I’m sorry. You have some blood there.”
Her eyes flew open, terror filled their depths. She jerked and tried to shove him away. He wondered if she thought he was the one who’d attacked her.
“Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You don’t understand,” she said, her voice filled with terror. “Who are you?”
“I’m a friend of Dennis’s. My name is Craig.”
“Craig? I know you.”
He’d never met her, but being his buddy’s secretary, the woman must recognize his name. Her gaze darted about the room, bordering panic.
“You’ve got to help her. He took her.”
Hairs stood up on the back of Craig’s neck. “Who?”
“Kelly. You’ve got to help her.”
Agony sliced his heart, and anguish obstructed his throat. Still, he managed to get out the words. “Where is she? What happened?”
Dennis rushed into the room before she answered. “The doorman saw a man he thought was suspicious. The description he gave sounds a lot like Robert.”
“Robert?” Craig ground his teeth so hard, pain shot through his jaw.
“I heard her screaming,” Donna said, with shaky breaths. “I ran inside. He had her pinned on the floor.”
Every word out of Donna’s mouth drove the cutting sting deeper.
“I tried to conk him on the head with a vase. He caught me.” She shuddered. “Oh my God. He. . . he hit her with his fists.”
He’d kill the son-of-a-bitch. Fury filled every quaking pore in Craig’s body. He barely noticed the EMT team enter with a stretcher. While the team tended the woman, he stalked to the living room. His blood boiled. A volcano of wrath smoldered inside, scalding every nerve. He shook with rage.
“Sir, may I have your name?” Craig whirled around so fast, the officer slapped his hand over his gun.
“This is my apartment, Officer. My name is Dennis Williams. The woman in there is my secretary, and another woman has been kidnapped.”
Dennis had taken charge, saving Craig from himself. The shape he was in, he could have done something stupid and gotten shot.
While Dennis talked with the officers, Craig stood listening, seething in a hazy cloud of rage. Twenty strained minutes later, he was ready to explode. No leads. No results. Kelly had been abducted and he had no idea where the bastard had taken her.
Helpless.
He couldn’t stomach the feeling.
One thing was for damn sure. He would not stand around and wait.
He would find the fucker. And when he did . . .
~ ~ ~
Joey liked to pretend that Robby was his brother. Sure was nice to have an older brother to hang around with. He hated home. Mom let that guy do anything he wanted, and most times he wanted to hit her. Joey couldn’t stand it. If only he was bigger.
So, he stayed gone. Mom didn’t care. Mom didn’t want him around her drunk boyfriend either. He swung his stick from side to side, smacking blades of grass. It was getting tall. Sometimes he and his friends would find things in this big old lot. Not many people came by this part of town. His friends hadn’t found anything good in a long time.
Car headlights beamed in the distance, catching his attention. Looked like it was headed this way. Maybe their luck would change. Or maybe the car would just drive on by. Wasn’t nothing around here but that spooky old house across the street.
As he thought about the house, the car slowed and then stopped right in front of it. Wow. Maybe someone was moving in. It had been empty for as long as he could remember.
“Hey.” He ran to his friend Robby.
“Find something, Runt?”
Joey didn’t like it when the others called him Runt. He didn’t mind so much if it was Robby.
“Look over there.” Just as Joey pointed to the car, a man got out. He looked all around before he shut the car door. “What’s he looking for?”
“Probably nothing,” Robby said and shrugged.
“How come he’s doing that?”
“Doing what?” His other friend, Jimmy, came over to see what they were looking at.
“That guy over there,” Joey pointed. “He keeps looking around.
“Looks suspicious,” Jimmy said.
“Suspicious?”
“Yeah. Fishy.”
“Yeah, suspicious.” Joey echoed.
The man finally walked to the back of his car and opened the trunk. He lifted something heavy out of the back.
“Look! It’s a body!” Joey got so wound-up he almost lost his breath.
“Calm down, Runt.”
“It ain’t no body,” Jimmy said.
“Then what is it?” Joey scrunched up his face. Jimmy thought he knew everything.
“I don’t know.” Robby answered, but he kept staring.
“What are you guys looking at?” Billy and Dirk came over too.
“That guy over there has something.” Jimmy told them.
“Looks like a body.” Joey had seen enough TV programs with people acting just like that man over there. Fishy. Suspicious.
“A body? Really?” Billy asked.
“Let’s go find out.” Dirk took off, Joey right behind him.
“Wait.” Robby stopped them before they got running good.
“Why?” Joey asked in disappointment.
“If it is a body, the guy could be a killer.” Robby never said nothing like that before.
“You think he could be a killer?” The idea scared Joey.
“He ain’t no killer,” Billy sneered. “And that ain’t no body.”
“Who says?” Jimmy asked.
“Says me.” Billy answered. “What would a killer be doing around here?” They stood, facing each other down.
“Maybe he owns that spooky old house. Maybe he keeps bodies in there.”
“Let’s go see.” Dirk tried again.
“There ain’t no bodies in there.” Billy said, with a mad face.
“Hey, guys. Look.”
All eyes stared across the street. An arm dangled down out of the blanket behind the man’s shoulder. Joey gasped.
“A body.”
“Are we gonna call the cops?” Billy asked.
; “Why would we call them?” Dirk snorted.
“No. We should see what this guy is up to. If he does have a body, then we can call the cops.” Robby started across the lot and the others followed.
They ducked low as they ran across the street. Even though it was nearly dark outside, they didn’t want to get caught.
“Stay close, Runt.”
Joey stayed on Robby’s heels. Robby ran fast, but Joey could run fast too. He made hand signals to Billy and Dirk. They snuck around to the other side of the house. Robby found a crate and quietly placed it under a window and turned it over so he could stand on it. Joey wasn’t tall enough to see in the window, so he stayed on the ground.
“Keep watch while I peek inside.”
“Okay.” That was an important job. He looked to the front and he looked to the back. The coast was clear. After several minutes, Joey couldn’t stand it any longer. “Do you see anything?”
Robby climbed down from the crate. “Naw. No body.”
“Shucks.”
“Come on. Let’s find the others.”
They crept around the back, making their way to the other side, and found Dirk and Billy with their faces plastered against a window.
“Anything?” Robby asked.
“You can see the stairway from here. He went up the steps.”
“Do you see a body?” Joey asked.
Dirk hopped down. “Nope. Just him. And he was carrying something.”
“A body,” Joey said.
“Where’s Jimmy?” Robby asked.
“Round front.” Dirk stuck his thumb in that direction.
“Billy, you stay here. Let us know if you see him come down.”
“Okay.”
Joey followed Robby and Dirk to the front of the house.
“Jimmy,” Robby called in a loud whisper.
“Here I am.” Jimmy was crouched on the porch.
“You see a body?” Joey asked excitedly. Somebody had to see a body.
“He carried the body up the steps.”
“Yes,” Joey cried. His fist pumped the air before Robby slapped a hand over his mouth.
“Quiet. You want to get us caught?”
“No.” Joey sniffed and swiped at his nose.
“What we gonna do, Robby?” Jimmy asked.
Robby got that look on his face that meant he was thinking. “We’ll wait. The guy has to leave sometime.”
“Then what?”
“We’ll sneak inside.”
“We gonna look at the body?” Joey remembered to whisper this time.
“We’ll look to see if it’s a person in there.”
“I saw an arm. It’s a body.”
“The guy could still be alive,” Robby told Jimmy.
“What if he’s dead?”
“Wait till we find out. You keep watch,” Robby told Jimmy. “Billy is on that side. Dirk, you go to the back in case he comes out that way. Stay out of sight. We’re going on the other side.”
Joey followed Robby back to the window he’d looked in the first time. He climbed up on the box and Joey kept watch.
Time passed slow when all you did was wait. Joey was tired and ready to call it quits when Jimmy came flying around the house.
“He’s coming. Duck.”
Robby scampered down, all three hid in the bushes. The door at the front of the house slammed and they heard boots clonk down the porch steps. Robby stuck his head up. A car engine started and headlights flashed down the street. The car drove away.
“Let’s go.” Robby took off.
They ran to the front and met Dirk and Billy at the steps. When they reached the front door, Robby put his finger to his lips.
“We don’t know if anyone else is in there, be quiet.”
Joey nodded his head so fast he hoped it wouldn’t fall off. His heart beast so hard he thought it might jump out of his chest.
Robby opened the door and they crept inside.
“I always wondered what was inside this place,” Billy said. “Looks like an ordinary house.”
“What did you expect it to look like?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Maybe like those ghost houses you see on TV.”
“It’s just an old house,” Robby said. “But they left a lot of stuff here.”
An oil lamp sat on a table, providing light in the room. A couch, a chair, and a rocking chair were there. The book shelf against one wall still had some books.
“Someone needs to stay and keep watch.” Robby said.
“Not me,” Dirk objected. “I want to see the body.”
“Billy, you keep an eye out.”
“Okay.” He went to a window and peeked out from the side.
“Stay together,” Robby told the rest of them. “And just in case, grab something heavy.”
“What for?”
Robby grabbed a piece of wood that looked like a cowboy statue. “In case I have to clobber someone.”
“Like who?”
“Hush, Runt.” He started across the room, walking slowly so he wouldn’t make a sound.
They reminded Joey of burglars, like the shows he’d seen on TV, with guys sneaking around and breaking into someone’s house to rob it. Robby was in front, Joey next, Jimmy behind him and Dirk bringing up the rear. Robby peeked around the door frame, then stepped into the kitchen. Wasn’t nothing there. Maybe the man left to buy some food.
Another doorway led to the next room and the next. They found themselves where they’d left Billy at the bottom of the steps. He stood at the window and gave a thumbs-up sign that everything was okay.
Robby looked at each of the boys with him and again and put his finger to his lips in a shushing motion. Then he put one foot on the stairs.
“Robby, do you suppose the stairs creak, like in spooky houses on TV?”
“You watch too much TV, Jimmy.”
Joey thought his heart couldn’t beat any faster. He held his breath as he climbed the steps. A moan sounded from upstairs.
“Was that a ghost?” Jimmy sounded as scared as him.
“Naw,” Dirk said. “Ain’t no such thing as ghosts. Sounded like a moan. Maybe that’s the body.”
“Then he ain’t dead.”
“Dead men can’t make a sound. Right, Robby?”
“That’s right, Runt. Maybe someone’s hurt.”
“Maybe he tied someone up.” Dirk said. “Let’s hurry up.”
“We have to be careful,” Robby snapped back.
They proceeded carefully up the steps and Dirk complained again.
“At this rate, the man will be back before we find the body.”
Another moan, and then a crack came from the closed door at the top of the stairs.
Robby slowly opened the door.
Chapter 23
Kelly’s head pounded like the very devil. Her neck hurt, her jaw ached, and she’d kill for some ibuprofen. And coffee. She needed her caffeine every morning to get her motor running. This morning felt like the hangover from hell. She tried to move her head and open her eyes. She cried out at the blinding pain.
That’s when she realized duct tape covered her mouth. Flashbacks of the evening came roaring back like a locomotive.
Don’t panic, she told herself. All she needed was to hyperventilate while her mouth had been sealed shut. She forced herself to breathe through her nose. Inhale, count. One, two three. Exhale. One, two, three. She completed the process several times before trying to open her eyes again.
A candle-lit dish on the floor at the far corner supplied a soft glow of light in the small room. Empty, it appeared the only item in the room was the wooden chair she sat on. Where was she? And where was
Robert?
The last thing she remembered, she’d been at the apartment waiting for Craig. Robert had attacked her.
Donna. Kelly closed her eyes and groaned again. She prayed the woman was not hurt.
She glanced down to find her wrists tied to the arms of the chair. A large cloth, perhaps a sheet, bound her torso to the back. She wiggled, but the binding was secure. Robert had lost his mind. She would never have believed him capable of such a thing. These were the actions of a desperate man. Desperate men could do anything. Best she remember that.
She prayed Craig would find her.
Something scurried across her foot, scaring the crap out of her. A mouse? A rat? She screamed and stomped her foot. No one could hear her scream with the confounded tape. Dammit.
The door latch turned, snagging her attention. Oh my God. Robert was back. What would he do to her? Fear clogged her throat and threatened to choke her.
The door eased open. Kelly couldn’t tear her gaze away. Her heart pounded, and she feared it might pound right out of her chest.
She blinked.
Several pairs of eyes blinked right back at her.
A teenage boy stood in the doorway, several others crowded around him. Did Robert have children helping him with his madness?
The young man hurried over to her.
“It ain’t no body,” one of the others said in disappointment.
Kelly could not imagine what in the world was going on.
“I’m sorry,” the tall boy said. “I can take the tape off or let you do it yourself.”
She tried to talk and jerked her arms. Of course, he couldn’t understand her.
“What’d she say?” the youngest one asked.
“I don’t know. She has tape on her mouth.” Then he looked back at her. “I’m going to untie you. Jimmy, you get her feet.”
“Hurry up before the man gets back.” The boy said, as he dropped to the floor and worked the ropes.
Listening to their snippets of conversation, Kelly deduced these boys were here to rescue her before Robert came back. Where had these boys come from? How had they found her?
Instant Enticement Page 28
