Or watching.
Glancing over her shoulder, she scanned the quiet street. After school normally meant children on bicycles and neighbors walking dogs. But the frigid weather had everyone inside. The street was deserted. Suddenly, the windows seemed ominous, staring back at her like empty eyes.
Where were the police?
Shivering, she stepped closer, avoided the bloody print and slipped inside the door. Looked down. Another print. A blast of warm air from the vent above her blew a lock of raven-colored hair across her eyes. Pushing it aside, she swallowed hard and made a concerted effort to control her fear-induced ragged breathing.
She continued on.
The kitchen to her right. Peered in. Nothing but an empty mug on the counter.
The den to her left. Again, nothing seemed out of place.
That left the three bedrooms down the hall. And the trail of bloody footprints leading to the room at the end.
With nerves taut, the hairs on her neck standing straight up, she took another deep breath and stepped into the hall, doing her best to avoid smudging the prints, which grew darker with each step.
Was she destroying evidence the police might need?
Hesitating, she chewed her lip. Her instincts screamed at her to get out. To leave.
But Suzanne might be hurt. What if she needed immediate medical help?
Those thoughts kept her going, ignoring the raging fear flowing with every heartbeat.
“Suzanne?”
A noise, caught by her hearing aid, pulled her to the left as did the prints. Suzanne’s bedroom. The door was shut.
Reaching out, she almost touched the knob. Stopped. Every crime show she’d ever watched seemed to replay through her mind in a five-second span. She caught the edge of her shirt, gripped it with her thumb and pointer finger, and twisted the knob to open the door. No sense in marring any fingerprints that might be there.
No, you’re just possibly wiping them off.
But Suzanne was her priority.
Another muffled sound. What was that? Run!
Please, God!
The knot in her throat grew tighter as the door swung inward. A bloody smudge marred the hardwood floor. And another one just behind it. The room lay trashed, items broken and strewn about.
Oh, please, Jesus, let the police get here soon.
“Suzanne? Twister?”
Another sound. From the closet. Slowly, she walked toward it. Using her shirt again, she grasped the knob and turned it.
The door exploded open, pushing her backward to land on her rear. She let out a little scream, then groaned.
Twister. Licking her face, he expressed gratitude for his freedom.
“Get off. Down,” she ordered.
Immediately, he dropped to his haunches, ears perked, brown eyes gleaming. Cocking his head, he whined, seemed restless, his attention on something beyond her bed.
She whirled, rounded the bed and stopped.
“No!” she screamed and dropped to her knees.
Suzanne lay faceup, eyes fixated, unseeing, on the ceiling above her. Beneath her dark hair, a pool of blood soaked into the light brown carpet.
As Ethan O’Hara approached the house, the scream reverberated from within. The wide-open door and the brown bloody footprint on the front porch told him that the 911 hang up call signified real trouble. Definitely not a prank. Catelyn, his partner, pulled her gun and gave him the nod; he entered the house, his own weapon held ready in his right hand. They’d been passing by the neighborhood when the scanner went off. When Catelyn heard the address, she gasped, “That’s Marianna’s house, I think.”
“You know her?”
“I’m better friends with her sister, Alissa, but I’ve met Marianna a couple of times.”
Instead of waiting for a unit from the county, he and Catelyn had simply made a right turn into the subdivision, calling in that they would handle it.
She followed behind him, covering his back. Silently, senses on high alert, he tracked the prints.
Again he heard, “No!” coming from the back bedroom on his left.
Not wanting to call out and possibly alert the perpetrator who could still be around, he controlled his breathing, felt the familiar rush of adrenaline he always had going into a potentially dangerous situation and stepped into the bedroom.
The bed sat centered on the opposite wall. Sobs came from the right of it. He took in the debris-littered room. Someone had put up a violent fight. Catelyn came up behind him indicating the rest of the house was clean.
Lowering his gun to his side, he met her eyes, then turned back to see a woman lying on the floor beside the bed, her head resting in a stain of red. The crying came from the other woman who knelt at the figure’s side, long dark hair hiding her face.
“Ma’am?”
No response.
“Ma’am?” He touched her shoulder.
She jerked, screamed and scrambled sideways. Movement to his right brought him around and face-to-face with a German shepherd, whose sharp teeth, bared in a snarl, looked capable of tearing Ethan’s throat out.
“Easy, boy,” he soothed, backing up a step, flashing his badge to the scared woman trembling just out of reach.
“Twister, no. Sit,” the woman commanded, her voice clogged with tears.
The snarling stopped. The dog sat, popped a yawn, then, with his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth, grinned up at Ethan.
Breathing a little easier, Ethan was able to turn his attention back to the body on the floor…and the woman whose liquid ebony eyes flicked between him and Catelyn. Catelyn moved over to see the action this side of the bed. In a gentle tone, she said, “Marianna, it’s me, Catelyn, Alissa’s friend. This is my partner, Ethan O’Hara. What happened?”
Marianna blinked, swiped a few stray tears and gave a shuddering sigh. “Oh, Catelyn. I…I don’t know. I just…came home from work and found…this…her. The front door was open and…I called 911, but couldn’t wait for help. I had to make sure she was all right, but…she’s not.”
Another muffled sob, more silent tears.
No, the woman definitely wasn’t all right. The coroner would need to make a trip out here. Ethan asked, “Who is she, your sister?” They looked enough alike.
A negative shake caused her hair to shimmer,
