Lethal Legacy Read Free Page A

there.
“The cops think the man started the fire himself in order to break in to your
apartment.”
    She was taking deep breaths on the other side of
the door.
    I took one, too, and tried to get at what had so
far been un-spoken. “I work with victims of sex crimes, Tina. That’s all I do.
It’s why the police thought I might be able to help. I deal with the most
sensitive cases you can imagine,” I said, closing my eyes, which burned from
the lingering smoke. “Did this man assault you tonight?”
    She coughed again.
    I didn’t know how long he’d been within the
apartment before Billy Schultz saw him running from the building at
twelve-thirty in the morning.
    “Did he awaken you when he knocked, Tina?”
    “No.”
    “Do you know what time it was when you first went
to the door?”
    “Five,” she said.
    “Five o’clock in the afternoon?” She must have
been confused. “Look, I’m going to have to let the police work on your door, or
the back window in your kitchen, Tina. You may be a little woozy. He couldn’t
have been inside there that long.”
    There was a noise before Tina Barr spoke next, as
though she shifted her position. She had gotten to her feet, perhaps angered by
my comment. I stood up, too, as she pounded on the door. “I know exactly what
time it was when the man knocked, do you understand? It wasn’t the middle of
the night, Ms. Cooper. It was five o’clock.”
    All the cops and I had assumed the events had
occurred within minutes of Schultz’s arrival home. Fast, like most break-ins,
and while the smoke bombs were steaming. We were wrong.
    “I apologize, Tina. That’s even more reason for me
to know what he did to you.” I didn’t want to suggest the word rape to
her. I needed her to reveal to me what had occurred.
    “I don’t want to talk to any cops, Ms. Cooper.
I’ll tell you what happened if that will make them go away.”
    “I’m alone down here now. The men won’t come in.”
I paused before I spoke again. “I give you my word.”
    Tina Barr sniffled, then was quiet. I heard the
dead bolt turn.
    The door opened a few inches and I could see the
young woman peering out from behind it, clutching the lapels of her white
chenille robe with one hand. Her dark brown hair was disheveled, her eyes
reddened from at least an hour of crying, and what looked to be remains of
adhesive tape forming a rectangle on the skin around her mouth, where she had
probably been gagged.
    I reached out a hand to her, hoping to comfort her
with a touch, but she recoiled at the movement in her direction.
    “You’re mistaken if you think this was about a sex
crime, Ms. Cooper. He wanted to kill me,” Tina Barr said. “That man left me for
dead.”
    TWO

    “I don’t want to press charges.”
    Tina Barr was seated in an armchair in the cramped
living room of her apartment, and I was opposite her on a small loveseat that
was sorely in need of reupholstering.
    “That’s not even an issue right now, Tina. I’d
like to know what happened to you. We don’t have a suspect, so there’s no one
to prosecute.”
    “You told me you wanted to make sure I was all
right. You see I’m not hurt, so now you can leave.”
    She was unnaturally pale and rested her forehead
in her hand, as though she needed that support to keep it upright.
    “A couple of minutes ago you told me a man tried
to kill you. You told me he was with you in here for more than six hours. How
can I walk away from this? You don’t look well, Tina. You must be terribly
frightened.”
    “I’m nauseous. I just want to lie down.”
    I tried to make eye contact with her, but she was
staring at the floor.
    “Who did this to you, Tina? Do you know that?”
    Her entire body trembled. “No idea. There was some
horrible black mask covering his face.”
    I didn’t want to press her, to cross-examine her,
but it seemed unlikely that her attacker had had the mask on for so many hours.
“The whole time he was here? Didn’t he ever take it