Molly Brown Read Free

if she had any idea how dangerous the game she was playing actually was. Maybe he should take the time to explain. He checked his watch. Time was something he was short of and he doubted she would appreciate it anyway. He took a breath.
    “So let me get this straight: your mom and dad are out of town, you decide to have a party and you go out and score drugs. You pick up some strange guy in a bar you shouldn’t be in, in the first place because you’re underage, then you bring him home and score a little action while your little sister sits in the dark alone in her room.”
    She hung her head, studied the cracked patent leather on her shoes and the chipped polish on her toe nails. “I guess.”
    “Pretty shitty, huh?”
    “I guess.”
    He was glad she thought so, even if it was in hindsight.
    “What did thi s Terry guy say to her when she caught him with his pants down?”
    She stifled a quick smile. Connell didn’t share the humor.
    The smirk disappeared as quickly as it came. “He wasn’t very nice.”
    “ He wasn’t very nice ,” repeated Connell, slowly. What was she doing with guys that weren’t very nice? He wanted to shake her but reckoned shaking wasn’t very nice either. “What did he say?”
    She shot him a glance and looked away again, to compose herself maybe? He wondered if she was actually as wrecked as she made out or whether it was an act she was hiding behind.
    “Terry told her she was a little freak and he’d burn her books and slit her throat if she didn’t disappear.”
    Definitely not nice . “And do you think he would’ve?”
    “Would’ve what?”
    “Slit her throat.”
    She shook her head. “Come on. It’s just some thing you say when you’re mad, isn’t it?”
    Oh sure, maybe in the world according to Lydia Brown, but not in any world he knew. He recalled wryly the times when Joe had interrupted him at an inopportune moment. That little guy had built-in radar but slitting of throats didn’t come into it. “How’d he know about the books?”
    “Huh?”
    “How did he know about the books? Did he go into her room?”
    She shrugged. “I dunno, I guess so ... I was pretty whacked out.”
    Connell started counting back in his head and tried to remain calm. He wasn’t sure whether his alarm bells were ringing because she was hiding something or simply because the whole situation stank.
    “Did Terry stay all night? Was he still here when you noticed that Molly had gone?”
    “I don’t know what time it was when he left. When he was done, I guess. I was high. It was about lunchtime when I realized she’d gone, and I gave her till dinner to come home. When it started to get dark, I began to get a little worried because Molly doesn’t like the dark.”
    She didn’t like the dark and yet there wasn’t even a light bulb in her excuse for a room . God, he knew deep down this could only get worse. He just didn’t want to think about it.
    He thought instead of Lizzie and the feel of her warm restraining hand on his arm. He needed her, but maybe it wasn’t such a good idea t o think of the love of his life when he was caught up in a case and hadn’t been home in four days.
    He returned his attention to Lydia. “What about the other guests?”
    “There were no other guests.”
    “Some party ...”
    She pulled a face. “We had fun.”
    Oh sure, so much fun that she couldn’t remember any of it. “You didn’t call your folks?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    She shrugged again, a little sadly this time. “Because I don’t know where they are.”
    Well that didn’t surprise him; she didn’t know much at all.
    So, that was last night and Molly had probably been gone twelve hours already by then. He added it up in his head, whichever way you looked at it, that little girl had been gone a long time.
    “You phoned the cops and they came straight over?”
    “No,” she replied in a voice that suggested she though t he was as stupid as her crazy little sister. “They came