Sidney Sheldon's Angel of the Dark Read Free

friends used to call me that. Not that I am an angel, by any means.” She smiled weakly. “I’m sure I could be quite a trial to poor Andrew at times.”
    â€œI highly doubt that,” said Danny. “You were telling me about last night. About what happened.”
    â€œYes. Andrew was upstairs in bed. I was downstairs reading.”
    â€œWhat time was this?”
    She considered. “About eight, I suppose. I heard a noise from upstairs.”
    â€œWhat sort of noise?”
    â€œA bump. I thought Andrew might have fallen out of bed. He’d been having these spells recently. Anyway, Conchita came running in, she’d heard the noise too, but I said I’d go up. Andrew was a proud man, Detective. If he were…” She searched around for the appropriate word. “If he were incapacitated in any way, he wouldn’t have wanted Conchita to find him. He’d have wanted me.”
    â€œSo you went up alone?”
    She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, bracing against the memory.
    Lyle Renalto stepped forward. “Angel, please. There’s no need to upset yourself.”
    â€œIt’s all right, Lyle, really. The detective needs to know.” She turned back to Danny. “I went up alone. As I was walking into the bedroom someone hit me from behind. That’s the last thing I remember, the pain in my head. When I woke up, he was…he was raping me.”
    â€œCan you describe the man?” asked Danny. He knew from experience that the best way to calm emotional witnesses was to stick to the hard facts. Once you started with all the “I know this must be distressing for you” bullshit, the floodgates opened and you’d lost them.
    Angela Jakes shook her head. “I wish I could. But he wore a mask, a balaclava.”
    â€œWhat about his build?”
    â€œMost of the time he was behind me. I don’t know. Stocky, I guess. Not tall, but he was certainly strong. I fought, and he hit me. He said if I didn’t let him keep doing it, he would hurt Andrew. So I stopped fighting.” Tears streamed down her swollen cheeks.
    â€œWhere was your husband at this time? Did he try to help you? To raise the alarm?”
    â€œHe…” A look of confusion came over her face. She glanced at Lyle Renalto, but he looked away. “I don’t know where Andrew was. I didn’t see him. On the bed, maybe? I don’t know.”
    â€œIt’s all right,” said Danny, sensing her anxiety levels rising. “Go on. You stopped fighting.”
    â€œYes. He asked me for the combination of our safe and I gave it to him. Then he raped me again. When he’d finished, he knocked me out a second time. When I came to…the first thing I remember is you, Detective.”
    She looked Danny in the eye and he felt his stomach lurch, promptly forgetting his next question. Lyle Renalto smoothly took advantage of the silence.
    â€œConchita, the Jakeses’ housekeeper, told me that all Angela’s jewelry was taken and a number of valuable miniatures. Is that correct?”
    Before Danny could respond that he wasn’t in the habit of leaking sensitive information about a murder inquiry to “family friends,” Angela blurted out angrily, “I don’t care about the damn jewelry! Andrew’s dead! I loved my husband, Detective.”
    â€œI’m sure you did, Mrs. Jakes.”
    â€œPlease find the animal who did this.”
    Danny cast his mind back to last night’s crime scene: the blood-soaked floor, the old man’s all-but-severed head, the disgusting, obscene scratches on Angela Jakes’s thighs, buttocks and breasts.
    Animal was the right word.
    Â 
    T HERE WAS NO SIGN OF THE pretty nurse outside Angela Jakes’s room. As Danny stood waiting for the elevator, Lyle Renalto oiled up to him. “You don’t have a very high opinion of attorneys, do you, Detective?”
    The lawyer’s tone had