Silent Scream Read Free

help,
     versus trying to flee. But nobody saw him. Nobody ever did.
    Which made listening to their whispered secrets so much easier. He patted the cameras in his pack. Which made taking their
     money so much easier still.
I love my job.
    Oh my God oh my God oh my God
. From behind the tree where he’d hidden, Austin Dent watched the small boat speed away, his hands pressed to his mouth. The
     guard was dead. That man had shot him.
Dead.
    They’ll say I did it. Run. I have to run.
He took a few unsteady steps backward, lifting his eyes to the burning building once again.
    Tracey
. She’d been behind him as they’d run from the building. But when he got out, she wasn’t behind him anymore. And when he’d
     turned back… All he could see was smoke. A sob of anguish rose up in his chest.
Tracey
.
    In the distance he could see the lights flashing. They were coming. The cops were coming.
They’ll take me away. Put me in a cage. No. Not again. I can’t do that again.
He stumbled back a few more steps, then turned and started to run.

Chapter One
    Minneapolis, Minnesota, Monday, September 20, 12:40 a.m.
    H igher, Zell,” David Hunter said into his radio, his voice muffled by the mask covering his face. He turned his shoulder into
     the wind that blew the acrid smoke into the night sky. Suspended four stories up, the bucket in which he stood held firm.
     The belt anchored him to the apparatus, but his legs still clenched as he held his position.
    “Going up.” Jeff Zoellner, his partner, operated the lift from the base of the ladder.
    David adjusted the angle of the nozzle mounted on the bucket as he rose, aiming at the flames that had consumed the lower
     two floors of the structure before they’d arrived. None of them had gone in. Too dangerous. Their only hope was to control
     this fire so that it didn’t spread to the trees surrounding what had been a six-story luxury condo.
    Thank God this place isn’t finished
. In a few weeks there would have been people inside.
There may be one
. The guard was missing. If he’d been on one of the lower floors, he was dead. If he’d made it a little higher, there was
     still a chance of saving him.
    Arson. David’s jaw clenched as the platform rose. Had to be. He’d seen it before, up close and way toopersonally. The wind shifted again and he flinched when the flames lurched his way. For a split second he lost his footing.
Focus, boy. Stay alive
.
    “David?” Jeff’s voice was urgent amid the crackling. “You okay?”
    “Yeah.” The platform rose a few more feet, lifting him alongside a large picture window. Every condo on the upper floors had
     them. He saw no flames, but smoke billowed from the smaller windows which had already burst from the heat.
    But all the picture windows were intact. Made of impact-resistant glass, they didn’t burst. They also didn’t open. They were
     for the view of the lake. Not for escape.
    And then he saw them. His heart began to race faster.
    “Stop.” He leaned over the edge of the bucket in which he stood, so he could get closer to the window. It couldn’t be.
Nobody’s supposed to be inside.
But it was
.
    “What is it?” The platform lurched as Jeff hit the brakes.
    Handprints. The faint outline of small handprints that somehow… shimmered in the light from his spotlight.
What the hell?
“Handprints.” And streaks, made from fingers clawing at the window, trying to escape. “Somebody’s in there. We have to go
     in.”
    “Hunter?” Captain Tyson Casey’s voice cut through the static. “Do you see a body?”
    Using the controls mounted in the bucket, David edged closer until the platform bumped the wall. Straining to see through
     the smoke, his racing heart sank. “I see arms.” Thin, bare arms and a slim back. Long blond hair. Not the missing guard, a
     man in his fifties. “It’s a woman. Appears unconscious. Window is impact-resistant.”
    “Hold your position,” Casey told him. “Sheridan, cut the nozzle.