Whisper in the Dark (A Thriller) Read Free Page A

heart.”
    “Wonderful,” Blackburn said. “He didn’t happen to spell the killer’s name in his own blood, did he?”
    Hansen, being infinitely more adept at social niceties than Blackburn, chuckled politely and said, “Sorry, Agatha, no such luck. My guess is he was dead after the first hit. The rest were just for good measure. A lot of rage there. And check out the hands and forearms.”
    Blackburn looked. “No defense wounds.”
    Hansen nodded. “Happened so fast he didn’t have time to react. No sign of forced entry or a struggle of any kind. Front security gate wasn’t touched. This guy knew his attacker.” He gestured to a crimson smear on the floor. “And it looks like we have a partial footprint.”
    “Oh?” Blackburn crouched down, studying the smear, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Or heels or toes, for that matter.
    “And when I say foot,” Hansen continued, “I mean barefoot. Whoever left it wasn’t wearing shoes, and it’s most likely a woman.”
    Blackburn stared at the smear a moment longer, wondering if Hansen had quit smoking too, because you’d have to consume a whole shitload of carrots to see all that.
    But if Hansen was right, then the rather obvious theory that had been percolating in Blackburn’s brain—that this had been the work of a jilted gay lover—had just fallen victim to a busted pilot light.
    Hansen launched into his usual disclaimer about providing a more definitive analysis once he got back to the lab, but Blackburn tuned him out. If the murder happened around midnight, then one of the other tenants might’ve been awake and seen something useful, like Cinderella fleeing the scene without her slippers.
    Who knows, maybe he’d get lucky with this one. Not that he and Luck were on speaking terms, but you never knew.
    No sooner had he thought this than his cell phone rang.
    It was Kat Pendergast. “I’ve got two words for you and I think you’re gonna like them.”
    “Don’t keep me in suspense too long.”
    “Naked lady,” Kat said.
    Blackburn paused. “There’s a couple ways I could respond to that. What exactly does it mean?”
    “I just got a call from dispatch. Seems a cab driver almost ran down a naked woman about two blocks from here on The Avenue. She’s covered with blood.”
    Blackburn felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “You gotta be kidding me.”
    “I kid you not,” Kat said. “And when the cabbie stopped to help her? She tried to stab him.”
     

3 
     
    S OLOMON AND CLARENCE weren’t having much luck finding Myra. They tried the usual haunts: the strip mall that held a Rite-Aid drugstore, a Von’s supermarket, a fast-food Chinese joint, and a Taco Bell. Then they checked the 24-hour laundromat behind it, where a lot of folks gathered to get warm on chilly nights like this one.
    No sign of her.
    They wandered up The Avenue, checking the dark doorways of the discount dental offices and pawn shops. Still nothing.
    Where the hell had she gotten to?
    They were about to give up when Solomon spotted the flashing lights of a police cruiser and an ambulance up near DeAnza Drive, where The Avenue abruptly turned from brown-skinned working class to white yuppie paradise.
    A couple of paramedics were loading a woman onto a gurney in the back of the ambulance, her bony bare legs hanging out of the blanket wrapped around her. She looked unconscious.
    “Shit,” Solomon said. “We’re too late.”
    “What?” Clarence squinted into the darkness. He’d broken his glasses a couple weeks ago and Solomon knew he couldn’t see worth a damn. “Is that Myra?”
    “How many white women you know walkin’ around butt-naked at two o’clock in the A.M.?” He gestured for Clarence to follow. “But let’s go make sure.”
    Clarence didn’t move. “I ain’t goin’ near no cops.”
    “They got their hands full. They ain’t gonna be fussin’ with the likes of you.”
    “That’s right,” Clarence said, “ ’cause I ain’t