You Can't Hide Read Free

was good. She could go from adult to child, from dead Melanie to psychiatrist Ciccotelli in a blink. “Please come.” She drew a deep breath, shuddered it out. “I need you.”
    And then… success. A horrified cry rasped from the girl’s throat as Adams came plunging down. Twenty-two floors. They could hear the thud of her body striking pavement even through the closed car windows. Maybe her corpse wouldn’t be so attractive after all. But beauty was in the eye of the beholder and the sight of Adams sprawled dead on the pavement was…
    breathtaking. The girl in the passenger seat was crying hysterically.
    “Pul yourself together. You need to make another call.”
    “Oh, God, oh God.” She turned her face away from the window as the car passed within feet of Adams’s body. “I can’t believe… God, I’m going to be sick.”
    “Not in my car you’re not. Take the phone. Take it.”
    Shuddering, she took the phone. “I can’t.”
    “You will. Hit speed dial number one. It’s Ciccotelli’s home phone. When she answers, tell her that you’re a concerned neighbor of Cynthia Adams and she is standing on the ledge, threatening to jump. Do it.”
    She dialed and waited. “She’s not answering. She’s asleep.”
    “Then call again. Keep it ringing until the princess answers her phone. And put it on speaker. I want to hear.”
    The third try yielded results. “Hello?”
    She’d been asleep. Home alone on a Saturday night. It was satisfying, knowing that aspect of Ciccotelli’s life was also well under control. A nudge to the girl had her stuttering her lines. “Dr. Ciccotelli? Dr. Tess Ciccotelli?”
    “Who is this?”
    “A… a neighbor of one of your patients. Cynthia Adams. Something’s wrong. She’s on the ledge. She’s threatening to jump.” With her eyes closed the girl ended the call and let the cell phone drop to her lap. “I’m finished.”
    “For tonight.”
    “But-” She jerked around, her mouth open. “You said…”
    “I said I’d keep your brother alive if you assisted me. I still need your assistance. Keep practicing Ciccotelli’s voice. I’l need you to do her again in a few days. For tonight, we’re done. Say one word and you and your brother die.”
    Ciccotelli was coming. Let the games commence.
    Chapter 1
    Sunday, March 12, 12:30 A.M.
    Normally a suicide drew a bigger crowd, even in a high-priced neighborhood like this one, Detective Aidan Reagan thought grimly as he slammed his car door and flinched at the bite of the cold air blowing in from the lake. But most people with any sense were inside on a night like this. Aidan couldn’t afford the luxury. Dispatch called and he and his partner were next in the barrel. For a damn suicide.
    This was a distraction from the child homicide he’d spent the last two days working. He hated child homicides but he thought he might hate suicides just a little bit more. He could only

    9
    Karen Rose

    [Suspense 5]

    You Can't Hide
    hope he could get this jumper off his desk quickly so he could focus on finding who’d broken a six-year-old’s neck like a dry twig.
    The people who watched from the curb appeared to be twenty-somethings coming home from a night on the town. They waited silently, eyes fastened to the scene with a morbid mixture of horror, fascination, and sympathy. The horror Aidan understood. No body was a pretty sight, but a plunge twenty-two stories was a step beyond generic gruesomeness. As for the sympathy…
    Aidan would save his for the real victims. Whoever said suicide was a victimless crime had obviously never notified a family.
    He had.
    He wished the morbid curiosity-seekers could see that part of it. They might not find such a scene so damn fascinating after all. But they were well-behaved at least, standing silently behind the yellow tape strung between two light posts by the officers first on the scene. An occasional stamp of cold feet broke the unnatural silence. One of the two uniforms stood by the