171995.fb2 Chasing the dead - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 30

Chasing the dead - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 30

4:56A.M.

Sue gazes at the TV monitor, unblinking. Onscreen, the child strapped into the car seat is asleep, her head tucked to her chest. Sue sees at once that it's Veda.

The child doesn't appear hurt, just totally exhausted, sleeping deeply enough that the harsh glare of the video camera's light shining in her face doesn't even make her flinch. The camera holds its position and Sue notices that the time code streaming across the bottom of the screen reads 04:09A.M., less than an hour earlier.

He taped that footage and he left it here.

She sees a hand enter the frame from the right, gently grasping Veda's head underneath her jaw and lifting it slightly upward to expose the soft white flesh of her throat.

For a moment Veda tenses, still asleep, trying to pull her head away, but then she just sighs and falls still again. Sue stares at the screen as another hand enters the picture, this time from the left side. It is holding a long, serrated knife.

"Oh God, no," Sue hears herself say, in a voice that doesn't sound like it belongs to her at all. "Don't you dare, you son of a bitch."

The hand holds the tip of the knife to Veda's neck, so close that it's impossible to discern whether the tip is touching her skin or not. All it has to do is push the blade upward, or let Veda's sleeping head drop down. But it holds the tableau, child and knife, for that breathless span of seconds.

"You promised," Sue says. "Youpromised. "

Nothing on the screen moves. A moment later the image erupts in static. Sue is aware that she's leaning so far forward that she's in danger of falling over the desk. There's a sharp chirping sound on the counter next to her. She looks down.

It's her cell phone, the one that came with her new clothes. She grabs it, hitsTALK. "You promised you wouldn't hurt her."

"You're letting your imagination run away with you, Susan," the voice says. "I always keep my promises. You know that by now, don't you?"

"I'll do whatever you want."

"I know you will. That's why I cleared the way for you." The voice chuckles, but there's no humor in it. "Even the Engineer needed a little guidance from time to time, Susan."

She looks at the bodies sprawled around the police station.That's why I cleared the way for you.

"You'll find your car in the impound lot behind the station. But you need to hurry. You've got a long way to go before sunrise."

She nods, grunting, and heads for the door. She's getting that vibe again, the feeling that the voice is waiting there on the other end even though it isn't saying anything. What's it waiting for, she wonders, a thank-you? Or is it waiting to see if she'll remember something she's forgotten?

She stops with one hand resting on the cold door handle, and thinks of the map.

Walking over to where Yates's body lies, she squats down and sticks her hand into his pants pocket but finds only his wallet and keys. She checks the other pockets. There's nothing but a disposable lighter and an almost-full pack of Marlboros, some wadded-up Kleenex, and loose change. Then something occurs to her, and she lifts the body up, rolling it onto its side. The floor beneath him is covered in blood.

The map is down there, pressed between his body and the floor, protected in the evidence baggie. In one smooth gesture Sue lifts it from the baggie and tucks it under one arm, puts her hands in the pockets of her unfamiliar wool coat, and heads back out the door.