Page 54 of Witness To Murder
Her life was basically all trouble right now…except for Owen.
She checked the screen—unknown number—then cleared her throat and tapped the accept button. “Hello?”
Ignoring any call was out of the question right now.
“Leah.”
“Isl—Alyssa.” She frowned at the sound of her former roommate’s breathing—too rapid, as if she’d been running. “Are you okay? Why are you calling?”
“I’m at the lake house,” she whispered. “Someone’s here… I need your help. Please.”
Leah scrambled out from beneath the covers. The room spun with the sudden movement. “I’ll get there as fast as I can. Is there a place you can hide? In the woods? Somewhere?”
She staggered to her closet. Grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet, then a tee. No time for a bra.
“I think so. Hurry, Leah.”
The call ended. Leah threw the phone down and quickly dressed. “Owen!” She stuffed her feet into a pair of slides and rushed out of her room.
Owen was headed to her door.
“We have to go. Alyssa is at the lake house and someone’s there. She’s afraid and hiding.”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Leah had started to panic by the time they were in the car. The idea that it would take them at least fifty minutes to get to the lake house had her nerves tattered.
“The police would get there more quickly,” Owen said, reading her mind.
Leah hated the idea of feeling as if she had given up her friend to the police. No, Alyssa—Isla, whatever she called herself—was not really her friend. Leah should know that by now.
“You’re right. Should we call Detective Lambert?”
“I’ll call him,” he said, understanding her hesitancy.
At the next traffic signal, he made the call. When he’d hung up, he glanced at Leah. “Someone will be there in the next ten minutes.”
Leah breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what happened, that call was the right thing to do if her former friend’s life was truly in danger.
“There’s something else.”
She turned to him, her heart nearly stalling with worry. “I’m listening.”
“The black sedan leased to Douglas’s company that has been following you,” he said.
“The one with the driver who could be the same person who tried to set me on fire?”
“Considering what they found in the car,” Owen said, “I would say so.”
“Did they catch him?” She mentally crossed her fingers. Maybe he could provide some answers about who hired him or who else was involved.
“They found the car. He was inside. Dead.”
Her hopes sank. “Who was he?”
“They’re trying to run that down right now. There was no ID on him. His wallet was missing. The registration in the glove box shows After Dark.”
“How do we know he was the one in the library?”
