Page 148 of Evil Bones
Heart pounding in my throat, I ran.
Skinny followed, wielding his badge like a crusader brandishing a sword.
CHAPTER 33
Hoses snaked the lawn, held by men and women in impossibly bulky gear directing high-pressure jets onto the structure. I saw no flames, but the air was thick with ash. With the acrid stench of scorched wood, metal, and plastic.
Not wanting to distract any of the first responders, I searched the crowd on my own. One hand covering my nose and mouth, I plunged through the onlookers, scanning faces and silhouettes. I didn’t know and didn’t care where Skinny had gone.
No Katy.
Finally, desperate to establish that my daughter was safe, I approached a firefighter who’d retreated to one of the trucks.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” I said, voice shaky.
The person turned to look at me, features obscured by a full-face SCBA mask. Given a height exceeding six feet, I assumed male gender.
“My daughter phoned me less than an hour ago from this location. I’m worried she might be inside.”
Moving a mic from his collar to the voice port on his mask, the man said, “We did a sweep. The house is empty.”
“You’re sure?”
The man nodded.
“Did you check the basement?”
“If the place has one, I’m sure someone did.”
Hardly encouraging.
“My daughter could be down there,” I pressed.
“Look, lady. You gotta step back.”
The man raised a gloved hand in the direction of the police cordon.
Struggling to keep my composure, I retreated up the block, my brain firing a barrage of questions.
Was Katy still in that house?
Was she alive?
Had Katy been abducted by the same person who’d called trying to terrify me, and succeeding?
If Katy was no longer here, had her abductor moved her elsewhere, perhaps suspecting his call had been traced?
My gaze never rested, at one point landed on a truck. On a logo with a familiar swooshing arrow.
My steps slowed as I felt a nudge from my lower centers.
What?
I studied the truck.
Noted spiderweb cracking on the rearview mirror.
A driver in a billed cap.
