Kill Her Twice by Jack Fredrickson

Author:Jack Fredrickson [Fredrickson, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2021-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

It was a spur of the moment decision.

I jumped on the breezer into the city to see how Amanda’s assembly operation was doing, post-brick. She ran it until eight o’clock, so I was thinking I’d get there a little beforehand and we’d find a restaurant that didn’t serve lasagna after she closed up.

When I got there, her windows were dark. I got out, hoping she was still inside, closing up. As I walked up, a hand touched the back of my neck.

‘Sir?’ a voice asked.

I turned around, but the hand stayed with me. A quite tall Black man, perhaps in his late twenties, was behind the voice.

‘I know the manager, Amanda Phelps,’ I said.

‘They’re closed, as you can see,’ he said.

‘You’re part of the operation?’ I said.

‘Special services,’ he said.

‘Why are you closed?’ I asked.

‘If you know Miss Phelps, you can call her and she’ll explain. For now, you should move along.’

And so I did, not yet alarmed, but real anxiety came in the next minutes, when Amanda didn’t answer her phone. Almost always, she answered when she knew it was me. I forced myself to drive deliberately up Lake Shore Drive, not allowing my wheels, or my mind, to race.

‘She’s home, Mr Elstrom,’ the garage attendant said as I pulled in.

‘She’s not answering her cell, which means she doesn’t want to be disturbed,’ I said, managing a grin.

‘And you’re just the man to disturb her?’ he said, with his own grin.

‘You betcha,’ I said, pulling into one of the guest parking slots. I was on her approved list – the only one on her approved list. I gave him my keys and hurried into the lobby.

The concierge gave me a nod. He knew me, too.

‘Miss Phelps is in?’ I asked.

‘I don’t recall her going out,’ he said, which meant for sure she hadn’t left. Recollection had nothing to do with his duties. It was certainty that mattered. And, like the garage attendant, he made sure he was always certain about the whereabouts of the residents of his tower.

There was also a guard in the lobby, standing unobtrusively by the bank of three elevators. He pressed one of the buttons. His blue blazer was open as always, to keep his Glock clearly visible on his belt. The concierge was armed, too, I knew, with both a semi-automatic handgun in a shoulder rig and a shotgun beneath the surface of his custom-made, burled elm desk. I didn’t know if Amanda was the wealthiest owner in the building, but she was certainly in the heaviest of the cream of its occupants.

I rode the elevator up and knocked on her door. No answer. I knocked more insistently. Still nothing. I entered her code on the keypad, inserted my copy of her keycard, and turned the lock.

‘Amanda?’ I called out as I stepped into her foyer. ‘Amanda?’

Again, there was no answer.

Her unit was relatively small for her high-rise, and furnished spartanly. A large curved sectional sofa filled the smallish living room, positioned to offer the best view of the tens of millions of dollars in oil paintings that adorn the off-white walls.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.