Melody Burning by Whitley Strieber

Author:Whitley Strieber [Whitley Strieber]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781742695488
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2011-12-28T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Frank’s phone rang. He was exhausted. He’d been up all night getting rid of the evidence that the damn kid might have seen.

“Hello?”

It was Szatson.

“Yes, sir?”

“What’s with this wild child?”

“Excuse me?”

“ ‘Wild Child Found in Exclusive Downtown Apartment Building.’ You damn jerk, this is all we need, drawing this kind of attention to the building just now.” As he said the last two words, his voice dropped down. Just now. Concealed in them, Frank knew, was the terrible secret the two of them shared.

“He’s in juvenile custody.”

“I figured that out. You knew what needed to be done, and it wasn’t done, was it?”

“Sir, I didn’t have—”

“Don’t hit me with excuses. You did not do your job.”

Frank had never killed anybody, and to tell the truth, he’d been glad when the cops got that kid. Even worse was the idea of killing this building. Every time a tenant said something to him, in the back of his mind was the thought that this person was probably going to burn to death or be a jumper, and it would be on his head.

Now the intercom buzzed. Frank jabbed at the button and Linda, the day concierge said, “There’s a couple of detectives up here.”

His stomach gave a sick turn. The last thing he needed.

“What is it? What’s she saying?”

“Bulls.”

“You jerk!” Szatson slammed down the phone.

Frank feared that Szatson would send a gun over here. Frank might have a hard time with murder, but he doubted Luther Szatson did.

He’d cleaned up the fuel storage area, of course, but the kid had been in the worst possible place, right in there next to the device. Had he seen it? Had he understood what he was seeing? Had he told the cops—and was that why they were here?

At four o’clock this morning, he had dropped the remains of the incendiary device off the Santa Barbara pier.

“Frank?” It was Linda again.

“I’m coming!”

“Stay there. They’re on their way down.”

At that moment two LAPD detectives came in the door, one a short, Italian-looking guy, his hands nervously exploring his narrow jaw. The other was taller and solemn, with a sad, beaten sort of a face.

“We just have a few routine questions,” the tall man intoned.

“Okay.”

“The thing is, this kid that came out of here—he’s—we’re stumped. He’s not in any database. We can’t even get a name out of him.”

“I don’t know a thing about him.”

“Which is what you said last night to the uniforms, sir, and that’s fine. But he must have a room in here somewhere. There must be something for us to see.”

The other detective added, “We can find out a lotta things. We just need access to his room.”

“Look, I’ve been trying to figure that out. Where the hell did he stay? My employer wants an answer, too.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Because what if I’ve got a whole damn colony of homeless in here? It’s a big place. To make a long story short, me and my security guys, we went through every vacancy in the structure this morning and didn’t find so much as dust out of place.

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.