Rescue From Darkness by Bonnie Vanak

Author:Bonnie Vanak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-05-11T18:09:04+00:00

In the morning, after coffee, giving Boo his walk and breakfast, she drove to the clinic. The Corvette’s engine purred reassuringly, and her iPod blared Imagine Dragons. Music usually soothed her.

Today nothing would soothe her. Her mind kept envisioning the battered teddy bear in the backseat of the car they’d found in the abandoned nursery.

The bloodstains in the front seat of the car. The prim, neat area where Anna and her mother had lived in hiding.

Thankfully, the clinic parking lot was empty upon her arrival. But soon it would crawl with police and detectives investigating every square inch. Already the clinic was under suspicion. Now even more so.

Inside the clinic, she turned on the air conditioner. Stale air circulated as the system coughed into life.

Belle switched on the lights, wincing as the fluorescent bulbs buzzed like a swarm of bees. The clinic building was old and needed updating.

If they ever opened again.

She headed directly for the doctor’s office she shared. Nothing looked out of place. Nothing odd. The police had searched it thoroughly after they’d found Tony’s lunch tote and the hidden drawer in the desk.

The hidden drawer didn’t have any mystery attached to it, either. The desk, she’d told the police, came as a donation from Clint. He once used the desk in his business and hid important files in the false bottom because “I had a nosy secretary.”

The police had been most thorough.

Still, what if they missed something?

“I don’t have time for this,” she said aloud.

Belle glanced at the clock on the wall. She’d hated that clock ever since Mike ordered Tony to hang it.

“Time is money,” Mike was fond of saying.

He’d said the same thing last night. Dread raced down her spine. Belle shot out of her chair, reached up and grabbed the clock.

The police had lifted it from the wall and looked at the back, but everything looked normal. She studied the clock’s back.

The front facing. Then she shook it.

Nothing.

Belle turned the clock over. The second hand stopped.

Bringing the clock back to her desk, she set it down. Belle rummaged in the office’s junk drawer for a Phillips screwdriver. She unfastened the screws and lifted the back off the clock.

At first she saw nothing. Belle turned the clock over. Held it to the light.

Something glinted on tape. She worked at the tape and then freed the object.

The key tumbled into her palm. Fingers trembling, she examined it. It had been painted black, to match the clock’s interior. Why would Mike hide a key in a clock, unless it was something he really needed to keep hidden? And where?

Sweat dripped down her forehead. This office was old, the air-conditioning system never working efficiently here. Tony had blamed the ventilation system and the air ducts leading to the office.

He’d always seemed to be working on the filter...

Key clutched in hand, she went to the air-conditioning return grille opposite the desk. It was partly blocked by stacks of boxes containing files.

She pushed them aside, and unlatched the grille and pulled off the filter.

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