The Maus Trap (Penny Küfer Investigates Book 6) by Alex Wagner

Author:Alex Wagner [Wagner, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

16

Penny started up. Had she only dreamed the screaming?

She listened into the darkness while her heart was drumming wildly in her chest. The storm was still howling around the house, but there was nothing else.

No, wait. That wasn't the storm. That howl had sounded different, somehow ... human? Yes, that was it.

She searched for the bedside lamp switch with her hand outstretched—until she remembered that there was no electricity. She listened again. Was someone crying? Were there voices murmuring in the background? Or had strange dreams haunted her all the way into her waking hours?

She fumbled in the darkness for her cell phone, which she had placed on the nightstand, found it and tapped the display. It came to life.

She read off the time: 3:35 a.m. She must have slept a few hours after all. It didn't change the fact that she felt completely drained.

Again, she heard the howling. It was a crying, a sobbing—and it was coming through the wall of the neighboring room. Was Christiane Maus in trouble again? Or was she just being haunted by violent nightmares?

Penny rubbed her eyes, lying there indecisively for a moment. Yes, there were voices too. Definitely; excited, frightened voices. Or was it just one? The voice of a man?

She gave herself a wakening jolt, straightened up and jumped out of bed. Quickly she gathered some clothes and slipped into them. She paid no attention to what she put on; it had to be fast. Not a minute later, she was rushing out into the hallway.

The door of the neighboring room, which Christiane Maus occupied, was ajar. Penny pushed it open carefully—and bounced backward.

In the anteroom, the author lay stretched out on her stomach. A large, profusely bleeding stab wound gaped slightly to the left of the nape of her neck. The knife that had undoubtedly been responsible for it lay on the floor, directly next to Christiane's body. A pool of blood had already formed around the playwright’s head and shoulders.

But Christiane Maus was not alone.

Martin Knaust was kneeling right next to her, touching the lifeless body, almost stroking it, and howling and sobbing. It was his wailing that had roused Penny from her sleep—she realized that all at once. And he, too, was the one talking incessantly. It was a strange, repetitive monologue.

"Christiane," he called over and over again, "please come to yourself! I am with you. Everything will be all right."

Suddenly, he gave an even more agonized sob and wrapped his arms around the author's lifeless body. He lifted her up, pressed her to his chest, and wept into her hair. He didn't even seem to notice that he was getting blood all over himself.

It took Penny a few seconds to break free from her momentary paralysis. The sight that presented itself to her was too horrific, too incredible.

However, when she was again the master of her senses, she addressed Martin Knaust briskly: "Let her go. Right now!"

He didn't react, didn't seem to hear her at all. She had

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