The Contorted Figure : Poached Parody by P.C. Hatter & Stacy Bender

Author:P.C. Hatter & Stacy Bender [Hatter, P.C.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Byrnas Books
Published: 2020-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

With Danny, Candy, and Norman safely locked away upstairs, I called the operator and asked to be connected to the State Police.

When she put the call through, the person on the other end said Collins wasn’t there. “Can I take a message?”

“Sure. Tell him Kaiser Wrench called. Mrs. Clement, Norman Zelikow’s nurse, combination nanny, was shot last night. She’s fine. The doctor’s already been here and checked both her and the kit out. Collins can swing by in the morning and ask questions. I dug a .32 slug out of the wall, looks like it was fired by someone running around the grounds. They escaped.”

“Got it.”

“Any word on Natalie Shore yet?”

“Collins said to tell you that we found her hat along the shore of the inlet. Otherwise we’re still looking.”

“Thanks.”

When I hung up, George appeared. “Are you going out, sir?”

“You guessed it.”

The penguin produced my hat and coat as if by magic, and I was out the door with a, “Lock the doors, George.”

I drove down to the gatehouse and ended up stopping to go inside when the hawk didn’t come out at the sound of the car horn. The hawk was asleep on his chair with a newspaper in his lap.

It took a bit of shaking to wake him, but even then, the hawk acted lethargic. “Sorry, sir… dozing off.”

“Is something the matter?”

“Headaches. I’m only taking aspirin… but I get so sleepy.” The hawk pointed a feathery finger at the bottle of a name brand headache pill on the table. When I dumped the contents into my palm though, no manufacture’s mark was on the tablets.

“Where did these come from?”

“Mr. Zelikow prescribed them for my headaches last week.”

“Did you take one the night of the kidnapping?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t take anymore. At least not the ones out of this bottle.”

The hawk blinked, his mind sluggishly working out what I was saying.

“Hand the bottle over to Sergeant Collins when he gets here. I’ll take a couple and see what the local chemist can tell me about them. Otherwise, don’t say a word.”

At least I figured out how the kidnappers got past the gatehouse hawk. If the tablets were substituted for sleeping pills, the poor guy could have slept through a dozen elephants doing the cancan and not noticed.

I needed to talk to the colony again. That meant making another call to the state police to get their addresses from the witness statements. Collins still wasn’t in, but apparently, he told those he worked with to give me all the help I needed. I had the information and was on my way without so much as a growl.

Linda lived in a ritzy suburb west of town. Even the stores smelled of money. Her apartment was above one of them. I managed to find a parking spot between a brand-new Ford and Cadillac. Though I didn’t see any lights on at her place, I figured she wouldn’t mind me waking her up and rang the bell. Holding my finger on the button for at least five seconds would insure I’d awoken her and give her fair warning.

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.