Grey Dawn Read Online Free Page B

he’d vented. Except that she hadn’t heard the alarm …
    â€˜â€¦ witnessed something …’
    Dulcie looked up, unaware that Rogovoy was still speaking. ‘Excuse me? Detective?’
    â€˜I said, if you had witnessed something – a dispute, or anything – that would be useful.’
    â€˜Oh, well, I don’t know.’ Suddenly, Dulcie felt rather silly.
    â€˜Or heard something.’
    â€˜Well, I did hear
something.
’ She really wasn’t the type who could lie. Only now Detective Rogovoy was looking at her. Waiting. And so, she started to explain. ‘Only I don’t know exactly what, well, as we would say in Literature and Language, what exactly it signified.’
    Rogovoy cleared his throat. Dulcie had the feeling he wasn’t into literary theory and tried again. ‘I know I shouldn’t be walking into the Square around midnight on a week night.’
    â€˜No, you shouldn’t,’ he interrupted.
    â€˜Chris always tells me to take a cab. But I’d left these papers I had to grade …’ He was being very patient, but Dulcie realized she was going into much more detail than necessary. And so she tried to sum everything up. ‘And then when I was out on the street, everything seemed very quiet and I heard something howl. I mean, it must have been a dog, but I swear it sounded like a wolf.’
    Rogovoy raised his eyebrows.
    â€˜I grew up in the forest, Detective.’ Dulcie was beginning to feel defensive. Her accidental use of synecdoche didn’t help. ‘I mean, in a small arts colony located in a forest. I know what wolves sound like.’ He motioned for her to continue.
    â€˜I know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s what it sounded like to me. And then I saw a man, and I thought it was my thesis adviser – Martin Thorpe – but he looked all strange and wild. His hair was messed up. And, well, today he basically denied seeing me on the street. It was dark and all. But not that dark. I mean, the moon was out—’
    â€˜Martin Thorpe? He works at the university?’
    Dulcie nodded. ‘He’s the head of English and American Literature and Language. The acting head. The director, I mean.’
    Rogovoy opened a drawer Dulcie hadn’t seen and pulled out a pad. ‘And you saw him on the street around when? Midnight?’
    She nodded. ‘But I thought you said it was a domestic?’
    He shrugged, the big shoulders threatening to start an avalanche as he wrote down Thorpe’s name and title. ‘Sometimes in a domestic, there’s a third-party involved. Another man.’
    â€˜Oh, no, I don’t think …’ Dulcie stopped herself. She really didn’t know anything about Martin Thorpe’s private life. If he’d been seeing a married woman or even a woman in a serious relationship, he could be involved in whatever had happened to her. He could also find out that she had informed the police.
    â€˜Are you going to talk to him?’ This would not endear her to her thesis adviser. ‘Maybe you can talk to the woman first? Maybe she doesn’t even know him, and it was a totally unrelated attack.’
    Rogovoy looked down at his pad. ‘I wasn’t completely honest with you, Ms. Schwartz, and I should be.’
    She waited.
    â€˜The victim? She was taken to emergency services this morning, when she was found, and last I heard, she’s in critical condition. But the doctors aren’t what you’d call optimistic about her recovery. And even if she makes it, the blood loss and the extent of her injuries … She was stabbed, repeatedly, in the throat. It takes a lot of anger to do something like that.’
    So that’s why Trista had heard it looked like an animal attack. Still, something wasn’t right here. ‘Detective?’ Dulcie heard how soft her voice had gotten. She cleared her throat and tried again, louder.