Stalker (9780307823557) Read Online Free

ends of clouds out over the sea reflecting the pinks and golds of a hidden sunset.
    “I’ve got Mark’s car,” she told Bobbie. “Let’s go.”
    She felt Bobbie stiffen only an instant before she heard the shout from above the dunes.
    “Don’t move!”
    Instinctively she released Bobbie and stepped backward, twisting to stare upward.
    “Hold it! I said, don’t move!”
    Against the twilight sky stood four uniformed policemen, their pistols aimed at Jennifer and Bobbie.

4
    Newseye Tonight. Good evening. Just a short time ago police apprehended, as an alleged suspect, the daughter of a local hairdresser who died last night after being brutally strangled. Police, who have booked the suspect, Bobbie Trax, an eighteen-year-old student at Corpus Christi High School, for the murder of her mother, Estelle Trax, refuse to release any further information at this time. We’ll go to Margie White on film shot this afternoon in front of Estelle Trax’s home in northeast Corpus Christi.
    “Margie White here, and I’m outside the modest home where Estelle Trax’s body was found today by her next-door neighbor, Mrs. Lila Aciddo.
    “Mrs. Aciddo, how did you happen to find the body?”
    “I—uh—don’t know if I should—uh—”
    “It’s all right, Mrs. Aciddo. Just tell me what you told the police.”
    “Well, it was Stella’s day off from the beauty parlor,and she was supposed to—uh—come over so we could—uh—you know, go shopping.”
    “And—”
    “She—uh—didn’t show up and, well after the fight yesterday—”
    “What kind of a fight?”
    “I told the police about it. That girl and her mother were shouting at each other so loud I could hear it, even with my window on that side of the house closed tight, because it got painted stuck. And then it was quiet, so I looked out the window, and I seen Bobbie—that’s the girl—go out the front door and run down the block. I didn’t think nothing about it then, because that wasn’t the first time they had it out with each other. So this afternoon I guess I kinda thought I ought to make sure everything was all right and find out from Stella what happened, you know, and that’s when I went over there, and looked in the back window, because the doors were locked, and it was awful.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Aciddo. Today police are searching for Bobbie Trax who—”
    I don’t believe it. Crazy. It’s darned crazy how things work out. Yeah, I heard them arguing, and I even saw that nosy old biddy come to the window and pull the drapes aside to get an eyeful. She didn’t see me. None of them saw me. It was dark in those bushes back there by the garage. But all I had to do was wait, and then it was easy to get in.
    Now the cops have their suspect.
    I wouldn’t have planned it like this. Couldn’t have.
    Maybe they’ll stick the kid with it. Maybe not. Dependson what evidence they’ve got. Depends on what kind of an alibi she can come up with.
    Gotta think. Gotta get some aspirin to take care of this headache. Stupid kid. Who’s it gonna be—you or me?
    Let’s see what I can do to make sure it’s
you.

5
    “You through crying?”
    Jennifer wadded the soggy tissue between her hands and glared at the detective who faced her across the narrow desk. The interrogation room was a small cubicle with tile walls that reminded her of the bathrooms at school. At her left was a glass partition open to a large room that held desks and rows of files and was decorated by two walls filled with bulletin boards. Now and then someone passing through the homicide department glanced in at her without curiosity.
    “I cry when I get angry,” she muttered.
    “No point in getting angry,” he said. “We just follow the book. That’s the way things get done.”
    “It isn’t fair!” she said. “Bobbie didn’t even know what had happened! We were coming back to the city. We were going right to the police station to tell them she didn’t do it.” He didn’t answer,