Twisted Shadows Read Online Free Page A

were still damp.
    â€œMiss Carroll … talk to me.” The operator’s voice was still calm but now it had a note of urgency.
    â€œI’m here,” she assured the operator. She heard a siren. “I think the police are here,” Sam said.
    â€œStay on the phone until you know.…”
    She looked outside as a squad car pulled up in the driveway and two officers approached. “It’s the police,” she assured the operator. “Thank you.”
    An ambulance stopped at the curb behind the police car. Lights now glowed in several neighboring houses.
    Her head pounded as she led the officers and paramedics inside and to the kitchen, where she sat down. One of the officers went through the house to make sure it was empty as the paramedics started asking questions. Sarsy suddenly appeared and wended in and out between her legs. “She was in a closet,” said one of the officers who’d returned. “Didn’t find anyone else. I don’t suppose you know if anything’s missing.”
    She shook her head.
    She suffered through endless questions and probing. The police were obviously concerned. They were used to burglary, but this was an assault as well.
    â€œWe’ll be talking to your neighbors,” one said. “See whether they saw or heard anything. We’ll keep in touch.”
    The medics finished with their examination. “A bump, but it doesn’t look as if the skin was broken. You should go to the hospital and have it checked.”
    Sam shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’ll see my own doctor,” she promised.
    â€œThen you’ll have to sign this form,” one medic said. “It absolves us of responsibility.”
    â€œIn case you die,” added the other.
    She didn’t appreciate the humor. Undeterred, she signed the form. She wanted to know whether anything was missing. She wanted to talk to the two men who had visited the gallery earlier.
    She thought about mentioning them to the officers, but then she would have to explain everything, and she couldn’t do that, not until she knew more. Steamboat Springs was a small town. The permanent residents all knew one another, particularly the merchants within the city limits. How could she tell these two officers that her mother might be the ex-wife of a mobster.
    What if none of it was true? What if she destroyed her mother’s reputation and life for a lie? Silence, she decided, was the better part of wisdom.
    Instead she thanked them after they promised to send over some fingerprint technicians and asked her to inventory her valuables and report anything missing.
    After they all finally left, she sat down in a chair.
    What to do?
    She knew head injuries could be dangerous, but she had been out just long enough for the prowler to get away. Maybe he’d meant no serious bodily harm. She just wasn’t going to wait all day in an emergency room. Any sign of dizziness, though, and she would ask someone to drive her there.
    She carefully locked the doors, then started to look around, anger mounting with every step.
    The assault had been an invasion, not only of her house but of her sense of safety.
    But nothing appeared to be missing. Not the silver Indian jewelry she favored, nor the western paintings that were the only items of value in the house.
    She looked at her watch. Seven-thirty. She phoned Terri, who always rose early. No one answered, and she decided not to leave a message. What would she say, anyway? She was no more ready to confide in her friend than she was in the police—not without more information.
    Her head pounded.
    She had never lied to the police before, even by omission. She was one of the world’s most upstanding citizens, having gotten only one traffic ticket in her life and that at the bottom of a hill in a speed trap. Something inside her rebelled at the thought of breaking a law.
    Her mother would be driving in this evening. She