Colorful Death Read Online Free Page A

wasn’t it? She had just switched off the lights, and any killer would wait a while to see if she was going to go to sleep. Jade snuggled under the covers and tried to tell herself that she was being crazy, but the adrenaline was pounding through her veins nonetheless. Even as her eyelids drooped, she felt herself trembling with anxiety.
    It was useless to try to resist her body, however. The cottage was cozy and dry, and the howl of the wind was making everything paradoxically comfortable. At least she wasn’t out in the storm. Jade tried desperately to keep her eyes open, but at last she felt herself slip off to sleep, the phone still in her hand, and the knife under her pillow.
    The crash came an hour or so later, hitting the door with a massive thud and sending Jade scrambling for the other end of the bed.
    “Open the door!”
    Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Jade fumbled for the phone. There was the sound of a fist hitting the door over and over, a man’s yell coming over the howl of the wind.
    “Open the door!”
    No, no, no. The latch jiggled and met the resistance of the chair and Jade bit back a scream. She had left the knife under her pillow and she was frozen, her fingers on the numbers and her eyes on the pillow. She had to choose. What if he came through the door? Panic was making her lose her focus. She gave a whimper, and started to dial again. She’d memorized the strange emergency services number that evening, while pondering all of the various ways Maddox could break in and kill her.
    “It’s Maddox!” the voice called.
    “I know!” she called back, before she could stop herself. Oh, good, now he knew she was here. Oh, no.
    Lights flickered around the road and Jade wished for any way to show them that she was here, that she was in trouble. But they passed by without stopping, and she managed at last to get the call to work.
    “Emergency services.”
    “I’m in the cottage on upper road,” Jade whispered desperately. “There’s a man trying to get in. I think he wants to hurt me.”
    “We’ll be right there, ma’am.”
    “Hurry,” Jade whispered. To her shame, she was crying as the phone clicked off. She was suddenly very aware of how long it would take them to get out to the car, drive out into the wind and dark. It would be five minutes before they were here, if not more, and what could happen to her in that time. She dived for the end of the bed and snatched up the knife in shaking fingers.
    That was when she realized that the pounding on the door had stopped. She hadn’t even noticed it in her panic, but the sound had gone. She looked desperately around the cottage. Was he going to the back door? She tumbled off the bed and crawled for the alcove by the back door. There would be the whole room in his way if he came in the front door, and if he came in the back, maybe the crash of the spoons would startle him and she could leap out and hit him on the head with something. She didn’t actually want to stab him.
    How long she waited in the dark, she did not know. It seemed like hours before she heard the wail of sirens and saw the multicolored lights by the door. She waited while the car doors slammed, and another hand banged on the door.
    “Are you all right, ma’am?”
    “I’m all right!” Jade called back. Her voice cracked. “Have you found him? Is he out there?”
    “We’re looking now, ma’am. Can you open the door?”
    Carefully, Jade edged across the room—no need to crawl now, she supposed—and pulled the heavy chair out of the way. When she opened the door and saw the policeman’s eyes widen, she realized she was still holding the steak knife.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t have any other weapons.”
    “I see.” He didn’t look entirely convinced. “Well, Constable Jones is searching, ma’am.”
    “Tell him to be careful,” Jade whispered. She was just leaning out into the wind, shivering in her pajamas, when another car pulled up. To her surprise, the door opened to