Mildred Pierced Read Online Free Page B

or so to the right of it.”
    “You saw him fire the crossbow?”
    “Yes.”
    “And then she went down?”
    “Yes.”
    “He was aiming it at her?”
    “I don’t know. He was waving it around before he pulled the trigger or did whatever one does to fire. I was looking only because it seemed so odd to see someone in the middle of the lawn with such a weapon.”
    “How did he react when he saw her go down?”
    Crawford looked up, a slightly puzzled expression on her face.
    “Peculiarly,” she said. “For an instant, he didn’t react at all, just looked in the general direction of the target and then it was evident that he saw the woman falling. He looked …”
    “Surprised?” I supplied.
    “Surprised, stunned, horrified by what he had done. Certainly not calm and composed. He went over to her and knelt. I hurried back down the path. I found a policeman about five minutes away and told him what had happened.”
    “You didn’t see anyone on the path? A skinny redheaded kid?”
    “Oh, yes. On a bicycle. He drove past me just before I saw the policeman. I don’t think I told the police about the boy. Is it important?”
    “The boy stopped to help Shelly. Shelly says he told the kid he thought his wife had a heart attack,” I said.
    “I’m not sure that proves—” she began.
    “—that Shelly didn’t know his wife had been shot,” I finished.
    “If he was telling the boy the truth, and he didn’t kill his wife .…” She smiled.
    “Then you didn’t see him kill her and you’re out of it,” I said.
    Her smile disappeared.
    “But I did see him shoot her.”
    “We’ll get back to that. What happened after you got the policeman?”
    “I waited for the officer on a bench near where I had found him. He ran down the path toward the lawn where I had pointed. And that’s all.”
    “Would you mind showing me in the park where all this took place?”
    “Can it wait till tomorrow morning? I have to pick up the children, and Phillip is coming home early.”
    She looked at me earnestly. If she had been convinced my hands were clean, I think she would have touched me.
    “What time did you see Mildred Minck get killed? I mean, was it right at eleven?”
    “A few minutes past,” she said.
    There wasn’t anything more to ask. We decided that I would pick her up at nine the next morning after the children were in school and her husband was at work. I wanted to look at the scene at the same time and, if possible, in the same light as when Mildred had died.
    We walked back to the front door, passing a large living room with thin metallic lamps and sofas that looked never sat upon.
    She stood in the doorway while I walked toward my car. I turned to watch her. She was wearing a sad, put-upon smile.
    London could take it. The smile said Joan Crawford could, too.
    It was late in the afternoon. I decided to find Lawrence Timerjack, founder of Shelly’s Survivors for the Future.

CHAPTER  3
     
    I DROVE UP Cahuenga Boulevard toward the Hollywood Hills and turned right onto Holly Drive. From there it was a series of about twelve turns onto small, winding streets. I got lost, had to turn around and asked a pair of ten-year-olds how to get to Hollywood Lake.
    It took me five more minutes to hit Hollywood Lake and another ten to find a low fence that surrounded three log cabins about fifty yards away from the lake shore.
    The gate in the fence was simply a thin log with a wooden sign next to it with the words “Survivors for the Future: Just wait. We’ll see you.”
    I parked and stood in front of the gate, pretending to admire the woods on either side of the fenced property that seemed to be about the size of a small city block.
    I could have simply lifted the log and walked in or climbed over the fence. The place was not really built for survival in case of enemy attack.
    After about three minutes, the door to the middle cabin opened and four people came out. The one in the lead was small and wiry. He had