Page 134 of Sworn to Silence
He knew Kate was despondent about the murders and the loss of her job. Best case scenario, he’d find her at home snuggled up with a bottle of something eighty proof. It wouldn’t be the first time a cop had turned to alcohol for comfort or escape. It was the other possibilities that had him concerned.
He parked on the street in front of her house and squinted through the swirling snow. Usually, she parked in the driveway. Tonight, the driveway stood vacant. He told himself the Mustang was probably in the garage due to the storm. But Glock had been a cop long enough to know when he needed to listen to his gut. This was one of those times.
Wind and snow pelted him as he walked to the garage and looked in the window. Uneasiness rippled through him when he found it empty. At the back door, Glock tried the knob, found it locked. Using his gloved hand, he broke the pane nearest the knob, reached inside and unlocked the door. The house was warm and smelled of coffee. He flipped on the light. “Chief? It’s Glock. You here?”
The wind whipping around the eaves seemed to mock him.
Glock set his hand against the coffeemaker, found it cold. Papers and files and a laptop covered the kitchen table. He glanced down to see handwritten notes. The state police in Indiana. A former detective from Alaska. A newspaper story.
Quickly, he cleared the rest of the house, but Kate was not there. Back in the kitchen, he called Tomasetti. “She’s not home,” he said without preamble.
“I’m twenty minutes away,” Tomasetti said. “Meet me at the station.”
“What the hell’s going on? Where’s Kate?”
“I’ll explain when I get there. Do me a favor and see if you can get Detrick on the line. See where he’s at, what he’s doing. Don’t let on that you’re suspicious about anything.”
“What does Detrick have to do with this?”
“I think he might be... involved.”
“Involved in what?”
“The murders.”
“What?You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me. Detrick?”
“Look, I don’t know for sure. Just call him, okay?”
“What if he’s at the station?”
“If he is, that’ll be the best news I had all day. If he’s not, then I’m pretty sure Kate’s in trouble.”
Awareness returns slowly. The first thing I become aware of is the cry of the wind. I hear snow battering the windows. I lay on my side with my knees drawn up to my chest. My wrists are bound behind my back. The arm I’m lying on is numb. My ankles are still bound. I’m shivering with cold. The crotch of my jeans is wet, and I remember peeing when Detrick hit me with the stun gun.
I open my eyes. Yellow light from the heater dances on the ceiling. I feel cold air flowing over me, and I remember the window is broken. I look around. My heart jigs when I spot Detrick, standing in the doorway. At some point, he removed his coat. He wears a denim shirt over a turtleneck and a nicely cut pair of trousers.
“You broke my nose,” he says.
I notice the blood on the turtleneck. “How are going to explain that?”
“People fall when the sidewalks are icy.” His eyes run over me. His smile chills me. “You’re shivering. Cold?”
I say nothing.
“You shouldn’t have broken that window. Heater would have had it comfortable in here by now.”
The hopelessness of the situation is like a dark hole and I’m about to get sucked into it. This man is going to kill me. It’s just a matter of when. And how. Time is on my side, but I know it’s running out.
“You going to behave yourself if I cut the rope on your ankles?”
“Probably not.”
He laughs. “You try anything stupid, and I’ll hurt you bad this time, you understand?”
He looks at me the way a starving dog looks at a piece of meat before devouring it. He’s going to rape me. I see it in his eyes. The thought repels me, but I remind myself I’ve already survived it once. I can survive it again. I want to live. That interminable will pulses through me with every rapid-fire beat of my heart.
He starts toward me. I notice the stun gun in his hand. “Don’t use the gun,” I say.
