Page 71 of Kill For Me Kill For You
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘This guy is a bit of a minimalist. A clean freak. What does he do for a living?’
‘Statler couldn’t find any family – no marriage or divorce records, no hits on birth certificates apart from Quinn’s own, so he started searching for employee records. It says he’s a self-employed consultant on his tax returns, and he’s got a shit ton of money in the bank. No hint of what kind of consulting this guy does.’
‘Whatever it is, it must pay well. This house is off the charts.’
They left the study and Hernandez checked the drawer of the console table in the hallway.
‘Well, found some mail addressed to Frank Quinn. Nothing of interest,’ she said, dropping the mail back in the drawer and closing it.
‘Back yard again?’ asked Hernandez.
Farrow cast his eyes up the stairs, sighed.
‘Let’s check upstairs first. Don’t want to walk mud through the whole house. Check the bedrooms, then we’ll hit the yard.’
35
Amanda
She heard the male voice in the hallway downstairs. He was discussing something with a female – something casual. Most of it she couldn’t make out. A friendly argument, maybe.
‘Let’s check upstairs first. Don’t want to walk mud through the whole house. Check the bedrooms, then we’ll hit the yard.’
The male voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.
She wondered who it might be, coming to a crime scene late at night. Her only guess would be the police – or a landlord maybe.
Heavy footsteps on the stairs made the small hairs at the back of her neck stand on end. They were coming up right now, a step near the top squeaking under their weight. The hallway light came on. The door to the master bedroom was open, but she couldn’t see out into that hallway, just the triangle of light thrown onto the bedroom carpet.
More footsteps.
They were both upstairs now. She heard the creak of a door, a snap as a light came on, accompanied by the noise from a fan.
Bathroom. Had to be.
There was no conversation between the two of them now. The sound of a cabinet closing. Probably the bathroom cabinet. She’d noticed it when she’d stuck her head into the bathroom earlier, but hadn’t bothered to check it once she’d seen the single toothbrush in the cup on the sink.
‘He takes a lot of pills, this guy. Heavy-duty sleeping pills, by the looks of it,’ the male voice said.
Now she knew where she had heard that baritone voice before. It was deep, and rich, but there was something soft in it. Something gentle.
Detective Farrow. Of course he was the one investigating this crime. That’s why he was in the house.
Shit.
That meant they were searching the place. A feeling like a bucket of ice being thrown onto her back accompanied that thought. Amanda looked at the steel box in front of her. She had taken it with her when she’d crawled under the bed. The keys were still in it. She wondered then if she’d left the drawer of the nightstand open.
If she had, they would spend a bit of time in this room. They would look under the bed, Farrow and his partner. And Amanda would be out of time.
She thought about sliding out from under the bed, leveraging open the window and making a jump for it. This bedroom was at the front of the house. She was on the second floor. It would be a long drop to the hard sidewalk below. No way her injured knee could take it. It would just mean she would be arrested and charged with a busted knee.
She shut her eyes tightly, tried to think of a way out. No way to get into the hallway now without being noticed. She couldn’t get to the stairs.
It was the window, or just stay where she was and pray.
Another creaking door. Another snap from a light switch. Closer now. They were in the guest bedroom. Not much in there.
Amanda let out her breath slowly, feeling her stomach tighten. She put her hands flat and placed her head down on the carpet. To the side. So she could see when someone came in. A thick layer of dust was now close to her nose and mouth. She wasn’t unusually sensitive to dust, but there was a lot of it, and it brought a scratch to her throat. Pressing her lips tighter, she swallowed it down. If she coughed or sneezed now, it was all over.
