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“I’m already on my way,” he said. “If you get there before I do, wait for me.”
“How near are you? I think I’m closer to her apartment.”
“I don’t care how close you are.” Lynch’s voice harshened to sudden roughness. “Wait for me!”
Chapter
9
Twenty-Five Minutes Later
Jackie Gabert’s Apartment
The first thing that Kendra noticed when she parked her Toyota in the parking lot in front of the apartment building was that she could see lights in Jackie’s apartment. The second thing was Lynch’s Lamborghini screeching into the parking lot behind her and Lynch jumping out of the vehicle and coming toward her.
“Good.” He opened her car door for her. “You did what I told you for once.”
“No, I just got here myself,” Kendra said. “The lights of her apartment are on. I was going to give her one final call and then go up and knock.”
“You make the call. I’ll go ahead and pound on the door. What floor?”
“Third.” She nodded at the lights of the apartment as she started across the parking lot. “The one with all lights blazing. And it appears more like she really didn’t want to be bothered by me than that anything was wrong.”
“Possibly.”
She glanced at him. “But you don’t think so?”
“No, it’s you who don’t think so. You’re still on edge.” He took her elbow and nudged her gently toward the building. “Make that call.”
She was already phoning Jackie. “There’s still no answer.”
“Now, that does worry me.” He opened the front door for her. “Will you let me go up and check the apartment out first?”
“No.” She punched the elevator button for three. “I’m not that on edge.”
But she couldn’t say that when she reached Jackie’s door and rang the bell. Something seemed very wrong.
Come on, Jackie, open the blasted door.
But Lynch was stepping in front of her, his hands moving over the lock. Then he threw open the door.
And Kendra heard the first desperate, grunting sounds.
Then she saw the blood.
So much blood. Lynch was following it across the room toward the small coffee table where Jackie had served Kendra tea that first day.
Kendra ran after him and saw that Jackie had been manacled to the chair; the grunting sound was her trying to talk through the gag tied around her mouth.
And the blood was pouring from her lower back.
Lynch turned to Kendra. “Get out of here. She needs help. There was a fire alarm box beside the elevator. Go pull it.”
Kendra didn’t question him. She ran for the hall and a few minutes later the fire alarm was blasting through the apartment building. Then she was running back to Jackie’s apartment. But Lynch was no longer beside Jackie, he was coming out of the kitchen. “The apartment is clear.” He was striding back toward Jackie. “And I called 911 after I took off her gag.”
“But you still had me set off the fire alarm.” It had been his first instinct to make certain no one else was in that apartment and to raise enough hell to make sure that the entire apartment building was on the alert. “How is she?”
He shook his head. “Knife wound in the kidney. She’s been bleeding out.”
