The Anything Goes Girl (A Brenda Contay Novel Of Suspense Book 1)
Page 31
Tanya let herself in, and eased the door shut. She stood in the big dining room. Familiar silver and china glinted in the two breakfronts. The porcelain pheasant centerpiece stood where it belonged on the table. Through the arch lay the sprawling living room; groups of furniture rested on Oriental carpets in the milky light coming through sheer curtains. She listened a moment before stepping through the open door into the kitchen. Silence. The room was spotless as she had left it, her check still on the counter.
She crossed the glossy slate floor. A dish towel draped over the sink reminded her of towels loaded earlier in the clothes dryer. As with her check, the delay for the pillow had made her lose track, and the towels might mildew. Still troubled by the unlocked door, Tanya crossed to the basement stairs.
Something was wrong. “Who’s there?”
She started down, reached the landing and looked below. A light was on. “Let me hear whoever you is, ‘cause I know you down there.” Nothing. You crazy, she thought. It was just the big house being empty, and a rusty door lock.
She continued down the stairs and turned right, into the laundry room. It was clean but gloomy, with naked floorboards overhead, ductwork and wires. At the dryer she knelt and began pulling the still-warm towels out onto the open door. When she had them all, Tanya gathered them in her arms, kneed shut the dryer, and turned.
Now, though, she saw another light.
Holding the warm towels, she retraced her steps, moved around stored patio furniture and stepped into the dim furnace room. Beneath the naked bulb, on the gray-painted floor rested what looked like two clocks. Not clocks, though. Timers. Like what Mr. Ross used on lamps, when the house was empty. Why down here? You put timers on lights or a radio, to make people think you was home. Wires trailed from the boxes, back behind the furnace.
She turned away, walked back to the stairs and started up. She would phone the police, to be on the safe side.
“Hello.”
“Jesus God!” Clutching the towels, she looked up. He was standing on the landing, looking down.
“Hey, sorry.”
“What the hell you doin’?”
He was white, wearing a uniform of some kind, blue. He pointed to a badge on his chest. “MichCon.”
“The gas company? Bullshit.” She felt her heart pounding, but glared up at him.
“No, lady, really. You got a leak showed up on our computer.” He fished in his pants pocket and brought out a piece of paper. “I got a work order here says to get the patio key and let myself in.” He unfolded the sheet and looked at it. “Name’s Ross? We called her office and got her cell phone. She explained about the alarm and the key under the firewood.”
Tanya wasn’t buying it. “Where’s your truck? I didn’t see no truck.”
“My partner has another call, same problem. It’s probably just faulty sensors. He dropped me off, he’s coming back in a half hour. You must be the cleaning lady. This Mrs. Ross—”
“She didn’t say nothing about it.”
“Well, she couldn’t, could she? We just got the readout and called. On her way to Milwaukee, she said. ‘No one’s home, do what you have to and let yourself out,’ is what she said.”
Tanya stared at him. He did seem to have his facts straight.
He smoothed the sheet of paper, and held it out. “It’s no break-in, lady. Here’s the work order.”
She started up the stairs again. It was his white-blond hair, she now realized, that made him look strange – not the color, but the way it lay on his head. Understanding this made Tanya feel less fearful.
She stopped two steps below him, took the paper and studied it. It looked like a work order, the name and address right. “Backhoe break” was scrawled across the page. Except…
He couldn’t call Mrs. Ross. She’d turned off her cell phone. That was part of a promise to Carrie – except for emergencies, no calls. And those timers in the furnace room…
Let him think she believed. “Okay, that looks ‘fficial to me. I come back from running some errands is all. You go on finish up on the leak, but give me the key. So we don’t got to change the locks. The missus got a lot of nice things someone like to get their hands on.”
“Sure.”
He reached in his pocket and handed her a key. It was shiny and new, not weathered like the one kept on the patio. And now she saw he wore latex gloves. Paper boots covered his shoes.
“I’ll leave the way I came in. You can lock up after you’re done with the laundry.”
“Good, you leave.”
She hoped her fear didn’t show in her voice. The fake work order meant he had known exactly when the house would be empty. She needed to get out and drive. Straight to the police.
He was still blocking her way. “You don’t believe me.”
“’Course I do, you got a work order—” She took a step up and moved to push past with the laundry.
He held out his arm. “It’s Tanya, right?”
He knew she knew. Heard it in her voice.
“You let me pass,” she said, not looking up. “Lot of people know I’m here, start wondering pretty quick—” She butted at him with her shoulder. “Don’t want no trouble. You got a wrong house or something, all right, that happens, you just let me pass—”
“Lady, don’t fuck around—”
She butted again. Suddenly he shoved her shoulders with both hands.
As her feet left the steps she felt sick and weightless. Falling away, she saw his white-blond hair an instant, the low ceiling’s gray paint, remembering her check before she hit the stairway’s bottom step.
Her shoulder struck first, whipping her neck. The back of her head struck the concrete floor. She saw and felt stars. Groaning, she felt her heavy body like a thing thrown after her. It shoved her down, until it lay like a thing apart, on top of her.
Pain and white light. Skull and shoulder both fractured, Tanya closed her eyes and groaned. It was bad, but she was alive. She would make it.
She looked up at the bright bulb overhead. Again Tanya closed her eyes and lay still. Moving made it worse.
Shoes were scuffing, going. He was gone, and she was going to make it. Eyes shut, she felt pain thudding with her heart, in waves. In whatever time now passed, a profound sleepiness came to her. It was still there with the creak of floorboards above, then nothing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank the following people for sharing their expertise: Michael Wider, PhD, Margot Wider (novelist Margot McGuire), Harold Hotelling, PhD, JD, and Robert Nelson.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After a career of college teaching, Barry Knister retired in 2008. That year, he published his second novel, Just Bill. His first novel, a gritty thriller about Vietnam Vets titled The Dating Service had been published by Berkley.
Knister’s third novel, The Anything Goes Girl is the first installment in the Brenda Contay Suspense Series. The second Brenda Contay suspense novel, Deep North, is due for release in July 2015.
Knister is a past secretary of Detroit Working Writers, and the former director of the Cranbrook Writers Conference. He has published travel and humor in local markets, and writes an occasional blog and column for the Naples (Florida) Daily News.
Visit the author at:
Website:
www.bwknister.com &
www.bhcauthors.com
Blog:
www.barryknister.blogspot.com
Twitter:
@barryknister
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/873072.Barry_Knister
Cover design, interior book design,
and eBook design by Blue Harvest Creative
www.blueharvestcreative.com
Editing by BHC Staff Editor Bailey Karfelt
Table of Contents
Book Description
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
> Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Special Preview: Deep North
Deep North: Chapter 1
Acknowledgments
Praise
About The Author
Visit The Author
Meet The Creative Team
Table of Contents
Book Description
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Special Preview: Deep North
Deep North: Chapter 1
Acknowledgments
Praise
About The Author
Visit The Author
Meet The Creative Team