When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [91]
I put my hand on her arm. No, that wasn’t enough for me right now. I needed more. I hugged my sister tightly in the middle of her garden.
“Sweetie, are you all right? You’re trembling,” she said against my cheek. “You’re trembling all over.”
“Someone is after us,” I whispered. “I’m not kidding. I’m not making a joke. And—those children in the car? Carole, oh God, Carole. They uh, they uhm… oh hell, they have wings and they can fly.”
Chapter 96
SUPPER AT MY SISTER’S HOUSE is usually a spontaneous event, what with Thumper or possibly one of the geese, Graham or Crackers, encouraged to wander in and out of the dining room like an extra guest or two. Over the table is a quote that accurately captures the family’s spirit: “If the sky falls, one may hope to catch larks.”
The sky was falling.
I had to hand it to Carole, though, she was enormously cool under fire. So was Kit. And so were Meredith and Brigid, who are two of the nicest, kindest, smartest kids I’ve ever met.
“Is this your idea of payback for Frank the Swan?” Carole said, and we cracked up. So did Kit, though he had no way of knowing exactly what we were talking about. Before she had left for her camping trip, Carole had brought me an old, hopelessly injured swan for mending.
Over a home-cooked meal I told Carole as much as I dared, and said that we would be out of her house as soon as we possibly could. It was also decided that Carole and the kids would return to Gunnison National Forest for another week of camping—just to be safe.
When dinner was finished, Kit and I had to leave for a while. It was Kit’s idea. We were going to see Henrich Kroner, who had been David’s boss at Boulder Community Hospital, and who was also high on Kit’s list of suspects. Kroner had studied embryology under Dr. Anthony Peyser in Boston.
Henrich had come to Colorado from MIT. He’d never been charged or indicted in Boston. He lived in Boulder with his current girlfriend, Jilly. I remembered that Jilly was a pediatric nurse, and worked at the hospital’s in vitro fertilization clinic.
I couldn’t help thinking of all the murdered babies at the School. All of the rejects. A pediatric nurse? It couldn’t just be a coincidence.
We were afraid that Kit’s Jeep might be easily recognized by now, so we borrowed Carole’s Chevy 4x4. We were at Dr. Kroner’s before nine-thirty. If he and Jilly were home, they’d be up. I remembered seeing Henrich at the McDonoughs’ the night Frank had been murdered. Another coincidence? I doubted it.
The lights of the expensive and grossly oversized mountain “cottage” were shining brightly. Henrich Kroner’s triple-black Mercedes convertible was parked in the drive.
The two of us walked up a flagstone pathway. We stood outside the screen door and rang the front bell a couple of times.
Nobody came at first. I could see into the living room: pine furniture and brightly colored throw rugs. Audubon prints, Shaker doors, wide-board pine floors. No Henrich and Jilly, though. A little scary. Everything was now.
“Dr. Kroner,” I finally called. “It’s Frannie O’Neill. Henrich Kroner. Jilly. Are you in there? Is anybody home?”
Total silence in the house. Only the loud shrilling of crickets and cicadas in the yard.
“Let’s go round back,” Kit said. He started around the edge of the house. I took a deep breath and followed him. I didn’t want to be alone. “I’m two steps behind you, Kit.”
Kit stopped suddenly and I nearly walked into him. “Oh, Christ,” he whispered. “Stay there, Frannie. Stay back, please. It’s bad.”
I could see Henrich and Jilly from where I stood. They were lying face up on a pair of bright yellow chaise longues. Blood was puddled around the chairs and seeping into cracks between the flagstones. Blood stained the longues as well.
I could see that Jilly had been shot in the hollow of her throat. Henrich had been shot through the right eye.
My heart constricted and my mouth was very dry.