Cast into Doubt - By Patricia MacDonald Page 0,101

killing you? She used all her mettle to summon some will. She pulled back the carpet once again, and studied the floor of the trunk. There were coated wires running along the sides beneath the carpet. Her eyes were adjusting to the dark, and she could see that they were leading from the back of the back seat to the exterior sides of the car.

To the lights, she thought. To the signal lights. To the brake lights.

The answer came to her. The smart thing was not to bang on the lid to attract attention. The smart thing was to attract attention without making a sound.

She just had to hope that someone out there would be paying attention. Shelby wound her hands under and around the wires, braced herself as best she could, and jerked on them with all her might.

‘Jesus Christ, look at all these cops,’ said Glen uneasily.

Talia pulled up in front of the Gladwyne house and parked.

Glen chewed on a cuticle. ‘I wonder what they’re all doing here.’

‘I’m sure I don’t know,’ said Talia, but she sounded far less defiant than she had at Shelby’s apartment.

‘You think I should go up there?’ said Glen.

‘If you want. But I’m staying here,’ said Talia. ‘I’m not talking to them.’

Glen chewed the inside of his mouth. ‘I’ll do the talking,’ he said. ‘Just wait for me.’

Glen jumped out of the car and loped up the lawn to the house. There were two officers standing on the front steps. ‘What’s going on here?’ Glen said.

The two officers looked askance at him. ‘Move along,’ they said. ‘Nothing to see here, mister.’

Cops. They always looked at him with contempt. As usual, it irritated him. ‘Hey I’m not some rubbernecking bystander,’ said Glen, his voice rising. ‘I’m involved in this. I came here to see Dr Janssen.’

‘What do you want with Dr Janssen?’ said one of the officers.

‘That’s my business. I want to speak to somebody in charge,’ said Glen, trying to sound entitled.

The two men looked at one another, and then one of them picked up his two-way radio and spoke into it. The other one motioned for Glen to get down off of the steps. Glen considered refusing. Reluctantly, he stepped down.

After a few minutes the front door opened and Detective Ortega appeared. He looked out. ‘What is it?’ he said.

‘This guy says he’s looking for Dr Janssen.’

‘Actually, I’m looking for my sister, Shelby Sloan,’ said Glen.

Ortega hesitated, peering at the man on the step. ‘Why do you think your sister would be here?’ Ortega asked.

‘She was trying to find Dr Janssen and now she’s missing,’ said Glen.

‘Why was she looking for Dr Janssen?’

‘It’s a long story,’ said Glen. ‘It’s to do with the death of her daughter, Chloe—’

‘Chloe Kendricks?’ said Ortega.

Glen frowned at him as if he just fooled him with a three-card monte. ‘Yeah. How do you know that? What are you guys doing here anyway?’

‘We’re conducting a search,’ said Alex Ortega.

Glen held up Shelby’s car keys and shook them in front of the detective. ‘Well, I don’t know what you’re searching for, but you better start searching for my sister. I found these on the floor of the garage beside her car. But she is not in her apartment and I’m worried that something has happened to her.’

Detective Ortega took the keys from Glen and frowned. ‘You found these beside her car.’

‘Yes. And look, her apartment keys are on them. She didn’t get inside her building. Something bad is going down here. She would never just leave her keys on the ground and walk away.’

Ortega held the keys in the palm of his hand as if he might be estimating their weight. Then he nodded at Glen. ‘Come inside,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid you might be right.’

Shelby heard the siren, and her heart leapt. Don’t pass me by, she thought. Don’t pass me by.

Her silent prayers were answered. She felt the car slowing down and pulling over. It bumped to a halt. The sirens stopped as well. For what seemed like a long time, there was nothing. Nothing at all. And then, she heard it. The sound of voices. Muffled. But definitely voices.

One of them had to be the cop. She strained to listen.

‘Your lights,’ she heard a man’s voice say.

Yes, she thought. Yes. He had seen the lights which she had pulled out, and given chase. She was saved.

And then, she realized. Not exactly. She was still locked in this trunk, and no one knew it. Now, it was