A Checklist for Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

Robert once again.
    Of course if she really turned up the volume on the situation, broke the lifelong family taboo about exposing their troubles to the neighbors, she could run screaming into the street and hope that some neighbor would get involved on her behalf before Robert could hunt her down and hurt her badly. But after years of living in this area, the male neighborsmostly avoided Robert Peernock and the female neighbors rarely even came to the house if they saw Robert’s car in the driveway.
    What if nobody stepped in to help? What if nobody happened to be around to do anything at all, not even call the police?
    Then he would have her. He would be very angry as he hauled her back into the house. Alone.
    Her desperate attempts to form a plan never went any farther. She heard a car door slam just outside the front entranceway and before she could form the hope that he might drive off, she felt footsteps vibrate the floor behind her as Robert returned to the family room.
    Everything began happening quickly. Before she could turn around she felt a burst of brute physical power seize her. It instantly took control. Her wrists were roughly grabbed from behind and held in back of her the way police will hold a suspect’s arms; there is little muscle strength available for struggling in that position. Panic flooded her, gave her extra power to yank against the grip while she squirmed and fought as well as she could from her position on the floor.
    Though she did everything possible to battle the much bigger man standing over her pinning her arms back, the conversation of wills was carried on without a single word. Nothing but gasping sounds came from both members of the father/daughter team. Their last dance together had turned to primal chaos.
    In seconds Tasha felt steel bands snap tightly around her wrists, first one and quickly the other. She was able to twist around just far enough to get a glimpse of a pair of handcuffs. But in the next instant she felt her head forcibly twisted back to the front; she realized the handcuffs weren’t the only things that her father had brought back inside to make her feel better. A flash of blue canvas flicked in front of her eyesand she felt her father’s hands on top of her head. Some sort of rough fabric was pulled over her face. His hands were forcing it down over her eyes, her mouth, all the way down to the base of her neck.
    Everything went dark. The hood had no eyeholes, only one small hole for her nose and another for her mouth. As she continued to fight him, kicking out with her feet in the last defensive moves left to her, a little bit of light sometimes bled in as the air holes moved around just enough to tease her with a glimpse outside. But each glimpse lasted only for a flashing instant before the darkness returned.
    She tried to throw herself onto her side and rub the hood off her head by scraping her face on the carpet, but her father yanked her up into a seated position. She felt something like a hangman’s noose dig into the base of her throat, searing the flesh.
    Any further resistance was impossible.
    But once she gave up her fight the tightness around her neck loosened slightly. She felt his fingers fumbling behind her at the back of the hood and realized that what had felt like a noose was actually some kind of lacing tied at the base of the canvas, woven through the fabric like shoelaces. Even as the pressure eased and allowed her to breathe without choking, she could feel the tiny loops of the laces digging into the flesh at the base of her throat and at the sides of her neck. She had no choice but to remain still. If she moved her head very much it pulled the hood tighter against her throat, cutting off her air.
    Now, as she found herself handcuffed and hooded and pinned to the floor, Tasha could clearly feel the bite of her fear. The longstanding protection that had always been afforded to her by the invisible insulation blanket around her feelings was of no