Anniversary Day Read Online Free PDF Page B

stay here, I’ll get her.”
    Nyquist shook his head. “You’ll never find her on your own. Just give me something and some instructions on how to use it. I’ll try to get her to you.”
    The woman gave him a strange look, as if she didn’t believe he could do that, then she shrugged.
    “Bleeding out from what?” she asked.
    “Stab wounds,” he said.
    The woman paled. “You stabbed her?”
    “Hell, no. I’m a detective with the Armstrong PD.” Although he probably looked a lot more disreputable than that right now. “My partner and I were called here to investigate a death, and the killer attacked her.”
    The woman cursed, then grabbed a kit. “Some AutoBandages here,” she said. “They should last long enough to get your partner out here. But I don’t have anything to replace the lost blood.”
    He couldn’t worry about that now. He had to deal with one thing at a time. First thing, stop the bleeding. Second, get Palmette out of that house. Third, deal with the blood loss.
    Maybe by the time he got her out here, links would work again and someone could help them.
    But he doubted that would be the case.
    This wasn’t a simple little disaster, covering one block. From what he could see—which was damn little—the entire neighborhood had been affected.
    He was on his own with Palmette and Alvina—and he had no idea how long that situation would last.
 
 
     

Seven
     
    Nyquist didn’t want to go back in that house. The whole thing looked unstable, not like a block of row houses at all. They had toppled inward against each other, roofs caved, walls leaning precariously against each other—or against nothing at all.
    He recognized Alvina’s only by the emergency workers still working on the officer in front of the door.
    Not that he could go in that way anyhow. Debris had fallen in front of that door, and it opened inward.
    He was going to have to crawl through that window and over that body one more time.
    He crossed the yard quickly, and stopped in front of the window, feeling a bit stunned. It was higher than he expected. He didn’t remember such a far drop to the ground, but he had to have made it.
    He placed his hand on the sill and levered himself upward, balancing precariously. Then he hoisted himself over the edge, careful to step down as near to the wall as he could to avoid the drying blood.
    The wall felt wobbly. He wondered if it truly was wobbly or if that was his imagination working extra hard now that he knew what condition this place was actually in.
    He paused long enough to listen to see if he heard anything. A moan, a rustle, anything. He hoped to hear a moan from Palmette, and he didn’t want to hear anything else. He didn’t want Alvina to have gotten loose from her cuffs and come after him.
    He heard voices from outside, over the sirens, but nothing from inside, at least that he could tell. He stepped back over the debris pile, then made his way to the kitchen.
    He glanced at Palmette. She hadn’t moved, which was a bad thing. He wanted her squirming, maybe trying to get to the door. But she hadn’t done anything.
    Still, he had to go past her to check on Alvina first.
    Alvina was still splayed face down near the table. She didn’t look like she had moved either, and he wasn’t sure if the splotch of blackness he saw on the floor near her head was a growing puddle of blood, or something else entirely.
    He didn’t go near her to check. The last thing he wanted was to get close enough to have her grab at him, pull him down, or use some hidden shard of glass as a weapon.
    Instead, he went back into the kitchen and crouched near Palmette.
    She was still breathing. Her skin was clammy and she was even paler than she had been before. Despite his efforts, she was losing blood.
    She was dying.
    He grabbed the kit, slid health gloves over the protective material he already wore on his hands, and then grabbed the AutoBandages. Only one was big enough for that stomach wound.
    He