Heather Graham Read Online Free PDF

tell us about Jon Marcel’s wounds, Doctor?” Mark asked.
    “There were five to his abdomen and chest. Serrated knife, caused a lot of ripping. Thrust with a great deal of strength.”
    “She was fighting for her life,” Mark muttered. Jimmy stared at him, his eyes narrowed.
    “Jon Marcel has a fifty-fifty chance. As I said, no vital organ suffered irreversible damage; it’s the blood loss we’re fighting to combat now.”
    Mark produced a card. “Doctor, if there’s anything—”
    “Call you. Yes, Lieutenant LaCrosse, I certainly will.” He inclined his head toward Ann Marcel. “If you need to talk to Mrs. Marcel, you should do so soon. The woman has gone through a lot this evening. She kept her husband alive before the paramedics responded to her 911. Gentlemen, good evening. I’ll do my absolute very best to keep Marcel alive as well, I assure you.”
    “Thank you, Doctor,” Mark said. They watched him walk back through a pair of swinging doors.
    “The wife,” Jimmy murmured.
    “Umm,” Mark agreed.
    They walked forward, toward the group of hospital-generic chairs in the hospital-generic waiting room. Mark nodded imperceptibly to the young policewoman, who sighed visibly with her relief. “Mrs. Marcel, Lieutenant LaCrosse and Detective Deveaux are here now to speak with you. They’ll take care of you, but if I can help you in any way...
    Ann Marcel’s eyes were extraordinarily green—framed in red as they were from her tears. She set her small hand with its neatly clipped, filed nails on the policewoman’s. “Thank you, Holly, you’ve been a tremendous help. I don’t need anyone to take care of me—I just want to see Jon’s attacker caught.”
    Mark and Jimmy glanced quickly at one another again. Jimmy shrugged and inched slightly to the background to watch the exchange as Mark hunkered down in front of Ann Marcel. “Mrs. Marcel, I need you to tell me exactly what happened this evening.”
    She swallowed, nodded. Her eyes started to fill with tears again. She blinked them away and sat tall and straight, composed. “I was waiting...I admit, I didn’t think much of Jon’s determination to paint strippers at first, but my God, his work was so good! I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rambling, but it’s all important in this, I think, my point being that when tonight started, I was thinking that I had been wrong. I had been worried about him, about the people he was meeting, the places he was going, but tonight, I’d decided that his paintings of the ‘ladies’ are so very good, that he was perhaps right in pursuing these young women to understand more about their lives. But he must have become involved with some very wrong people while he was working on those paintings. Tonight, I was waiting for him. We were going to go and see a special showing of his Red Light Ladies . I thought that he was running late. The next thing I knew, he was banging on the door, falling down, bleeding...
    Mark cleared his throat. “So, Mrs. Marcel, you were aware of his connections with...er, certain club women?”
    She stared at him blankly for a moment. The hint of a smile twitched at her lips. “Club women? Strippers, Lieutenant? Prostitutes?” Absurdly, he felt himself redden. She lowered her eyes for a moment, then said, “Well, of course. I’ve already seen some of the paintings. Oh, God, I just pray that the fact that his movements are very well known will help you catch his attacker. Jon must know who hurt him so badly, but... She inhaled, a catch in her breath. Mark was afraid she’d burst into tears, but she controlled herself. “First,” she said in a level tone, “I’ve just got to pray that he lives.”
    “Mrs. Marcel, did he say anything to you? Did he give you anything, drop anything in your apartment?” Mark asked.
    “Give me anything? Like what?”
    “He didn’t give you anything?”
    “Lieutenant, he fell against my door and crashed down to the floor. No, he didn’t give me