Patricia Dusenbury - Claire Marshall 01 - A Perfect Victim Read Online Free PDF Page B

lids. How many pills had she taken?
    There were stores up on the street. Someone would be selling soda, someone would know
who to call about the fire, and there'd be a phone she could use. She stopped by the public rest room
to tidy up and gazed in dismay at the creature in the mirror--tangled hair, tear-striped face and
bloodshot eyes, torn wet clothes covered with mud and ashes. No wonder people had stared.
    * * * *
    Night had fallen by the time Claire returned to her carriage house. Dorian, who'd been
waiting on the porch, meowed and rubbed figure eights around her legs as she unlocked the front
door. She picked him up and carried him inside. The red light on her answering machine was
blinking. Frank? The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Department? She'd reported the burned cabin to
them and left her number. Although once the operator learned the fire was out, she hadn't seemed
very interested.
    The message was from Bobby Austin.
    "I don't want to worry you, Claire. We both know Frank likes to get off on his own, but I'd
appreciate a call if you know how to reach him." He recited a phone number and after a pause,
added, "Marie joins me in wishing you and Frank the very best, a lifetime of happiness
together."
    "Frank and I are not getting married." Claire shook her head, and pain zigzagged
across her forehead.
    No one answered the phone at Frank's house. She called Bobby back and got no answer
there either. It was Saturday night and no one was home. She didn't know Jeanette's last name,
much less her phone number. She gave Dorian a can of tuna, an apology for the late supper, and
killed time picking dead leaves off houseplants while she waited for ten o'clock and the local news.
It anything had happened to Frank Palmer, it would be news.
    The opening promo promised an update on the tragic story from Lafourche Parish after the
break. Claire sat through an endless series of commercials, chewing on her lip and afraid of what
she was going to hear. Finally, the news team reappeared.
    "James Oreille, the seventeen-year old Raceland resident who was injured in a vehicle
explosion Wednesday afternoon, has died of his injuries. Dirk Stone brings us an update live from
the scene. Over to you, Dirk."
    A dark-skinned man stared into the camera. Behind him spotlights cast bright circles onto a
parking lot. Their beams bounced off ribbons of yellow crime tape and disappeared into a large hole
burnt into the asphalt. In the background, neon signs advertised beer and snack foods. The man
raised a handheld microphone to his mouth.
    "Wednesday afternoon, this convenience store parking lot was the scene of a powerful
explosion. It created the crater behind me and took the life of a young man. Doctors did all they
could, but this afternoon, James Oreille lost his battle for life. His family is too distraught to appear
on camera." He drew an audible breath. "The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office tells us the vehicle, an
army-type Jeep, was driven here by a white male who was inside the store at the time of the
explosion."
    The camera panned to the storefront and then returned to the reporter, now holding up a
large piece of paper.
    "A police artist developed this sketch of the driver, who disappeared shortly after the
explosion. A white man approximately six feet tall and 160 pounds, he was last seen wearing dark
blue or black jeans and a black tee shirt."
    The camera closed in, and Claire stared at the screen, dumbfounded. The drawing looked
like Hatch. Jeanette had said Frank was fishing with Hatch. Hatch was Frank's driver. But the
reporter hadn't mentioned another person in the Jeep. Frank told her he always took the Jeep down
to his cabin, but the Jag was there.
    Where was Frank? Why did the Jeep explode? Who was James Oreille?
    The scene switched back to the studio. "Law enforcement officials describe this series of
events as both tragic and puzzling. Anyone with any information about either the vehicle or the
individual allegedly seen