SAFE BY HIS SIDE (MANHUNT) Read Online Free PDF Page B

limits. The dry Texas land had taken a hit with drought, the heat and lack of rain causing the cedar trees to die, making the land look barren in the moonlight.
    The apartment complex looked old and dated, the scraggly bushes in front in desperate need of manicuring, the stucco dirty and fading. Another car pulled in, its lights flashing bright against the cement.
    Unlike Lenora’s upscale complex, this one had no security gate.
    Lenora shuddered. “I don’t understand women who fall for prisoners, especially a cruel man like Simpleton.”
    “Psychopaths can be quite charming when they want,” Micah said wryly.
    He noted the building numbers, then spotted 3A, Cissy’s apartment, and parked in front beside a dirty white sedan. The streetlight was broken, making the parking lot look shadowy, almost eerie with the empty spaces.
    When he cut the engine, he turned to Lenora.
    “Do you want to wait here?”
    She shook her head no. “If he’s here, I want to watch you arrest him. And if he’s not, I need to talk to this woman.”
    Not that it would do any good, Micah thought. He’d heard stories about women who fell for inmates. They thought they could save them or some bullshit like that.
    But he was determined to make this as easy on Lenora as possible. If confronting Simpleton or his accomplice would help her in any way, he’d do it.
    He squeezed her hand. “Just stay behind me and take my lead. Simpleton might be armed.”
    She nodded, opened her car door and slid out. He did the same, one hand stroking the gun at his hip as they neared the door. Weeds choked the few feet of grass, the front stoop was streaked with stains. The door looked like pressed wood and was starting to rot.
    He knocked on the door, stepping forward so that Lenora stood behind him. They waited several seconds, but no one answered. He knocked again, then leaned his ear against the door, listening for sounds someone was inside.
    “She’s not here,” Lenora said.  Disappointment tinged her voice.
    He held up a finger to quiet her, then turned the doorknob. The door screeched open. Micah pulled his gun and aimed it at the ready as he slowly inched inside.
    “Texas Ranger, Miss Cornwell. If you’re in here, please answer.”
    His voice echoed back as if the place was empty. Ratty, outdated furniture was cluttered with laundry, beauty magazines and fast food wrappers.
    “Miss Cornwell?”
    He felt Lenora close on his heels and pressed a hand to hers to urge her to stay behind him as he inched deeper inside the room. A faint beam of moonlight glimmered through the sheer, worn curtains giving him enough light to see a room to the right.
    He slowly approached it and peered inside. An unmade bed, the sheets tousled. A chair holding a pile of women’s clothes. Makeup bottles and brushes scattered across an ancient dresser.
    The hair on the back of his neck prickled as an acrid odor hit him. Blood…death.
    “Wait,” he whispered to Lenora.
    He moved forward, hand gripping his gun, then pushed open the bathroom door. His stomach knotted at the sight in front of him.
    Cissy Cornwell was lying on the bathroom floor, her eyes gaping in the shock of death, blood soaking her neck and chest.

Chapter Four

     
     
    Lenora gasped, a deep trembling starting inside her that made her cold all over. Cissy Cornwell lay in a pool of her own blood, her lips parted, one bloody hand reaching out as if to plead for her lover to save her.
    Simpleton had probably enjoyed watching her beg for her life, seeing the shock on her face, the realization that she’d risked everything to help him. Yet in the end, he’d made her suffer just as he had his other victims.
    “Son of a bitch,” Micah muttered.
    “He used her, then killed her,” she said, her voice thick.
    “Yeah, and now she can’t tell us anything.” Micah knelt to examine her body, although it was obvious she was dead. She’d lost a lot of blood, her complexion was pasty, her eyes glazed.
    “Body’s