Sister Angel Read Online Free PDF Page A

things don’t usually get better by themselves. You don’t have to be so afraid.”
    Angel jumped up and glared at Constance. “Leave me alone! I’m not afraid of a stupid cat!” She ran from the room.
    Gloomily, Constance turned off the set and followed the girl. When she reached the foyer, it was in time to see Charlie leading Angel back into the house, his arm about her protectively.
    “Take it easy,” he was saying. “No one’s going to hurt you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Come on, let’s have something to drink. Who was chasing you, anyway?”
    “She wants to hurt me,” Angel said breathlessly, her face pressed against his side. “She won’t leave me alone.”
    “Who, honey? Just tell me who.”
    Angel nodded at Constance, who was standing at the hallway entrance, and pointed. “Her,” she said.
    When Charlie looked at Constance, his face was set in hard lines. This is how they must have felt, Constance thought distantly. By they , she meant the ones he interrogated, the ones he suspected, the ones he intended to stop one way or another, the ones he hated.
    Before either could say anything, Amos came running down the stairs. “Time to go home, Sister Angel,” he said cheerfully. “Lessons to do. Sister Wanda is resting now. We’ll come back later.”
    There was a glint in his eyes that looked like satisfaction, or possibly even contempt.
    In their room a few minutes later, Charlie told her what he had found out. “His name is Andrew Donovan, half a dozen pinches but never a conviction. Petty stuff. Con games, most of them, the chicken-drop switch, stuff like that. And for the last few years, he’s been with a carnival, a magic act. Long black hair, full black beard. It played in Bridgeport last summer, but no one would recognize him now.”
    She shook her head. It made no sense at all. This was not like any con game she had heard of. And why had he warned her to get Charlie out of here?
    “Don’t shake your head,” Charlie said brusquely. “It all fits. He killed Vernon, split, came back when things quieted down. And now he’s working his way into the house. What more could you ask for?”
    She told him about the picture album. Vernon could have met him at the carnival. “But why did he kill Vernon? Petty con men don’t murder as a rule.”
    “So Vernon found out something about him. What difference does it make? Even if he didn’t do it, he’s a con artist, and with the background of a magic show, mind reading and all, the rest of it’s easy. This is what Wanda needs to help her give him the bum’s rush.”
    “She won’t be convinced.”
    “I’ve got what they wanted. We’re finished here. I want you to take the car back home this afternoon. I’ll be along in a few days.”
    He was looking out their window at the lake, his back to her. The rain had stopped and a feeble sun was lighting the clouds that lingered.
    “Charlie, this is what we have to talk about. What’s wrong with you? What’s happened to you?”
    He looked at her with an expression so miserable that she wanted to go to him, hold him hard. “I don’t know. I have to be alone for a while. I have to be alone so I can think something through.”
    “Vernon became obsessed with someone else all at once,” she said slowly. “I think that was the ghost he wanted to talk about that night. Who is it, Charlie?”
    He had averted his face, did not answer.
    “You don’t know, do you?”
    “I’ll find her. That’s why I have to stay after you go home. I have to find her, find out how real this is, what I can do about it.” His voice was strained and harsh.
    Like Vernon, she thought. Just like Vernon. “You didn’t get any sleep last night,” she said. “Why don’t you nap now before dinner?”
    Outside their room, she looked up and down the hallway and said under her breath, “You can’t have him! Ghost, ghoul, whatever you are, you can’t have him!”
    Gretchen met her in the lower hallway. “Telephone