Snakes & Ladders Read Online Free PDF

for the area. More money that way.
    Most of the windows were boarded up, and on the ground beneath some of the planks Striker could see piles of broken glass. A big red Realty Inc. sign hung off a post out front, swaying in the growing night-time wind. Striker stared at it for a long moment.
    ‘What?’ Felicia asked. ‘You got something?’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ he said and got out of the car.
    Immediately, harsh winds blew his hair about and he buttoned up his trench coat. He slammed the driver’s side door, rounded the car and started into the vacant lot that separated the two buildings.
    Felicia got out too and followed him.
    When Striker reached the centre of the vacant lot, he stopped. He looked across the way – at Mandy Gill’s window, then at the empty three-storey behind him. At the very top was an attic. Its windows were covered with broken shutters. Everything inside appeared dark and still.
    He pointed at it.
    ‘The attic. It’s directly across the way from Mandy’s room. And it’s one floor up – a perfect spot for a vantage point.’
    Felicia came up beside him for a better look, so close he could smell the vanilla scent of her perfume. The wind whipped her long hair across her face and she used her hand to hold it down.
    ‘The attic looks right into her window,’ she agreed. ‘Wanna check it out?’
    Striker nodded. He crossed the vacant lot, weaving around the construction debris and potholes, until he stepped on to the next yard. Directly in front of him was the house. East side, ground floor.
    He took out his flashlight and shone it on the building. The walls were made of wood and stucco that was broken off and chipped in large patches. Old rickety planks covered up most of the windows, and the one in front of Striker was no different. He gloved up with a pair of leather Windstoppers – they were thick enough to stop the glass from slicing him – and yanked hard on the lowest plank. It creaked and groaned, but remained firmly in place.
    ‘The wood is strong,’ Felicia remarked.
    ‘Long nails.’
    Striker left the boards in place and made his way around the house with Felicia following. By the time they’d seen all four sides – and that included a heavily planked front door, complete with iron bars – he was satisfied the place was secure.
    Felicia shivered from the cold. ‘We done our tour here?’
    ‘You can wait in the car, if you want.’
    ‘Wow. Touchy, touchy.’ She looked up at the top two floors. ‘All the other windows are too high. Someone would have needed a ladder to get up there.’
    Striker didn’t disagree. The other windows were definitely out of reach. To complicate matters, the house was built on a slope. The next floor was over ten feet above the outside ground. The attic was another two floors above – far too high for someone to reach – but something about the attic called out to him. Then he figured out what was bothering him.
    ‘The boards have been removed from the attic window . . . and that doesn’t make sense. No Break and Enter toad is gonna climb all the way up there to force his way inside, not when he can just crowbar one of these bottom windows open. The only reason for breaking off those attic boards is if he did it from the inside – to get a better view.’
    Felicia saw his point. ‘Of the Lucky Lodge.’
    Striker turned his concentration to the ground-floor windows in front of him. After a more careful look, he noticed something odd with one of them. Compared to the other windows around the house – all of which were also boarded up – the planks on this one were different. They were stronger wood. Cleaner. Newer. And when he shone his flashlight on the boards, the shiny silver of new nail heads gleamed back.
    He pointed this out to Felicia. ‘The other boards on the other windows are old, but this one’s been boarded up recently. And look at the angle of these two – they’ve been driven in poorly. By the looks of it, the guy was