Witness Read Online Free PDF Page B

rigid on her lap. “Something happened a few days ago and I…”
    Joe was silent for a moment, then leaned back in his chair. “Take your time. I’ll help you in any way I can.”
    His soft, patient voice calmed her, and she straightened her shoulders. “I was doing okay with it, I thought, but then, when I went out to the house alone just now, I saw that someone had left a message on my cell phone while we were at church.”
    “Bad news?” he asked.
    “No news. No anything. Just…a hang-up.”
    “Could have been a wrong number.”
    She bit her lip. She’d run through all the possibilities, but she didn’t believe this was random.
    “It wasn’t just a missed call. The caller waited for the message tape to play a few seconds before he hung up. And the incoming number was blocked. I’ve gotten several of these calls since Friday. I think they’re related to an incident that happened Thursday evening.”
    His eyes narrowed and he picked up a pen. “Tell me about it.”
    She looked up at him, feeling the hot lump in her throat that came with tears. This was not the time to go all weepy.
    “It’s okay. Whatever you tell me is confidential.”
    She nodded. “Thanks. Because I’m feeling the urge to bolt. I haven’t told anyone about this. Not even my sisters. And the police think I’m bonkers.”
    He said nothing, but his mouth took on a hint of a frown.
    Petra sighed. “I think I witnessed a murder.”
    “I see.”
    “Do you?” She leaned toward him, gripping the edge of the desk. “You don’t think I was hallucinating?”
    “I’d like to hear your story, but up until now, no, I wouldn’t take you for the kind of woman who uses recreational drugs or sees flying saucers. And I’ll be very disappointed if I find out I’m wrong about that.”
    “What do you have against aliens?”
    Joe cracked a smile. “Let’s hear it.”
    Petra settled back in the chair and told him as calmly as she could what she had seen through Rex Harwood’s patio door. Her voice broke when she got to the part where the woman fell to the floor.
    “She had to be dead. She had to be. Her face…” Petra shuddered. “I can’t get it out of my mind. And if she were alive, the police would have found her in the house. They said he let them search the entire building. But he was alone. And they arrived only a few minutes after I called them.”
    Joe nodded slowly. “What do you think happened to the body?”
    “I don’t know! If I did, I’d have told them, and I wouldn’t be going through this nightmare.”
    “What nightmare?”
    Petra told him about her sleepless nights, Mason’s un-characteristic barking and the anonymous phone calls. Joe made a few notes in a small notebook.
    “Apparently this man is a professor,” she told him, “which for some reason makes him more credible than me.”
    “Hmm.” Joe rubbed his jaw. “And you’ve seen the wife since then?”
    “No. The police officer said they’d check on her.”
    “I could look into this if you want me to.”
    It was what she’d wanted to hear, but Petra wasn’t sure it would help. “What would you do?”
    “I could look into Harwood’s background, see if he has a criminal record, talk to some people, ask a few questions, like whether he has a quick temper. Ask the other neighbors if they saw anything that night. And I’ve got a buddy in the Portland P.D. He might be able to tell me if Mrs. Harwood has resurfaced. All I know about this case is what you’ve told me, but you seem to think the police did a crummy job of making sure no one died that night.”
    Petra’s heart pounded. He wasn’t brushing off her story, and she felt more confident than she had since it happened. “At the time, I felt as if they should have done more, but I’m not sure what. If your friend pokes around and doesn’t find anything, it might just make Rex angrier with me than he is now, if that’s possible.”
    “You may be right,” Joe agreed. “I could do the