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Not a Creature Was Stirring(112)

By:Jane Haddam


From the moment she had known Daddy was dead, she had been afraid. And what she had been afraid of was here, now, in this room.

Anne Marie started to move. As she did, she turned away from the light. The hand was there, disembodied, a man’s hand. It hovered in the darkness, something that could not be real. I’m losing my mind, she thought.

Then the hand came closer and touched her, circled her wrists, held them tight. It took a moment for her to realize what was happening, and then she screamed.

She screamed and screamed and screamed. And as she screamed, the hand on her wrist tightened and twisted. She felt her own hand turn and her fingers loosen. She watched her hand come open in the air.

What fell out of it was a tiny plastic bottle that had once held aspirin—and what fell out of that was powdered Demerol, spilling over the tablecloth like fine-grained snow on a pastel garden shelf.





SIX


1


WHEN THE LIGHTS CAME on, Gregor Demarkian got hold of Anne Marie Hannaford’s other wrist. He blinked into the glare and told himself he was going to kill Bennis. He was going to kill her. He’d called her right after he’d called Evers and John Jackman. He’d explained the problem to her. He’d gotten her to call the gate and make sure they could get in without a call to the house. He’d involved her completely—but she was supposed to set things up for the police, and for him. She wasn’t supposed to go out and do everything possible to get herself murdered.

Instead, he looked at her standing against the sideboard, watching him hold down Anne Marie, and said, “Where’s Jackman? She’s in shock now, but she’s going to come out of it any minute. Then we’re going to have a problem.”

“No we’re not,” Bennis said. She was grinning.

“Miss Hannaford,” Gregor said, “once, just once, in this year of our Lord, I would like you to do what you’re supposed to do instead of what you want to do. I would like to be reasonably sure we’re not all going to get killed here—”

“We’re not all going to get killed here,” Bennis said. “What do you take me for? She’s not in shock, you fool. She’s stoked to the gills on Demerol.”

“What?” Gregor said.

“Well, she’s already killed three people, hasn’t she? She made herself a cup of tea about half an hour ago. She always fills it full of sugar. I put the Demerol in that. I mean, for God’s sake, Gregor. I’m not Nancy Drew. As soon as you told me what was going on, I wanted her out of commission.”

Gregor looked down at Anne Marie. She had stopped screaming. She had stopped everything. She was the next best thing to catatonic.

He dropped her back into her chair. “You,” he said to Bennis Hannaford, “are a very dangerous woman.”

Bennis shrugged. “There’s your Detective Jackman,” she said. “He’s out in the hall. Can’t you hear him screaming at Teddy to get out of his way?”

Now that he was no longer desperately concentrated on keeping Anne Marie in check, Gregor could certainly hear Jackman screaming. Or shouting, at any rate. He could have heard him back in Philadelphia.

And just for the moment, he no longer cared.

Bennis Hannaford, Gregor thought. Bennis Hannaford is not only dangerous, she’s crazy. She ought to be locked up for her own good.