AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Again she ignored my question. “I had to get out of there, and you do too,” she said with real fear lacing her voice.
“Slow down,” Josh urged her. “What happened? You know leaving looks bad.”
“I know, but looking bad is better than being dead.”
“Where are you?” I asked.
Josh put a hand on my arm. “No, Lara, don’t tell us.”
I looked over at him incredulously.
“Detective Beal is looking for you,” Josh explained. “We told him we don’t know where you are, and we should keep it that way. But tell us what happened.”
“He should be looking for the guy,” she complained.
“What guy?” I asked, though it sounded stupid as soon as I said it.
“The guy that stabbed Mr. Tanaka.”
I noted that she saidstabbedand notkilled. Did she know he was dead?
Josh held up a finger to hold me back. “First, are you in a safe place?”
We heard her take in a big breath. “For now.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” I blurted. She’d called Josh instead of me when she was in danger?
She snorted. “Duh, the cops are probably already tapped into your phone.”
Her logic seemed plausible.
“Let’s get back to what happened,” Josh said. “Start at the beginning.”
“After dinner,” she sniffled, “Echo came in with blood on his face, but he ran right back out the doggy door.” She sniffed. “I thought he’d gotten into a fight with a coyote or something and went out after him.”
Josh looked at me and mouthed, “Coyote?”
I shrugged. Coyotes weren’t unknown in LA, but mostly they went after cats and small dogs, not one the size of Echo.
“But when I followed him, it was just like before.” She started to sob. “It looked just like when Vern…” Her voice trailed off. She sniffed and continued. “I ran over to him. There was just so much blood, so much blood everywhere.”
I wanted to ask if Maro was still alive when she found him, but was afraid to.
She sucked in a loud breath. “Maro said to run, to get away before he came back.”
I forced out the question. “Who?”
“He didn’t say. That was all he said, before…before he stopped breathing.”
Her words made my knees go weak.
Josh’s jaw clenched. “You should have called 9-1-1.”
I wobbled as I imagined how terrible it was, how terrible it must have been for her.
Josh put the phone on the counter and rushed to pull me to him with a strong arm.
My legs went weak as my heart pounded in my head.
