Page 138 of Forever Dead
“Arnold’s eleven minutes out.”
“Have him come in quiet once he reaches the drive.”
Connor moved toward the porch.
“Nora Ellison? Sheriff’s department.”
The door shifted inward with the wind.
Nothing answered.
He climbed the steps, keeping to the side of the doorway. The front room beyond lay dark except for the intermittent blue wash from his SUV.
“Sheriff’s department. Nora, if you can hear me, call out.”
Connor pushed the door wider with his free hand.
The living room appeared undisturbed. A lamp stood beside an armchair. A television reflected the blue lights from outside. Family photographs covered the mantel. One showed Nora beside a man Connor assumed was her late husband, both of them younger and standing in front of the same farmhouse.
A small table near the hallway had been knocked onto its side.
Connor stopped.
A ceramic bowl lay broken beside it.
He stepped inside.
The house smelled of cooked food and something metallic beneath it.
His grip tightened around the pistol.
“Nora?”
A dark smear marked the wall near the hallway entrance.
Blood.
Connor followed it without touching anything.
The hallway ran toward the rear of the house. A staircase rose on the right. Two doors stood open on the left, one to a dining room and another to what looked like a study.
He cleared the study first.
Empty.
The dining room contained six chairs, a sideboard and a half-finished jigsaw puzzle on the table.
Empty.
A sound came from the rear.
Very soft.
A scrape, perhaps.
Connor held still.
Nothing followed.
