Page 4 (1/1)

There was only silence, thick and dead

Whatever they had heard, no, whoone Savich felt helpless, so he hated He wondered if the man who’d made these noises had simply slipped out of one of the upstairs s Savich walked slowly back along the corridor, alert, his SIG steady in his hand Suddenly he felt soht behind hi low, he whirled around, his SIG up No one was there, not even a dustwas that there was a heaviness in the air itself, as if so should be there, as if perhaps it was, just invisible to him He shook his head at hi on The only one who could clear things up was the wo into the fireplace, wearing a dress ht He could give her tea, cal, convince her to let him take her to the sheriff

He’d nearly reached the stairs when he heard another noise It was above him

CHAPTER 2

AN ATTIC He’d heard the creak of footsteps overhead, as if so from one board to the next, carefully, slowly, so as not to fall, trying to ot his brain focused and cal to scare the bejesus out of him The saone out aafter all

Angry now, Savich forced hi for another footstep to pinpoint where the , only the quiet of an eainst a n at the end of the long hallway He trotted to it, unlooped it, and pulled it down The stairs slipped s the hallway carpet

Darkness poured down He pulled out his Swiss Arht and switched it on It was better than nothing, though not much

He clihtened He kept his feet firmly planted on the wooden ladder when his head and chest cleared the attic opening and looked around hiht would penetrate It was black as Sean’s pirate eye patch, with no s to let in theto climb all the way into the attic It was too dark and he knew himself vulnerable, even with his SIG He continued to flash the penlight around hi more than ten feet away

Finally, he spoke "Is anyone up here?"

There was no sound, not a whisper of a sound The air itself see inside a ain, listened "Is anyone up here?"

There was nothing, not even the scurrying of a mouse to disturb the thick layer of dust that was part of the air itself

Suddenly, there was a loud whooshing sound, like so up all the air in its path It seee, sos, and it sla hih the opening, his feet not finding purchase on the ladder He landed on his back on the carpet He lay there just a e he’d done to his body

He had to get it together Whoever had struck hiain in the next instant He ai at all fro, he rolled to a sitting position and queried his body He are of the lights around hiht He slowly rose, stretched, and stared up again into that black hole, wondering what had hit him If not a person, and he was pretty sure it hadn’t been a ht, he’d probably disturbed a whole lot of bats What would bats be doing in a beautiful house like this one? For the life of hi else it could have been And maybe the bats had made the noise Perhaps bats were common up in the Poconos, particularly in the winter, when the cold drove theh was enough He strode to the top of the stairs, paused one final tihtly wrapped around his SIG

He had to get her to talk to hi left to do He took the stairs two at a ti to tell her he hadn’t found anything