Page 2 of Thin Ice

They reached the second-floor landing. Brookes spared her a glance before he stepped inside. From the blueprints James had provided of the place, they knew each floor contained what was once a couple of apartments. The second they entered the hall the smell of death descended like a heavy cloud around them.

“Oh no,” Abby pushed the words out and placed her hand over her nose and mouth. Someone had died here. The only question was who?

The first apartment was straight across from the stairs. Its door stood open. The wall bordering the hall had been destroyed revealing a gutted apartment and windows beyond. They’d all been shattered.

Brookes whirled to her, the shock on his face clear. “They’ve been shot out.”

Bullet holes riddled the walls inside the exposed room.

He turned back to the destroyed apartment. A second passed and then he entered.

“Body,” he whispered over his shoulder and pointed to a shape in the corner of the room. With a final look at Abby, Brookes eased toward the person.

“Is it?” Abby couldn’t bring herself to say the rest.

Brookes flipped on his flashlight. “Not the president.” He shined the light on the face of a man who had been dead for several days. “My guess is it’s a gang member. I can’t believe his people just left him here.”

Abby studied the man’s bloated and disfigured face and shuddered. Sightless eyes. He’d been shot through the chest. “Maybe they’re sending a message to anyone who comes snooping.” She tugged her turtleneck over her mouth and nose and went into the adjoining room. “There’s another body here. Female.” She moved to the woman’s side. “I’d say she died around the same time as the man.” Abby turned to Brookes. “How many more are we going to find?”

“I don’t know, but it’s safe to say if President Douglas is still alive, they’re not keeping him on this floor.”

“We need to search the fifth floor,” she concluded. “They’d want to be as far away as they could get from the entrance.” With a final glance at the tragedy that had taken place here, Abby moved toward the door when a sound coming from inside the stairwell grabbed her attention.

She stepped back and grabbed Brookes’s arm. “Someone’s coming.”

Abby hurried past the destroyed living space to the room at the end of the hall. The windows had been shot out in there as well.

She and Brookes slipped inside. Several more bodies were on the floor of the master bedroom.

Abby hurried to the broken windows and looked down. A group of shrubs lined the building. If they had to jump, the shrubbery would cushion their fall. It was only the second floor. Definitely survivable.

The room was devoid of furniture. A second smaller room was the bathroom. She and Brookes hurried inside it. Adjoining the bathroom was a walk-in closet. No other means of escape besides the bedroom windows.

“Hide in the closet and get down low. I’ll stay behind this door.” Brookes pointed to the one leading to the bedroom. “I’ll see if I can take him by surprise. It’s our only chance.”

A door squeaked somewhere on the floor.

“Hurry, Abby,” he whispered and gave her a little push toward the room.

She ran to the closet but left the door open so she could hide behind it and hear what was taking place in the bedroom.

More than one set of footsteps came down the hall outside the apartment.

“It stinks down here,” a man grumbled. “How long are we going to hold him anyway? If you ask me, it’s a waste of time. He isn’t going to talk.”

Was he talking about the president? Someone else? Abby’s thoughts hummed with possibilities.

The voices came from near the entrance of the apartment she and Brookes were in.

“Stupid gang members. Killing each other,” the same man groused. “There’s no one here. Let’s get back upstairs. If Collins finds out we left Jim and Paul to watch them while we came down here, he’s going to do to us what he plans to do to the president.”

Abby’s heart accelerated. The president was still alive. These men had come to investigate leaving two others to stand watch over their prisoner.

“Shut up and help me check this floor. I heard something, I’m telling you.” The footsteps sounded close. “Check it out,” the second man ordered as if he might be the one in charge.

“All right, all right, I’m going, but I’m telling you there isn’t anything here but a bunch of dead gangbangers and rats.” Light footfalls entered the living room area.

Abby held her breath and listened. The man headed down the hall. Floorboards creaked as he stepped into the master bedroom.

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