Page 73 of Almost Dead (The Cahills 2)

Or would you call Jack?

Tell him you’re really scared, that you got freaked when you heard a noise while snooping around in your grandmother’s house?

He’d want to know why you came up here alone in the first place.

For God’s sake, deal with it.

Insides shaking, she quietly opened the closet door and found her old riding crop, a weapon she’d never used on the horse, but which might come in handy now. Feeling foolish, she carried the whip with her to the hallway.

Was it darker still?

She reached for a light switch, and the sconces surrounding the staircase offered a soft, warm glow. That was better. Maybe there was no one—

Clunk!

What?

Her heart nearly stopped as she recognized the sound of the elevator as it groaned into gear and started to whine as it rose upward.

Oh Jesus!

She nearly screamed.

She didn’t wait for it to reach the third floor, but scrambled for the stairs. Her feet nearly tripped over each other as she flew down, pausing briefly at the second floor landing.

What if the elevator stopped here?

Who said whoever was inside was getting out on the third floor?

Oh God, who was it? The killer?

Cissy, don’t freak out. Maybe the elevator’s malfunctioning.

LIKE HELL!

The house was so cold, so suddenly cold.

She paused long enough to hear the elevator car clunk to a stop on the second floor, the very level on which she was standing, the area where her grandmother was pushed over the railing to her death. Frozen, the stupid whip squeezed in her fingers, she felt another cold rush of air sweep up the stairs.

The elevator doors whispered open.

Fear clutched her heart.

Her pulse thundered in her ears.

She stared into the elevator.

The car was empty.

No one stepped out.

All she saw in the dim light of an old bulb was her own terrified expression caught in the mirror mounted on the back wall of the ancient car.

Every hair on the back of her neck stood at attention. Someone had sent that car upward. It didn’t just rise on its own. A finger had pressed the button of the panel, choosing the second floor as its destination…almost as if whoever had done it had known she was here.

The car doors closed, and Cissy was left on the landing, her nerves stretched to the breaking point.

Someone was definitely in the house.

---