Amanda gripped the handle. What if it was a trick?
'I've got to get an ambulance for your father. He's hurt. He has to go to a hospital.'
Suddenly her arms were too heavy to hold the axe and it clanged to the floor.
'We've got to call for an ambulance,' Anthony insisted as he turned and raced up the stairs with Amanda on his heels. While Anthony called 911, she dropped beside Frank and rested his head in her lap. When the police and the medics found her, Amanda was still sitting on the floor with Frank, but Anthony and the Indian were gone. Amanda tried to remember what the man in the cap looked like but she could not recall a single feature.
Chapter Forty-Eight.
Mike Greene's car skidded to a stop and he leaped out. Several lab techs were working in the back of a black van that was parked at the curb by Frank Jaffe's house. A photographer snapped a picture as Mike went by, and the flash illuminated the driver of the van. His head was tipped back. Before the light from the flash faded, Mike saw a jagged red line stretching across the driver's throat.
Lights had been set up on the front lawn where another corpse sprawled face-down. The man was dressed in black. A forensic specialist was peeling off his ski mask to reveal a blood-encrusted wound. In the entryway, two more dead men were being photographed.
'Mike.'
Greene looked up and saw Sean McCarthy and Stan Gregaros walking out of the hall that led to the kitchen.
'Where is she, Sean?'
'Upstairs, away from this mess.'
'Is she okay?'
'She's in shock. The first cop who got here found her sitting on the floor in the kitchen. Frank's head was in her lap and she was rocking back and forth.'
'Is Frank . . .?'
'He was shot twice and bleeding badly, but the medics got to the house in time. He's at the hospital now. The doctors think he'll make it.'
'Thank God.'
'There's something else,' McCarthy told Greene. 'There's a dead man in the cellar. Amanda killed him with an axe.'
'It's self-defense, all the way,' Gregaros added. 'The guy in the basement is Manuel Castillo, an enforcer for Pedro Aragon.'
'What would Aragon want with Frank and Amanda?' Mike asked Gregaros.
'She was pretty shaken when we talked. I didn't press her,' McCarthy answered. 'We're hoping that Amanda can clear up everything when she's calmer.'
'Shit. It's not fair after what she went through with Cardoni.'
'She'll be okay, Mike,' McCarthy said.
'I want to see her.'
Greene started toward the stairs but McCarthy stopped him.
'Amanda needs a friend, right now. That's why I called you. This is not your case. You've got a conflict. Comfort her, but don't question her. Understood?'
Greene nodded then shook off McCarthy's hand and ran upstairs. Amanda was being photographed by a lab tech. She startled when Greene ran into the room. Greene stared at her blood-streaked face and pajamas.
'Are you okay?' he asked. She nodded but the fear he saw told him she wasn't.
'I'm through, Mike,' the photographer said, 'but we'll need the clothes.'
A policewoman had been sitting with Amanda. 'Let's go to your room,' she said. 'We'll get these things off of you and get you warm.'
Mike followed the women down the hall and waited outside Amanda's door while she cleaned up and changed. At the far end of the hallway, another lab tech was examining blood that had splashed on the wall across from the back stairs.
Amanda looked terrible. He couldn't imagine what she'd gone through. She was tough--he'd been there when she'd set herself up as a sacrificial lamb so they could trap the surgeon--but she was basically a decent and gentle person. Mike knew policemen who had killed criminals in self-defense. No matter how justified the killing, most of them were scarred psychologically from the experience.
The door to Amanda's room opened, and she came out dressed in slacks and a sweater. She was pale, and her hair was damp from a quick shower. Mike hesitated, not certain that Amanda would want to be touched.
'Can I . . .' he started, but Amanda cut him short by falling against his chest. He held her while she sobbed.
'Sean heard from the hospital,' Mike said as he led her down the hall and into the study, where they'd have some privacy. 'Your dad is going to be okay.'
'I killed him, Mike. I lost control.'
Mike forgot what Sean had said about discussing the case with Amanda. He stepped back and put his hands
