Girl Sleuth-Chapter 37

(To read from the beginning go Here.)

Anne feigned surprise. “Oh, you hadn’t figured that out yet? I figured out that you’re part of a plot to destabilize the American economy. And that you killed Carol to keep her from going to the secret service.”

He jerked her closer. “Is that what Tom told you?”

She winced and drew in a breath. Was he trying to rip her arm out of socket? And where was Erik anyway? “No, I figured it out myself.”

“Well aren’t you smart. Too bad it’s going to get you killed.”

“So you admit it? All of it?”

“I suppose so.” His emphasized his nasty tone with another twist on her arm. “Not that you’re going to live to tell anyone about it.”

The edges of her vision were turning fuzzy. Her lungs seemed to have decided to hunker down like a bomb shelter and refused to let air in or out. She had to hang on just a little longer. “What are you going to do to Tom?”

“Same thing I’m going to do to you.”

“But don’t you need him to complete the plates?”

“You just know too much don’t you?”

A pair of men turned the corner chatting desultorily they walked to the edge of the platform to wait for the next train. Rick prodded her ribs with the barrel of his gun. The look he shot like a laser in her direction held no equivocation. If she called for help, he’d kill her, and probably those men as well.

“I told you I know. And I told the secret service too.”

“Well then, I guess they won’t need your testimony.” He dragged her toward the tracks.

A faint grumble came from the mouth of the tunnel as if it harbored a dragon. A dragon that was awaiting its annual virgin sacrifice from the villagers. She tried to retract the image. Her mother had been right. Anne had a morbid imagination.

“Where are you taking me?”

“No where, sweetheart. This is the end of the line for you.”

A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the cave. Tunnel. It was a tunnel and there was no ravening beast inside. It was just a train.

No way she was going to let herself be fed to the monster of Armstrong’s ambition. She just had to figure out what to do.