Free Stalker (9780307823557) by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

matted and dried on his unshaven chin.
    “It’s Darryl Krambo,” she said. “He must have been in a fight.”
    Lucas grabbed the edge of the mattress and heaved himself to his feet. “Stay with him,” he said. “I’ve got a phone call to make.”
    He left the room, and Jennifer stared down at Darryl. Any sympathy she might have felt for him was washed away by a rush of anger. “Lucas is going to call the police,” she said to Darryl, not caring that he couldn’t hear. “And you’re going to be arrested for killing Stella, and I’m glad it turned out to be you, because you’re a no-good junkie. You’re a filthy, stinking—”
    Darryl opened one eye, which rolled around crazily for a moment until it focused on Jennifer. He mumbled an obscenity.
    Jennifer jumped backward, banging an elbow against the wall.
    “I didn’t kill Stella.” The words oozed through his lips like soft butter through a cracked plate.
    Lucas stepped into the room. “He’s conscious?”
    “Yes,” Jennifer said.
    Lucas sat on the edge of the bed, staring down at Darryl. “The ambulance will be here soon.”
    “I didn’t kill Stella.”
    “No one’s accusing you.”
    Jennifer tried not to look guilty as Lucas gave her a quick glance and continued. “Someone beat you pretty badly. Who was it?”
    Darryl didn’t answer. He closed his eyes and groaned.
    “How long have you been here?”
    “What’s it to you? I live here.”
    “No, he doesn’t!” Jennifer interrupted, but Lucas frowned at her, shaking his head.
    Darryl groaned again. “I need a fix.”
    “Was someone here with you?” Lucas asked. “The person who beat you?”
    Darryl mumbled something to himself, then apparently decided for some reason to answer the question. “I came here to be by myself.” Tears rolled from his eyes, making paths down the scum on his face. “I need something bad,” he said.
    In the distance Jennifer could hear a siren. She hoped it was the ambulance. She was eager to get rid of Darryl and the smell and the horrible ugliness that made her want to gag.
    “Do you know who killed your mother?” Lucas asked. His voice was suddenly soft.
    “Stella—wasn’t—she was my stepmother, not my mother.”
    Lucas looked at Jennifer, who could only shrug in surprise.
    The siren was loud now. The ambulance was turning into their street. “Tell me who killed Stella,” Lucas said, but Darryl groaned and turned his head away.
    “Let them in the front door,” Lucas said to Jennifer. She could hear footsteps on the walk, so she hurried tothe door and opened it as the men arrived on the front steps.
    It didn’t take long for the ambulance attendants to strap Darryl into their folding stretcher and carry him back to the ambulance.
    As the men left, Lucas followed them to the door, shutting it behind them.
    “Is Darryl going to die?” Jennifer asked.
    “I don’t know. That’s the doctor’s job, not mine.”
    “You don’t think he murdered Stella?”
    “No, I don’t.”
    “So we cross him off the list.”
    “Wrong. We put him near the top of the list. Who beat him? Why? Did the person who beat him intend to kill him? Why? What was Darryl doing in Corpus Christi?”
    “Mrs. Aciddo said he was asking people for money to buy drugs.”
    “A side issue. What was he really doing here?”
    “You ask so many questions, and there aren’t any answers!”
    “There are answers if we find them.” He looked at his watch. “Your family will be worried about you if you don’t get home soon.”
    “Are we finished here?”
    “For the moment. We might come back.”
    Jennifer felt like crying. “We didn’t find anything that would help.”
    “Weren’t you paying attention?” he asked. “For one thing, you may have found the entry the killer used.”
    “Oh! The window.”
    “There were a few grains of dirt on the sofa, under the window. They could have been left by Darryl, but they could also have come from the shoes of the person who