Left to Lapse (An Adele Sharp Mystery—Book Seven) by Blake Pierce (book club suggestions txt) 📗

at the conductor. She felt herstomach twist, though, as he gave an indifferent shrug. “I wish I could tellyou. But I don’t keep track,”

“Dormitory car,” said the white-uniformed man who wasreading a book.

Adele glanced over. The man was still engrossed in hisnovel, and he didn’t look up.

“Excuse me?” Adele asked.

A bit of irritation crept into the reader’s voice. “Johnsonis in the dormitory car and has been there for the last ten hours since hetransferred from the Normandie Express.”

Adele felt her stomach twist. “Hang on, the Normandie? Sohe was on the French train?”

But the man reading his book seemed to have decided he’dalready said enough. He flipped the page and ignored the agent staring at him.Adele felt a rising sense of frustration, but she didn’t have time to make anissue of it. “Where’s the dormitory car?”

The conductor blinked and said, hesitantly, “Next to thesleeper car. Dormitory cars are where the staff hangs out between shifts. But Ihave to advise you that I don’t think it’s possible Johnson had the nerve tocommit—”

“Thank you for your time,” Adele interrupted.

Fifteen minutes until they reached the station.

John was already on the move. “I know the dormitory car. Iwas just there,” he growled as he brushed past Adele, gesturing for her tofollow.

Leoni limped after them, not complaining, but moving slowlyon his injured ankle and struggling to keep up.

Adele broke into stride next to John and they hastened backin the direction they’d come.

“LuccaRail, Normandie, and now here,” John said with a mutter.“Think it’s a coincidence?”

Adele set her jaw and shrugged one shoulder as she marchedhurriedly forward. “Mighty big coincidence if so,” she said. “A second. He didn’teven show up on the manifests. It might be our guy, John.”

“He’s our killer,” John said, nodding firmly. “I’d beteverything. We just have to find him before the train stops.”

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

“Hang on,” came Agent Leoni’s gasping voice as they crossedthe remodeled car with the body. Adele whirled around, her heart hammering fromwhere she’d been half jogging next to John in her effort to reach the dormitorycar and the reserve conductor.

Now, she stopped next to the tall Frenchman and regardedthe Italian agent where he gasped at the floor and leaned against the wall, hisface very pale all of a sudden, a thin film of sweat slicking his brow.

“What is it?” Adele said, concern stretching her words.

“My ankle,” he murmured, gritting his teeth. “I think itmight be broken.”

John grunted. “Sprained more like. Putting weight on it isn’tgoing to help in either case.”

Adele cursed and glanced around the compartment helplessly,searching for…for what, exactly? A first aid kit? A doctor? A miracle in abottle? Leoni was injured. He’d be of no further use like this, and as much asshe hated thinking it, right now, he was just slowing them down.

“Do you think you can stay here?” she said, urgent. “We don’thave long until we reach the station. We’re running out of time.”

“I’m fine,” Leoni gasped. He pressed his back to the walland began to slide down, his eyes flitting around the compartment, fixing oneverything except for the body in the center of the room. Leoni’s ice pack inhis sock had graduated from mere droplets and was now leaking water onto thefloor. A small puddle quickly formed beneath his sodden shoe.

“All right,” Adele said. “Be safe. Call if you needanything.”

Leoni made a shooing gesture toward both of them, reachingdown and probing gingerly at his ankle. “I’ll be fine, you go. Hurry.”

Adele winced sympathetically, but felt a sudden jolt ofanxiety and turned, with John moving after her. To her surprise, though, theFrenchman hesitated, and then, muttering darkly, stomped back toward whereLeoni was resting.

“Here, use your sock, wrap it around the ice, and get somecompression on your ankle. Elevate it as well; take off your shoe, if you can,and place your heel on it.”

Leoni looked up, surprised, as John, despite his grufftone, very gently removed the Italian’s shoe from his injured foot. He thenplaced it beneath the man’s heel, gauging how much pain Leoni was in by howclenched his teeth seemed to go. John’s demeanor was rough, but his hands movedlike the cajoling fingers of a mother tending her young. His motions wereefficient, still, rapid, and clearly conscious of passing time. Adele stared.John was a strange man—she’d always known it, but he always surprised herregardless.

Once Leoni’s ankle was elevated and the Italian seemedsettled, John got quickly back to his feet and began striding past Adele.

“Thanks,” Adele murmured.

“We’re wasting time,” the Frenchman growled, “hurry up.”

Adele didn’t need a second invitation. She spared one lastlook toward her Italian friend, making sure he wasn’t in too much pain; hishead was now leaning back, the sweat on his face dripping down to his chin.But, at least for now, his eyes were closed, and he seemed to be breathingsteadily, trying to focus on something besides the numb sensations.

She muttered darkly, and then moved after John through thefirst-class compartment, onto the sleeper cars, and toward the back, where thedormitory was.

As they hastened together, Adele could feel the wheels ofthe train shaking through the floorboards. As if, somehow, it was a tickingclock, threatening each passing moment. Was it her imagination? Or were theyslowing? Maybe the conductor had decided to help a bit after all. But they didn’thave time either way—they were almost at the station.

She pushed through the door into the staff dormitory.Inside, a couple of employees in waiter uniforms were staring up with a glazedlook at a TV. Behind a veiled curtain, there were three bunks set in the wall.

“Johnson,” Adele said, wishing now she had managed to snaga first name. “The reserve conductor, where is he?” she demanded.

The waiter and waitress leaning back on the couch blinked,startled, and one of them began to protest, “Hey, you’re not supposed to beback—”

“It’s the feds,” the other one whispered, cutting him off.The girl said, “He’s over there. Sleeping. He’s not going to be happy if youwake—”

But she didn’t managed to finish her sentence either,before Adele and John rushed past, pushing through the veiled curtain andmoving into the sleeping quarters with the three cots. The area