“I don’t see a damned thing,” Rourke muttered. “Can you tell if she’s still there?”
“Christ! You didn’t think I’d leave her where she’d show from the street?” Shayne’s voice came to life again. “Turn left, down this side street.”
Rourke swung to the left on a shadowed residential street. Shayne directed, “Pull in to the curb. I’ve got to go back and see what’s up.”
“You’re liable to walk into a trap,” Rourke warned. “The tail end of that call we heard — it must have been directing a patrol car to the spot. Probably some passer-by saw her lying there and phoned in.”
Shayne conquered an upheaval under his ribs and said, “I’ve got to find out,” and jumped from the light sedan. “Maybe I can get to her before the cops get here. If anything happens,” he went on harshly, “get the hell out in a hurry.” He ran swiftly across the street and dodged into the shadow cast by trees on the corner. He found an opening in the hedge where the alley ran through. Bending down to hide his upper body, he crept along the hedge toward the front.
There was no sound except the beating of his own heart and the night wind soughing through the palm fronds. He could see nothing in the black shadow behind the hedge, now that the street light was gone.
He began to think that the body had been removed — that this was not the right house — or the right hedge, when a black shadow moved in the darkness ahead. There was a faint rustling of the grass, an intangible something that caused him to freeze in his tracks. An automobile cruised lazily past. That would be the patrol car checking on the call. No, it was cruising on without slackening speed.
He could discern the dark shape on the grass now, not more than fifteen feet ahead, and suddenly there was the horrible glint of yellow eyes in the darkness just beyond the still body.
As Shayne lunged forward, a lean gray cat leaped aside with a defiant mew, sped away across the lawn lashing her tail angrily.
Bending over the rigid body of the girl, he lifted her up. There was no challenge from the darkness, no outraged outcry from a near-by householder.