Читать книгу Absolute Fear - Lisa Jackson - Страница 2

Walking quickly, Eve bent to avoid hitting her head, while the beam of her flashlight, offering ever-weaker light in the sweltering attic space, swept side to side.

She saw the doll, her doll, Charlotte, which she hadn’t seen in nearly twenty years, caught in the yellow sweep of illumination.

Now the doll was laying facedown on a dingy sleeping bag.

Something didn’t feel right about this.

She didn’t remember ever leaving Charlotte here, and she’d been up here long after she’d had any interest in rag dolls.

Was this someone’s idea of a joke?

No, Eve, this isn’t random!

You know it.

Someone left the doll here on purpose. And they wanted someone, probably you, to find her.

Her mouth went dry. She swallowed back her fear and inched closer to the sleeping bag, then reached down and turned Charlotte over.

As she did, her blood ran cold.

A scream worked its way up her throat and ended in a terrified gasp.

Charlotte’s button eyes had been clipped off, her pinafore slashed with jagged cuts made by pinking shears, and she’d been mutilated across her belly, the number 444 scrawled in bloodred ink.

And below the numbers was a single word.

EVE.