Читать книгу Belle Palmer Mysteries 5-Book Bundle - Lou Allin - Страница 3

Neutral tones dissolved white into black. Clouds of tarnished pewter hid the moon. Not even a whisper of wind feathered the lake, its glassy surface catching the reflected light. Twinklings of cottages rimmed the crater lake like stubborn fallen stars. There was a brief splash as a merganser duck led her paddling brood to shelter, the smallest perched on her wide back, struggling for purchase.

On a shelf of shimmering granite beside the water, a girl knelt, spilling the liquid crystal over her hands. Dressed in a simple white chemise, a slip perhaps, she crooned to herself, oblivious to the hum of ravenous mosquitos unfettered by the still night. Her hands crumpled the lacy needles of a tiny cedar sprouting from a rock cleft, and she brushed the rich perfume into her long hair. A dark, irregular pattern spread across the lap of her dress, or was that a trick of light?

From the house far above floated the strains of a violin concerto, Paganini, the rippling, fluid tones of Itzhak Perlman. The girl nodded her head to the music. Sudden silence, then a raucous country tune faded in and out, interrupted by static. The radio snapped off, replaced by a hurried conversation.

“I don’t know. She’s not in her room.”

“Find her. The way she has been acting . . . shouldn’t have been left alone.”

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, tentative at first, then heavy and deliberate across a wooden platform to the granite shelf. “Come inside. It’s late.” A hand reached out to her, and the girl swayed as she stood. At last the moon found a chink in the drifting clouds and dyed the dress burgundy with the intrusion of a single frame of technicolour.

“Oh, my God. What have you . . . ?”

She took the arm, leaning against it, and struggled to walk, blinking at the face as if emerging from a dream, or entering, confused and delighted, stunned and saved at one gesture. Her lips moved as she counted. She climbed the stairs, resting every three steps and sank to her knees at the top, where other hands reached out. The warbling sob of a loon echoed across the lake.