44: Book Six Read Online Free PDF Page A

There had been too many nights where my thoughts ran out ahead of me, dragging me along for the ride.
    I got back in bed, flipped on the television, and waited for the fake sleep to set in. I checked my phone again. Nothing. Ty was still in Montana and I was seeing now that it might be easier for him to just stay there, to move back home so he wouldn’t have to see me anymore.
    We had talked earlier, but only for a few minutes. He seemed friendly, but more like a kind stranger than anything else, and our conversation was forced and strained. I tried to think of things to fill in the dead silences on the other end, but it wasn’t what I was good at. I never had to be good at that with him before. I couldn’t ignore the fact that it was becoming more painful to talk to Ty than not to talk to him. Maybe it was like David said, that it was over and I was the last to know. Or to admit it.
    I put my phone back on the nightstand and flipped around some more, stopping at an infomercial for 60’s soul music. Marvin Gaye was asking what was going on. I wish I knew. Staring out at me with those sincere zombie eyes, Smokey Robinson called the music timeless. The Supremes then came on and started singing Love is Here and Now You’re Gone . Maybe Smokey was right.
    I thought about Ty some more. I thought about Jesse. But it wasn’t long, of course, before my thoughts went back to the ghost on the highway. I hadn’t seen her again, but I knew that it was just a matter of time. I tried to reconstruct her in my memory. It was dark when I saw her, but she looked to be about my age with what I knew had to be some shade of long, light blonde hair. She was wearing a running outfit. Dark, thin lips were set off by her pale skin.
    But it was her eyes that came to me now. Accusing, warning. I wasn’t sure. Black and angry. Dark, hollow circles around them.
    I fell into those eyes.
     
    ***
     
    I was in the whiteness again, a bright snow coming down. Against my will my legs started moving. I didn’t know where they were taking me. It began to snow harder. I moved faster, the cold closing in all around me.
    And then I saw it. Not blood this time. Something else. Something in the snow.
    There was a body on the ground. It was a young woman. The legs splayed unnaturally, an arm out to the side. Bits of snow starting to stick.
    Bright red blood spreading out underneath it.
    My screams echoed as I backed away, pushing myself, running back to my bed. Away from the color. Away from the blood.

CHAPTER 11
     
    “Really?” I said. “Do you think he will?”
    Kate and I were shopping at the Old Mill.
    “Yes,” she said, picking up another hat. “That’s what he said anyway. He’s coming back here in February.”
    It wasn’t like I had completely given up on Dr. Mortimer returning to Bend, but I had stopped holding my breath. He had been in India now for almost a year and he felt even farther away than that.
    “So did he say he was coming back to live here and work at the hospital?”
    “Ben didn’t say,” Kate said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
    I thought about the last time I saw Dr. Benjamin Mortimer. He had helped to rescue me from Nathaniel, who had kidnapped me. The brothers had struggled and a gun went off. Nathaniel was shot and killed. Dr. Mortimer blamed himself. Soon after, he left the country.
    Kate and I had promised each other to not discuss the upcoming trial of the other kidnappers that was scheduled for February until after New Year’s. I wanted to enjoy the holidays and not think about Seattle and having to testify in front of the scientists who did experiments on me for medical research. It was a good idea in theory, but it didn’t stop me from thinking about it. Late at night Jack Martin often crept into my mind, doing his part to help keep me up.
    But thinking about Dr. Mortimer made me happy. He had nursed me back to health after the accident and we had developed a bond. I missed him.
    “Feel this,” Kate