A Cold White Fear Read Online Free PDF

Shoni’s warm muzzle on my back. He’d let her out. I started to get up to return her to the crate, when he called out, “Here puppy, puppy, puppy,” and held out a dog cookie. She gamboled over to him. Traitor.
    â€œPlease keep her with you. I don’t want her bothering me while I am dealing with your friend.”
    â€œNo problem, eh, p’tit ?” He placed her on his lap and hid his face in her soft puppy fur. He seemed to care more for the dog than for the man on the couch.
    I snipped away the free edges of the T-shirt and removed most of it, except for the front piece and the back when it wouldn’t easily slide out from under him.
    I returned to the kitchen, this time without my escort, and filled the washbasin with a blend of hot water from the kettle simmering on the woodstove and cold water from a container kept on hand for power outages. Back in the den, I moistened the bloodied patch of cotton with a wet facecloth until it started running red. I gently pulled at the fabric, lifting it gradually from the wound. When it remained stuck, I added more water, until finally it came away free. Larry grunted once or twice as if from pain, but otherwise remained unconscious.
    Before I had a chance to inspect the wound, Shoni was jumping against my back. She nibbled my ear before turning her attention to the dirty water in the washbasin.
    I pulled her away. “Professor, could you please look after her?”
    My answer was the soft snoring of sleep. He was slumped down in the chair with his head flopped uncomfortably to one side. On the table beside him stood the half-empty glass.
    Without another thought, I draped a blanket over Larry, scooped up the puppy, and hotfooted it to the kitchen as stealthily as I could. After placing her in her crate, I headed upstairs to the phone. Big mistake. Before I reached the second floor, Shoni was whining, loudly. I debated returning to quiet her down, but since I was so close to the phone, I keep going. I crept along the hall to my room, but as I reached the door, the tattooed man called out from downstairs, “Red, where are you?”
    I ignored him and rushed to the phone, but as I did so, I heard him running up the stairs.
    â€œYou up here?”
    My headlamp flashed momentarily on the phone hidden in the shadows of the shelf. So close and yet so far. Dare I? But I decided against it. I feared the risk was too high. When I made the call, I wanted to be assured that I could bring in the police without raising the man’s suspicions. If he knew they were coming, I wasn’t sure what he would do.
    I stuck my head out the door. “I’m getting some dry socks for Larry. You could probably do with some too.”
    â€œDon’t you dare disappear on me again,” he growled, coming up to me.

EIGHT
    L arry’s eyes fluttered when I knelt down beside him.
    â€œAre you awake?” I asked.
    They fluttered again and opened.
    â€œHow are you feeling?”
    He tried to sit up and then fell back onto the sofa, groaning with pain. “Holy fuck, where am I? It sure don’t look like the —”
    Professor brushed his hand over his friend’s lips. “Sssshh…. It’s okay. We’re in that fancy old house you’re always talking about.”
    Larry shifted his eyes questioningly around the den. “How’d we get here?”
    â€œDrove, remember? We hit that damn tree and had to walk in through the goddamn snow.”
    â€œYeah, but —”
    â€œSsshh. You’re here. That’s all that counts.”
    â€œSure, Professor, whatever you say. Jeez, I hurt like hell. What happened?” He inched his hand down to where his wound gaped. A trickle of blood oozed from the hole.
    â€œThe car accident, remember? You got stabbed by something in the car.”
    But now that I could see the injury clearly, I noticed that it didn’t have the ragged edges I would expect from an object