A Shadow Fell Read Online Free PDF Page B

for a madman with the same name as the family after whom the highway had been named .
                  By late afternoon on Saturday, after what felt like a thousand stops, all without a whisper of success, I was approaching Lumberton when I noticed a police helicopter , flying low, to the northwest. I pulled off the highway at a roadside diner and called Tom Kilborn to check in.
                  “Jack, thank God you phoned,” he said when he came on the line. “We’ve found Callie.”
                  T he phone nearly dropped from my hand . “Where?”
                  “She was found unconscious in a gas station restroom near Lumberton, South Carolina.”
                  “She’s alive?”
                  “She’s in a coma, Jack. It’s very touch and go. She was injected with enough paralytic substance to kill her. That was obviously the intention. But she was found quick enough that there’s some hope for her . She’s been taken to the hospital in Fayetteville. ”
                  “I’m near Lumberton right now. What about Tanya?”
                  “ I’m afraid s he’s missing , Jack . There were no witnesses and we have no new leads .”
                  “Jesus.”
                  “We’ve had helicopters and a ground search going on all day in the immediate vicinity of Lumberton. Unfortunately, we’re two days behind where we should be. There was confusion over her identity at the hospital and s omehow we missed the fact that she was there until this morning. If it’s Henderson, and we have to assume at this point that it is, he could be literally anywhere by now.
    I was t orn between desperately wanting to see Callie and needing to help my daughter , but I knew there was nothing I could hope to achieve with what I had to go on . Trembling with frustration I drove to the hospital in Fayetteville . A nurse confirmed my wife was still in a coma . Al though no visitors were allowed, she would talk to the on duty doctor to see if I could at least look in on her.
                  Shortly after that a young guy wearing jeans and sneakers approached me . He was identifiable as a doctor only by the stethoscope draped around his neck. He asked me to show him my identification. Satisfied I was who I claimed to be , he told me to follow him. We walked quickly , without talking , down a long hallway, through a set of double doors, and then down another shorter hallway. I saw a uniformed police officer sitting in a chair outside the door to Room 1 14. When we approached him he stood and listened as the doctor explained who I was. He nodded and we entered the room.
                  Seeing Callie , pale and vulnerable, connected to an imposing array of wires and tubes, moved me deeply . I want ed to lay down beside her and take her in my arms , give her comfort . But all I could do was hold her cold and lifeless hand in mine and press it to my chest , trying to infuse into her the will to wake up.
                  After a moment the doctor put his hand on my shoulder. “Come with me ,” he said gently. “I need to tell you a few things.”
                  I followed him out of the room, down another corridor that lead to a large cafeteria. The room was empty except for a nurse, sipping a bowl of soup while she thumbed through a magazine . The doc tor led me to a table across the room from the nurse .
                  “Can I get you a coffee?” he asked.
                  I had put my elbows on the table, my forehead cradled by my hands. I was readying myself for more bad news. “No.”
                  “Your wife was injected with a conotoxin,” t he doctor explained as he sat down opposite me . “It’s not something we see a lot of in emergency wards but it’s not unheard of either. Occasionally someone