Before the Storm Read Online Free PDF

Layla.”
    “Emily’s mother told us you saved several people.” I smoothed
    the elastic strap of the cannula flat behind his ear. My need to
    touch him, to feel the life in him, was overpowering. “What
    happened?”
    “Not several,” he corrected me. “Everybody.”
    “You need to talk to him?” The nurse was looking over our
    heads, and I turned to see a man in a police uniform standing
    a few feet behind us. He looked at Andy.
    “You Andy Lockwood?” he asked.
    “Yes,” I answered for him.
    The man took a few steps closer. “You’re his mother?”
    I nodded. “Laurel Lockwood. And this is my daughter,
    Maggie.”
    The nurse patted Andy’s bare shoulder. “Give a holler, you
    need anything,” she said, pulling the curtain closed around us
    as she left.
    “I’m ATF Agent Frank Foley,” the man said.“How about you
    tell me what happened tonight, Andy?”
    “I was the hero.” Andy grinned.
    The agent looked uncertain for a moment, then smiled.
    “Glad to hear it,” he said. “We can always use more heroes.

    before the storm
    37
    Where were you when the fire began?” He flipped open a small
    notebook.
    “With Emily.”
    “That’s his friend,” I said. “Emily Carmichael.”
    “Inside the church?” Agent Foley asked, writing.
    “Yes, but she’s my friend everywhere.”
    Maggie laughed. I knew she couldn’t help herself.
    “He’s asking if you and Emily were inside the church when
    the fire broke out,” I translated.
    “Yes.”
    “Where in the church were you? Were you standing or
    sitting or…”
    “One question at a time.” I held up a hand to stop him.“Trust
    me,” I said. “It’ll be easier that way.” I looked at Andy. “Where
    were you in the church when the fire broke out?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    “Try to think,” I prodded. “Were you by the front door or
    closer to the altar?”
    “By the baptism pool thing.”
    “Ah, good.” The agent wrote something on his notepad.
    “Sitting or standing?”
    “I stood next to Emily. Her shirt was inside out.” He looked
    at me. “She used to do that all the time, remember?”
    I nodded. “So you were standing with Emily near the
    baptism pool thing,” I said, trying to keep him focused. “And
    then what happened?”
    “People yelled fire fire fire!” Andy’s dark eyes grew big, his
    face animated with the memory. “Then they started running
    past us. Then some boys grabbed a…the long thing and said
    one two three and broke the window with the bald man.”

    38
    diane chamberlain
    It was my turn to laugh as the words tumbled out of his
    mouth. An hour ago, I’d been afraid I’d never hear my precious
    son speak again.
    Agent Foley, though, eyed him with suspicion. “Were there
    drugs there, Andy?” he asked. “Did you drink or take any substances tonight?”
    “No, sir,” Andy said. “I’m not allowed.”
    The agent stopped writing and gnawed his lip. “Do you get
    it?” he asked me. “The long thing? The bald man?”
    I shook my head.
    “Are you still talking about being inside the church, Panda?”
    Maggie asked.
    “Yes and the boys caught on fire, but there were no ladders,
    so I told them to Stop! Drop! Roll! and some of them did.
    Keith was there.” He looked at me. “He was mean to me.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. Sara was my best friend and I was worried
    sick about her son, but Keith could be a little shit sometimes.
    “You mean there were no ladders to escape the fire, like the
    ladder we have in your room at home?”
    “Right. There weren’t any,” Andy said.
    “Okay,” Agent Foley said. “So while this was happening,
    where were you?”
    “I told you, at the baptism thing.” Andy furrowed his
    forehead at the man’s denseness.
    The agent flipped a few pages of his notepad. “People told
    me you got out of the church and—”
    “Right,” Andy said.“Me and Emily went out the boys’ room
    window, and there was a big metal box on the ground, and we
    climbed onto