Cold Dead Past Read Online Free PDF Page A

knew better.  He still couldn’t get over the idea that people actually paid for anything he had written, no matter how much Mark and Pat assured him they were getting their money’s worth.
    What bothered him even more was that Pat had talked to Mark before she had met him for lunch.  That just put more pressure on him to come up with a good story.  It wasn’t only his reputation at stake any more.  Jay leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, rubbing them up and down over his eyes.
    He was about to reach for the erase button when he heard a familiar voice. "Jay, this is Meg."
    Her speech was halting and breathy, as if she were trying to hold something in.
    "Jay, the reason I’m calling…God, I hate these machines…the reason that I’m calling is that Jack Hauser is dead."
    She sniffled and he could hear her voice get more distant as if the phone had been moved away from her mouth.
    "The funeral is the day after tomorrow and it would be great if you could be there.  There aren’t a lot of us left here in town and it would be really nice if you could come and pay your respects."
    There was a pause and then the machine clicked and went into rewind.

 
                                                            CHAPTER 5
     
     
    The morning Jay was to leave for Jack’s funeral in Haddonfield, he awoke gasping for air and soaked with perspiration.  He scanned the ceiling as he sought to collect himself.  His eyes fell on the watch that had replaced the ruined clock on his nightstand.  Five o’clock.
      Jay grabbed the remote and turned on the television.  The weather news wasn’t good.  When he’d set the alarm, it was based on the assumption that the weather would cooperate.  Now, a front had come through with heavy snow up north.  He’d be lucky to make it to the funeral at all.
    He shuffled off to the bathroom.  While the water for his shower was warming up, he checked out his face in the mirror.  Dark circles had formed under his eyes.  He wished there were no such things as dreams.
      Jay wasn’t so sure he’d have gone if one of the others had called him, but Meg was different.  He hadn’t heard from her in ages.  She had been his first kiss, behind the Valentine’s display at the drugstore.  To Jay, the kiss had been something really special.  When he shared what had happened with Frank, though, he couldn’t understand his reaction.  Instead of being happy for him, Frank had laid into Meg.  Really nasty remarks that hurt.   She had comforted him when Frank died and they promised to keep in touch.
    A couple of times, she came to the city with her parents during summer vacations.  They spent hours together on the roof of his apartment building, watching the stars.  Through it all, there had been another presence, Frank, whom he could never discuss with her.  She never pressed.
    Jay thought that he was happy when Meg told him that she would also be attending Columbia.  With her so close, it was hard not to fall into a relationship.  It should have been the happiest time of his life, but things started to unravel after they began dating in earnest.  Jay had bouts of depression.  He went to a therapist. The guy said Jay’s closeness with Frank caused him to feel unreasonably guilty about being the one who lived that day on the pond. Maybe he was right.
    The shit hit the fan when Meg suggested a trip back to Haddonfield to catch up with old friends.  Jay viewed the whole idea with trepidation, but didn’t say anything because he thought that she might think he was being silly.
    He fidgeted during the trip and stared silently out the window as she drove.  Once they passed the "Welcome to Haddonfield" sign, he fell into a deep funk.  Meg tried everything she could to rouse him from it, but it didn’t do any good.  He was irritable, had mood swings, there were arguments.
      Back at school, she tried to get him to talk