Murder In Her Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

kill or
injure anything— rabbits, stray dogs, or even spiders. Life was
much too precious.
    He grinned. At least this rabbit could look
forward to another day. He hoped it had a home.
    The grin faded. He still faced the problem of
finding a best man. Sharon had surprised him by wanting to get
married so soon. When he asked her to marry him, marriage had been
a nebulous future thing. Now it bore down on him just as his gray
Accord had sped toward the hapless rabbit.
    He hoped it felt less confused and uncertain
than he did.
     

 
    Chapter
Three
     
    The more Cassie thought about the man of her
dream, the more apt Tula’s comments on her anemic social life
appeared. She had avoided men after the break up with Rod Malvern
more than a year ago.
    She and Rod had begun well enough. The
unaccustomed attention of a handsome and charming man flattered
her. He persisted until she finally agreed to go out with him, and
after that, they became an item until Cassie dreamed about Ellie
Latham.
    Rod laughed about the dreams when she first
told him. He said they came from the newscasts and newspaper
stories. Obviously, she let such things too easily influence her.
However, the memory of those dreams still frightened her.
    The first dream began with vivid but innocent
night images. She remembered seeing scattered clouds float past the
bright disc of the full moon, a big, yellow harvest moon. The crisp
air smelled of burnt leaves.
    Cassie stood on a rutted dirt road alongside
the cornfield. At one end of the field, a tall microwave tower
soared skyward. A light at its top flashed on, off, on to warn low
flying aircraft. The bright moonlight glowed against a low-lying
fog that shrouded the ground.
    The bucolic scene held no obvious danger, but
unreasoning fear gripped Cassie and twisted her insides into a
tight knot. The moon turned a hard, brilliant white. Cold light
etched the long rows of dried cornstalk, sentinels against the
obsidian sky. A strong wind blew through the empty field. The dried
stalks rattled and clashed like old bones.
    Cassie wanted to walk forward, but something
held her back. She struggled to move ahead, but her feet refused to
obey.
    A terrible thing waited for her. It hungered
for her.
    * * * *
    Cassie woke in a cold sweat. Beside her, Rod
slept undisturbed. She shivered and pulled the covers up to her
chin. She stared into the blackness, unable to sleep. She wanted to
know, yet feared to discover, what lay among the withered stalks.
Sleep eluded her, but so did dreams. Near dawn, she dropped back
into a restless sleep.
    With the morning light, the dream and its
sense of hovering doom faded. Cassie dismissed it as just anxiety.
She said nothing about her dream to Rod.
    * * * *
    As an Assistant Children’s Librarian at the
Upper Arlington Public Library, she worked hard to interest the
younger children in books and reading. She had a presentation to
make at the end of the week to her boss on the activities program
for the next two months. She had spent a lot of time developing a
theme, selecting stories, and identifying resource people.
    She had chosen fir trees as the symbol of
life amid winter’s landscape. Mary Kendall, the third grade Tremont
Science teacher, and her class were growing seedlings and planned
to bring them for a show and tell session in the library. Nancy
Grayson, a storyteller, had promised stories using several myths
centered on trees, while Sandra Mason would give arts and craft
lessons with pinecones and needles. The climax of the program would
be a modified scavenger book hunt through the Children’s Section of
the library using various tree-related clues. The theme also tied
in nicely with the Christmas season and Christmas trees.
    Between stints on the Reference Desk, Cassie
spent the day polishing her report and then making copies for the
review committee. As the newest member of staff, she wanted the
other librarians to approve her ideas for teaching and entertaining
the children and