Nowhere Safe Read Online Free PDF

asked. The last she’d heard Stefan had his own apartment.
    He turned bitter eyes on her. “Just for a while.”
    â€œStefan’s going back to school,” Verna volunteered stiffly.
    â€œYou work at Twin Oaks as a teaching assistant,” September said.
    â€œYou know I do,” he retorted.
    Verna added quickly, “He wants to be a teacher. He’s good with children, aren’t you, Stefan?”
    Stefan just gazed at his mother with burning eyes.
    â€œYou were on your way to work early, and then this robber came upon you while you were jogging,” September pressed on.
    â€œThat’s what I said.”
    â€œJogging?” Verna stared hard at her son.
    â€œYeah, jogging, Mom. I know you don’t think I do anything right, but I’m working on my body.”
    Verna frowned, opened her mouth, then clamped it shut again without speaking.
    â€œI’d . . . walked to the school. We don’t live that far. And he jumped me. Held a gun on me and made me drink that vile drink.”
    â€œA stun gun,” September corrected him. Stefan looked as if he was going to deny it, then must have seen something in her expression that changed his mind, because he subsided into silence. “We can see the burn marks,” she told him.
    â€œOkay, fine. He zapped me. Hurt like hell! ”
    â€œWhile you were on the track, he ordered you to drink the drug and when you refused, he hit you with the stun gun, several times,” she added, just in case he felt like lying some more. “Then he robbed you.”
    â€œDo I have to talk to you?” Stefan demanded. “I don’t think so. You want to make a federal case out of it, go ahead. I drank the stuff because he was going to keep on zapping me, and the next thing I knew I was tied to the pole and it was damn cold!”
    â€œI’m just trying to get the sequence of events straight,” September explained.
    â€œWell, now you know.”
    â€œYou were going to say something?” September turned to Verna.
    â€œI just don’t see why you have to interrogate Stefan. He’s the victim here,” she reminded her.
    Wes’s gaze was on Stefan. “What did he look like?”
    â€œHe was, umm, wiry. Wore a baseball cap. Jeans and a jacket.”
    â€œWas he black, white?” Wes asked.
    Stefan looked into Wes’s dark eyes and then he glanced away, as if he were thinking hard. “White . . .”
    â€œYou don’t sound too sure,” Wes pointed out.
    â€œIt was dark. I couldn’t really see. But shh . . . No, I’m certain he was white.” He jerked away from them as if he couldn’t stand in such close proximity to the police.
    â€œDid you notice anything unusual about this guy? Some identifying mark?” Wes asked.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid he come from the parking lot?” Wes asked.
    â€œNo. I don’t think so.”
    â€œWere there any cars in the lot?” September put in.
    â€œI don’t know! How many times do I have to say it? I don’t know .”
    â€œWas he carrying the drink in a cup, or a glass, or what?” Wes asked, ignoring the outburst.
    â€œI don’t think you should be harassing him like this,” Verna said tightly.
    â€œIt was like a small thermos,” Stefan said. “He just said, ‘Drink it,’ and he was the one with the weapon, so I did.”
    That’s about the first thing he’s said that really rang true, September thought.
    â€œAre we done now?” Stefan demanded when both September and Wes went silent.
    â€œAlmost,” she said. “It’s just unusual, the way this went down. Most robberies at gunpoint are simply that: the doer points a gun at you and says something like, ‘Give me all your money,’ and faced with serious injury or death, most people comply. Using a stun gun on you, then forcing you to drink something and write out this message—all