Riversong Read Online Free PDF

a pop of a wine cork. The doorbell rang and she turned to see Linus rush in from the kitchen, holding his hand up to indicate she should stay on the couch. He put his eye to the peephole. “It's just Paula,” he said, relief in his voice.
    Paula had dark circles under her eyes and her nose was red and raw. “Lee, when I was cleaning out the offices I found this on top of Dan's computer.” Paula handed her an envelope with “Lee” scrawled in Dan's block type print. She took it, splitting the envelope open with her finger, while walking towards the bedroom. Alone, she shut the door, sinking heavily onto the edge of the bed. Dan's red woolen slippers were placed neatly by the end table. She slipped her feet into them, unfolding the papers.
    But it wasn't a note. There were no explanations, no words of love or sorrow. It was the terms of the agreement with DeAngelo, listed just as Von had described.
    She began to rock back and forth on the bed. And then, like a movie she didn't want to watch, she imagined his last moments. He sealed the document in the envelope, scrawling her name in a guilty rush and took a long swig of the whiskey he kept in his desk drawer, for the courage to do what he had to do. Then he was in his car, parked in a busy lot at the Waterfront Park with its view of the Olympic Mountains. Here the reel became blurry. He might have watched the joggers, mothers with baby strollers, truant teenagers sneaking drags from a pot pipe, maybe thinking how much he would miss the world with its simple beauty and pleasures. Or perhaps he merely stared at the dashboard, overwhelmed with despair and panic, and nothing registered in his mind but “get it over with,” so the pain and hopelessness could end. Possibly it was like a tunnel that sucked and twirled him into blackness and he thought of nothing but the doing of it, the mechanics of his own death. The pulling of the trigger.
    She wept into his pillow, yearning to smell his aftershave but it smelled clean, like soap and fabric softener. He'd been sleeping at the office for weeks, working towards the product release date.
    She thought then, where did he get the gun and why did he do it in the car and how did he become that hopeless? What was the last thing he thought as he pulled the trigger? Was it of her or just his failures?
     

Chapter Three
     
    A bout fifty miles north of the Oregon-Washington border the radio went to static. Lee moved the radio dial until she found the only station, country and western. That would be it from now until Portland, she thought. She drove another fifteen miles before stopping at a rest stop to use the facilities. It was dark now. She scanned the parking lot and then sprinted to the women's restroom. The smell of human excrement and damp cement made her nauseous. She stood for a moment over the toilet, thinking she might vomit and wondering if this was the beginning of ‘morning sickness’.
    Outside, she spotted a vending machine and remembered a friend saying she ate crackers during her pregnancies to help with the nausea. She put two quarters in the slot, choosing animal crackers. As she headed for the minivan, she heard a rustle in the bushes. Terrified, she ran the rest of the way to the van, jumping behind the wheel and locking the door. She turned on her headlights and saw a possum creep out of the bushes, scuttling along the sidewalk. Somewhere between a rodent and reptile, his skin, long tail and pointy nose making him appear like a creature from another planet.
    The gruesome image lingered with her as she drove the I-5 corridor through southwest Washington, crossing the bridge over the Columbia River from Vancouver, Washington to Portland Oregon, along the flat green fields of the Willamette Valley, and as she wound up and around the mountains near Roseburg. She stopped at one of the small towns along I-5 to refuel and find something to eat.
    She stood at the Dairy Queen counter, attempting to ignore the smells of