Sara Read Online Free PDF Page A

to stick to the interstate just for this reason.”
                  “Well,” Chief Shepard responded, “she didn’t. She’s a big girl now and damned if big girls don’t stop listening to their daddy’s advice. I could strangle my daughter sometimes.”
                  Mike let out a short laugh. “Sara will feel lucky if I only strangle her.”
                  Dennis Shepard cautioned, “Go easy on her, Mike. She made a simple decision on her own, got a flat tire, and was too embarrassed to call home to tell her father.”
                  A ton of weight lifted from Mike’s shoulders. That was exactly what his daughter would do. The flat tire probably damaged something on her car, so Sara was sitting in some cheap motel waiting for it to be repaired, determined to see this through without her parent’s help. That was Sara in a nutshell.
                  “Thank God!” Mike said. The relief was obvious in his voice. “And thank you, Chief. I owe you.”
                  Dennis Shepard scoffed, “It’s my job, Deputy. The roadside service dispatched a tow truck from Duncan Towing there in Ranch Springs. Do you want me to call them?”
                  Mike smiled to himself. “No thanks, Chief. I’ll surprise Sara and take her out to breakfast.”
                  “You’re a good man, Deputy Haller. Now, here’s your wife.”
                  Jean was back on the phone immediately. The scolding she had given Mike earlier apparently forgotten.
    “How long will it take you to get there, sweetie?”
                  Mike looked at his watch. “I’ll be there within the hour, Jean. I’ll call you as soon as I finish tanning her hide.”
                  Jean knew her husband was kidding.
    “Just don’t leave her side until you have her settled into her dorm room, okay?”
                  Mike laughed, “I just might stay and walk her to class next week. I’ll call you soon.”
                  Mike tossed the phone onto the dash and picked up his map. A shortcut, named Owl Canyon Road, would cut at least thirty minutes from his drive. A smile crossed his face as he took the exit from the interstate highway. Things finally made sense and that was usually a good thing. Usually!

 
     
     
    five

     
    Sara tried to lift herself from the shallow grave. Her left hand was useless and throbbing from the broken bone in her wrist. Her right arm worked, but pain screamed through her chest with the slightest movement. Exhausted, she abandoned the effort.
                  Having spent a year working as a nurse’s aide in the emergency room, she performed a slow assessment of her wounds. She used the fingers of her right hand to probe the cut on her throat. The shallow gash started at her left ear and stopped abruptly near the ridge of her wind-pipe. It was sore, but the bleeding had stopped and the wound wouldn’t need stitches to close. If the knife the driver had used had been any sharper, he would have certainly opened her carotid artery and she would have died in seconds. Sara shivered from the realization.
                  Moving to her left wrist, she noticed that her hand was swollen terribly and hung limply toward the thumb. She probed the puffy wrist with her right hand and felt the distinct grinding of bone on bone. She guessed that her radius was fractured. She would need to improvise a splint to stop the wrist from moving and help reduce the swelling.
                  Against protocol, she saved what she felt was the worst for last. Lifting her right breast with her right hand, Sara grimaced at the amount of blood that covered her waist. With some relief, she noted that the blood was dark, which meant that it was not arterial and it was not seeping from her lung. She took in a deep breath and winced at the pain in her