The Long Sleep Read Online Free PDF Page A

doesn’t want to leave a
name.”
    “There’s no message or anything. The card’s
just blank. Only my name on the envelope.”
    “That must be what the sender wanted.”
    I was undoubtedly being a pest, but I had to
know. “Did the order come by phone?”
    “Most of them do, or by Internet.”
    “Then they’d have to use a credit card. Or
they have an account. There must be a record somewhere.”
    “I didn’t take the call, ma’am.”
    “No, I’m talking about a record of that
transaction.”
    “Those records are in another place. We’re a
little busy right now. If a person wants to send flowers
anonymously, then that’s what we have to do.”
    In other words, this was as far as I would
get. Was it worth bothering Rick? A court order could pry open
their records. But that had to go through a judge, and what judge
was going to take it seriously? Even Rick probably wouldn’t. I
could think of no one except Evan who would do such a thing, but I
wanted to be sure.
    As soon as I disconnected, the phone rang.
Its ID said “unknown caller.” I waited till the answering machine
picked it up. Nobody left a message. It only beeped and shut
off.
    Moments later it rang again. Still there was
no message. I turned off the machine to see what would happen.
    Nothing. It kept ringing. Seven. Eight. Nine.
They say ten rings was a full minute and that was plenty of time
for anybody to answer, if they were going to.
    This person didn’t seem to know that. It got
up to twenty. I wished there were some way I could find out if the
call was coming from New Hampshire.
    Or it could be the person who shot Hank. They
were now after me. If they were watching, they’d know I was home,
but didn’t they notice the policeman with me earlier?
    Likewise, they’d have seen him leave.
    If it was that person, why would they send me
flowers?
    More likely there was no connection. I felt
sick. I wished Ben would come home.
    I called his BlackBerry and got sent to
voicemail. Rick had had me lock the front door but I checked it
again.
    I had the two dogs for protection. As long as
they didn’t get shot. Hank’s enemy was such a maniac, who knew what
he might do? Or she.
    The phone went on ringing. What if it was my
family? I picked it up but didn’t speak.
    Nor did the caller.
    Instead I heard music. “Somewhere Over the
Rainbow.”
    I loved that song. When I was a kid, I
watched The Wizard of Oz over and over.
    I hung up. It wouldn’t be my family. And the
person who shot Hank couldn’t know about me and The Wizard of
Oz.
    Unless it was someone I knew. Someone who
knew me when I was younger.
    I’d always gone to Lakeside, until a month
ago. No one at Southbridge High knew me before that. No one except
Ben, who had transferred about the same time I did, for a different
reason. I couldn’t imagine Ben doing anything this childish.
    The phone rang again. Now it might be
my family. My hand hovered, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick it
up. Finally I did.
    And just listened. They were still doing
“Over the Rainbow.” I listened for possible background noises.
    There was nothing. Not even breathing.
    The song ended and began again. The lunatic
was waiting me out, just as I was doing to him. When it finished
the second time, they hung up. I won that round.
    I thought of leaving the phone open. If my
family did call, and they got a busy signal for hours on end, they
might decide to come and investigate.
    Actually, it wouldn’t be hours. Rhoda should
be home soon, and then Daddy. Maybe even Ben. Usually I liked
having the place to myself for a while. Today it seemed horribly
empty, except for the dogs. And now it really was dark outside.
    One thing I did was turn the answering
machine back on. It was set to pick up after five rings.
    It did. It recorded “Over the Rainbow.”
     

Chapter Four
     
    I muted everything
and went upstairs to my computer, where I looked up
“coma”.
    It listed reams of material. Before starting
on that, I