The Phantom of Black's Cove Read Online Free PDF Page A

Drive and eased out of the aspen grove. The bump of the stones under her tires was comforting. She’d be safely out of here in a minute or so and headed back to town with new information. It did seem like they’d tried to help Ross at the clinic.
    A measure of doubt crept into her mind. If the clinic had only attempted to cure Ross and hadn’t worsened his already-devastating condition, then there was nothing forher to expose. Still, the Trayborne Foundation had set up a trust fund for him. Why would they do something like that if they had no guilt in making him worse?
    The glow of headlights in front of her came up so fast that she barely had time to slam on her brakes and pull the steering wheel hard to the right.
    A black Jaguar whipped past on the left.
    Olivia glanced in her rearview mirror and saw his brake lights come on in the mist.
    It made sense that Jack Trayborne would show up here. It was, after all, his facility.
    But she couldn’t let him identify her.
    Stepping down on the gas pedal, she launched forward, keeping the car in between the trees that lined both sides of the road. Had he seen her car well enough to identify it?
    He would certainly be asking questions about who had started the fire. Just the memory of watching the blaze erupt with no one around made her skin crawl. Maybe it had been started by spontaneous combustion? Maybe there were oily rags in the corner? But no matter how hard she tried to explain away what she’d seen tonight, she couldn’t.
    Something strange was going on at the Black’s Cove Clinic. Something terrifying and otherworldly. Something she didn’t want to believe.
    Not even for a moment.
     
    O LIVIA SAT IN ONE of a dozen Internet cubicles in the Black’s Cove Community Library.
    Her hands shook as she typed the letters NPQ into the search engine and pressed Enter.
    The screen filled with possible matches. One by one she scanned them, eliminating each result until her gaze settled on one interpretation of the acronym.
    Neuro Pathway Quotient…Neuro Pathway Quotient.
    She wasn’t a doctor, but she knew enough about brain injuries to know it destroyed neuro pathways.
    She clicked on the link and an article about the subject popped up on screen. It had been included as reference material in a medical research paper dated May 1999. The copyright on the source paper was 1979, pre-Internet.
    A rush of excitement charged through her. The copyright holder was Martin J. Trayborne, the patriarch of the Black’s Cove Clinic. Jack Trayborne’s grandfather.
    Olivia selected the print option and sent the request. In the background, she heard the laser printer fire up as she scanned the article.
    A lot of medical jargon filled the page, but a single paragraph caught her attention.
    I have managed to isolate the protein responsible for the formation of new neuro pathways. I am hopeful that this discovery will result in the formation of new attachments within the patient’s injured brain, rewiring and resetting the synapses.
    Was this why her parents had brought Ross to the clinic? For some sort of miracle cure? It was a heroic effort, but obviously, it had failed. She swallowed andsat back in her chair. If Ross was used as a human guinea pig, were there others?
    Was there any way to get at the Foundation’s financial records? If Ross had a trust account, then maybe others had been established, as well.
    A loud screech interrupted Olivia’s thoughts.
    She spun around in the swivel chair, her brain trying to process what her eyes were seeing.
    Paper shot out of the holding tray on the printer, like fast balls off a pitcher’s glove.
    The librarian scrambled, trying to shut off the kamikaze machine.
    Olivia stood up and rushed to help. Finding the power cord plugged into the floor, she pulled it. The printer ground to a stop.
    What on earth was happening? she wondered as she turned back to her computer cube, only to find her screen and every other monitor had gone black.
    “Oh my,