The Shimmer Read Online Free PDF

from his fingers. Page set down his bags and shook the man's hand, ignoring the grease on it, knowing that he gained a measure of respect by doing so.
    "I called you from Santa Fe this morning about renting a car."
    "You Dan Page?"
    "That's me. I don't know how long I'll be staying, but I'd like to start a credit-card tab so you can charge me for the tie-down fee.
    Also, I need the tanks filled with 100 LL." Most propeller-driven aircraft used that type of fuel. The LL stood for low lead, one of the few leaded fuels still sold in the United States.
    "That'll be fine--the car's behind this building," the mechanic said. "I've got the paperwork ready for you to sign."
    Carefully hiding the disarray his emotions were in, Page handed over his driver's license and a credit card.
    "We don't have many strangers fly in here," the mechanic added, a polite Texas way of asking why Page had come to town.
    Page surprised himself with his reply.
    "I've got marriage problems to sort out."

    Chapter 11.
    The car was a red Toyota Celica. A wall of heat swept out when Page opened the driver's door. He left it open while he set his bags in the trunk, but when he got behind the steering wheel, both it and the seat remained hot to the touch. He started the engine and turned on the air conditioning. As cool air streamed over him, he took a deep breath and tried to steady himself. Then he drove from the airport to where a dirt road led in only one direction, merging with the paved road into Rostov.
    A water tower loomed above the low buildings ahead. To the right, cattle pens stretched along the railroad tracks. At Rostov's outskirts, the street expanded to double the width of the road, presumably a vestige from frontier days when cattle had been herded through town.
    He passed a feed-and-grain store, a saddle-and-boot shop, and a Ford dealership that seemed to specialize in pickup trucks. He reached blocks of houses that were painted earth colors ranging from sand to tan to brown. In contrast, their front doors were green or blue or red. Colorful flower gardens accentuated the single-story homes.
    Where the wide street intersected with another, all of the buildings became businesses--a restaurant, a bank, a hotel, a real estate office (Page was reminded of Tori), and a clothing store. Here, too, the colors were eye-catching. One building was red while another was purple, another yellow, and another green, no hue repeating itself within any block. But despite the fresh look of the buildings, Page had the sense that most of them dated back many years and that at one time they'd been close to collapsing. He sensed something else: that he'd seen these buildings before, not in their present colorful version but the way they'd once been, just as he felt he'd seen the panorama of the cattle grazing outside town even though it was his first visit to this area.
    Traffic was light. A woman pushed a baby carriage. A young man sat on a bench and played a harmonica, barely audible through the tightly closed car windows. At the end of the street to the right, Page saw an old-time railroad station. To the left, he saw a playground and a church. Across from them, a building's domed tower made him suspect that it was a courthouse.

    Chapter 12.
    The floor was dark, worn marble. A door on the left had a frostedglass window with black letters that told him: POLICE DEPARTMENT.
    Inside, behind a counter, an elderly woman wore a leather vest. She looked up at him and smiled.
    "Yes, sir?"
    "My name's Dan Page. Chief Costigan's expecting me. I said I'd meet him at five o'clock."
    "And you're right on time," a raspy voice said.
    Page recognized the voice he had heard that morning on the phone.
    He turned toward an office doorway, where a lanky man stood watching him. The man's face was thin and creased, with the dull gray skin that smokers tend to have. He had a mustache and a small scar on his chin. His salt-and-pepper hair was cut close to his head. His uniform was tan.