Three Wishes Read Online Free PDF Page A

it, paused. What to do without causing greater injury? The legs looked normal, no grotesque angles there, but an oversize jacket hid everything above. Crouching over the head, he saw a face, which meant that whoever it was wasn’t suffocating in the snow, assuming that whoever it was hadn’t died on impact. At least he saw no blood in the snow.
    â€œHey,” he said urgently, “hey. Can you hear me?”
    A hood covered half of the face. When he loosened its strings and eased it back, recognition was instant. No matter that her normal coloring had gone ashen. If the fineness of her features hadn’t given her away, stray wisps of dark hair would have.
    Tom closed his eyes and rocked back on his heels. It was Bree, sweet Bree from the diner.
    â€œChrist,” he whispered, coming forward. He touched her cold cheek and pulled the hood up again to protect her face from the falling snow. He felt her neck for a pulse, though his own was pounding so hard he didn’t know whose he perceived. Her skin under her clothing was warm, though. Taking hope from that, he pulled off his jacket and spread it over her.
    That was when he saw her hand, little more than a small band of knuckles at the end of her sleeve. It was cold and limp. Taking it gently, he rubbed it to warm it up.
    â€œBree?”
    She didn’t move, didn’t moan, didn’t blink.
    He slipped a hand inside the hood and put it to her cheek. “Can you hear me, Bree?”
    A beam of light swung past him, then returned. Squinting into it, he saw Carl Breen trudging through the snow. His wool topcoat flapped over wash-worn pajamas. He had a southwester on his head and unlaced galoshes on his feet.
    The beam of the flashlight shifted to Bree. “Is she dead?” Carl asked.
    â€œNot yet. Did you call?”
    â€œAmbulance is on its way.”
    â€œHow long will it take?”
    â€œGood weather? Ten minutes. This weather? Twenty.”
    â€œTwenty?” Tom cried. “Christ, we need something sooner than that.”
    Carl was bending over, lifting the edge of her hood. “What was she, coming from work?”
    â€œTwenty minutes is too long. She can’t lie here that long.”
    â€œWon’t have to. Chief’s on the way. Travis, too. He’s a paramedic. Need a blanket?”
    â€œYes.” While Carl plodded back to the house, Tom kept one hand around Bree’s and the other on her cheek, so she would know that someone was there.
    â€œChrist, I’m sorry,” he murmured. “Ten feet up or back, and I’d have missed you.” He leaned close, looking for movement. “Are you with me, Bree?” He didn’t know what he would do if she died, couldn’t conceive of living with that. Being a self-centered bastard was one thing. Causing someone’s death was something else entirely.
    â€œHang on, baby,” he murmured, looking at the road, rocking impatiently. “Come on, come on. What’s taking so fucking long?”
    Carl returned, unzipping a high-tech sleeping bag. “My grandson’s,” he explained, and shook it out over Bree. Squatting, he said, “Quite some noise, that crash. What happened?”
    Tom shot another glance at the street. “Where are they?”
    â€œChief was down Creek Road when I called. He’ll be coming up East Main.” He shone his flashlight on Tom’s face. “You’re bleeding.” Tom pushed the light away, still Carl saw fit to inform him, “Your face got cut.”
    Tom felt nothing but fear. Again he searched Bree’s throat for a pulse, sure he felt one this time, though it was weak. Slipping his hand inside the hood, he cupped her head. “They’re almost here, Bree. Help’s almost here.”
    Miraculously, then, it was. In what seemed the best thing to have happened to Tom in months, the headlights of the Chevy Blazer that served as a cruiser for Eliot Bonner,