Whisper in the Dark (A Thriller) Read Online Free PDF Page A

there in a couple hours.”
    “Thanks, Doc, you’re a peach. Sorry if I woke you.”
    Somehow Tolan got the feeling that Blackburn was never really sorry about anything.
    It was a state of mind he envied.
     
    W HEN HE GOT out of the shower, Lisa was awake and waiting for him, towel in hand, a look of concern on her face.
    “How are you feeling?”
    “I’ve been better,” he said, taking the towel from her.
    “You were asleep when I came home.”
    Tolan shook his head. “Playing possum. Didn’t want you to worry. You came in pretty late. I figured you were staying at the beach house.”
    “We went to Isabel’s after the movie, and you know what happens when you get four women in a room talking about men. We all start sharpening our knives.”
    He tried to laugh, but all he could manage was a weary smile. As he finished drying off, Lisa moved in close, slipping her arms around him. “You look miserable. Maybe you should talk to Ned again.”
    Ned Soren was Tolan’s ex-partner. He was also his therapist.
    “He’d probably just try to get me back on the fluoxetine,” Tolan said. Unlike Soren, he was a strong believer that psychopharmacology was a last resort. “Drugs or no drugs, you’d think that after a year I’d be making more progress.”
    “There’s no time limit on grief, Michael. You know that.”
    “Clinically, yeah. But emotionally . . . I just want to get past this. It isn’t fair to you.”
    “You don’t owe me anything.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “I just want you to heal,” she said. “No matter how long it takes.” She gave him a squeeze, kissed him. “You’ll be marking this day for the rest of your life, Michael. But it’ll get easier. I promise. You’ll come around.”
    “Is that what you told the girls last night?”
    “It’s what I always tell them. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it.”
    “You’re too goddamn good to me.”
    Lisa smiled. “Don’t you ever forget it.”
     
    H E CONSIDERED TELLING Lisa about the phone call, but what good would that accomplish? He was certain now that it had been nothing more than a cruel joke perpetrated by a sick mind, and telling her would be equally cruel. As grounded as she was, Lisa was also a worrier. And what she worried about most was Tolan.
    Why throw gas on the flames?
    He thought about all the years they’d known each other and how their friendship had only recently blossomed into romance. They had met as undergrads at UCLA, had shared a house with four other students in Westwood. There had been a fair amount of flirting at first, a night of drunken kisses that never led anywhere, and they’d quickly settled into friendship mode. Thanks to similar paths in grad school, they’d kept in touch ever since.
    Lisa had served on staff at County General for several years, then signed on as head psychiatric nurse at the Baycliff EDU about six months before Tolan came on board. Shortly after Abby’s death, she had encouraged him to take the director’s job, and they had been working together ever since.
    Truth was, she had awakened something inside him he’d thought would lay dormant forever, and the feeling was both unexpected and welcome.
    He needed her. Not at the same primal level at which he’d needed Abby, but Abby had been his soul mate and there was no competing with that.
    Lisa was, for lack of a better word, his savior. And if he could keep his remorse from dragging them down, they might have a future together.
     
    B Y THE TIME he was dressed, Lisa had brewed a pot of coffee and handed him a cup as he entered the kitchen. Her shift at the hospital didn’t start until later that morning, and she was wearing only a T-shirt, which barely covered her ass. Her hair still had that tousled, just-got-out-of-bed look.
    Tolan suddenly remembered the first night they’d made love and felt his body reacting to the memory. Maybe that was the date he should be marking on his calendar. Celebrate the bliss, not the pain.