Whispers in the Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

particular, Dane tried to make his mind grasp and accept all of this dreadful information.
    Completely unprepared for such an horrific event, he felt his stomach heave with nausea. He quickly put both hands over his mouth.
    Officer Bickford still had his arm around the boy’s shoulders. He looked at Slater, who was driving. “Captain, you’d better stop.”
    Slater noted Dane and pulled rein quickly.
    Bickford jumped out and helped Dane to the ground. He laid a hand on his shoulder and bent his head down so he could lookinto Dane’s eyes. “Is it coming up?”
    Dane closed his eyes and removed his hands from his mouth enough to say, “I’m not sure.”
    “Take some deep breaths, son. I know all of this has been such a shock to you.”
    Dane drew one deep breath after another, and after a few minutes, he looked at Bickford and said in a ragged voice, “I think—I think I’ll be all right, now.”
    “Good. Just breathe easy, now. You’ll be okay.”
    Dane did as the officer said, still keeping his hands close to his mouth and his head bent forward. After taking several gulps of the rain-dampened air, he straightened up, swallowed hard, and said haltingly, “We—we can go on now. I need to get—to my sister. She must be frantic with all that’s happened tonight.” His features pinched. “How awful for her to have to watch our parents and little brother beaten to death! I must get to her. Please. Let’s hurry!”
    Officer Bickford hoisted Dane on to the wagon seat and climbed up behind him. “Let’s go, Captain.”
    In his sick heart, Dane kept pleading with Diane not to die, but the same feeling of doom that he had experienced earlier claimed him. When the paddy wagon came to a halt in front of the Good Samaritan Hospital, Dane surprised Officer Calvin Bickford by squeezing past him and hopping to the ground.
    He ran into the hospital while Slater and Bickford were alighting from the wagon. They called to him. He spotted the receptionist’s desk and darted toward it. He was skidding to a halt at the desk while the officers were hurrying through the door.
    There was a portly, gray-haired nurse standing over the receptionist and talking to her. The older woman glanced at the two officers coming toward the desk, then looked at the teenage boy, whose eyes were wide. Her face turned pale. She moved around the desk. “You must be Dane Weston. I’m Nurse Martha Simpson. I work in the emergency room. Captain Slater and OfficerBickford said they were going to bring you here.”
    “Yes, ma’am. I want to see my sister! Please take me to her. She needs me.”
    The officers drew up, having heard Dane’s words.
    Slater noted the pale look on Nurse Simpson’s face. “Can he see her?”
    Martha blinked painfully, looked at Dane, then at Slater.
    “Oh no!” gasped Dane. “Not Diane, too!”
    Martha laid a hand on Dane’s shoulder. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I’m sorry, son. Diane died about twenty minutes ago.”
    Dane was stunned. He drew a sharp breath and burst into tears. Martha’s heart went out to the boy. He was an inch or two taller than her, but she took him into her arms and held him tightly as if he were a small child.
    Not even aware of what he was doing, Dane wrapped his strong young arms around her ample body and gave way to the despair that was tearing him apart. Clinging to her, he sobbed incoherently. Other people passing through the lobby looked on with pinched faces as they heard the heartrending sobs of the teenage boy.
    The officers stood observing the pitiful scene, both glad for the motherly instinct of Nurse Martha Simpson. They knew that she was of more help to him than both of them could give him together.
    Finally, Dane gained control, eased back from Martha’s tender grasp, and wiped tears from his cheeks with trembling hands. He looked into her sympathetic
eyes
, sniffed, and said, “Th-thank you, ma’am. I’m sorry I broke down. All of this just seems like an impossible