Critical Decision by Richard Mabry

Author:Richard Mabry [Mabry, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

. . .

Kathy had just dropped off to sleep when the ring of her phone awakened her. She had three cell phones now, and all three were lined up on her nightstand. Which one was it? She picked up each and looked at it in turn. The “special” phone that had started all this? No. The “burner” phone, a call that would be from Amos Perkins or Kelton Rush? No. Her regular cell? Yes.

Who could be calling at this hour of the night? She wasn’t on call tonight. Was this one of those calls that began, “Dr. Hoover, I know you’re not on call, but …?”

She picked up the phone. “Dr. Hoover.”

“Hon, this is Darren.” His voice came fast and breathless.

The last vestiges of sleep left her. “Darren. Is that you? Why aren’t you calling from the special cell phone? Have your captors decided to let you go? Where—”

“I’ve escaped. And it turns out I was being held in Dallas.”

“I thought you were in DC.”

“Probably for the first night, but then they gave me some kind of shot, and when I woke up, I was being led to a different house. I could only see a bit of my surroundings as I was going into the new place, and I thought I recognized some landmarks. Sure enough, I’m in Dallas.”

Kathy had thrown off the covers and searched frantically for something to put on. “I guess you don’t have—”

“I don’t have anything. My cell phone is gone. So is my laptop and everything I had in my pockets.”

The sound of her voice had awakened Archie. She patted his head, hoping he’d stay quiet. Kathy grabbed a pair of sweatpants from the closet and struggled into them as she held the phone to her ear. Then a T-shirt. “Where are you? I’ll come and get you.”

The next words were muted, as though Darren had covered the receiver. “I’m finishing. Just a couple more minutes.” Then he spoke to her again. “I finally talked a young man who’s behind the counter at this convenience store into letting me use his phone. Please come get me.”

When she heard the address, she nodded her head. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“And when you come, would you bring a pair of my loafers?”

“Sure. But why?”

“They took my shoelaces.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.