The Fourth Victim by Tara Taylor Quinn

Author:Tara Taylor Quinn
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Psychologists, Contemporary, General, Romance, Romantic suspense fiction, Suspense, Fiction, Women psychologists, Missing persons - Investigation
ISBN: 9780778328353
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2010-11-23T00:49:56+00:00

19

Cave

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Clay knelt, grabbing the duffels’ straps, shoving them toward the door. I realized our departure was imminent—and was petrified to move. To go out there, where danger waited for me. My confinement had become my safety. It was all I knew in this frightening new world.

I was outside myself looking in. Sitting in a chair in my office. I’d describe this to my clients as distancing. Taking a step back so I could better handle a situation that was threatening my emotional equilibrium.

“Can I ask a favor?”

“Of course. What do you need?”

“Just a pen and some paper. I think best when I can write.” That, at least, hadn’t changed.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out his notepad, ripped out the used pages, which he stuffed back in his pocket, and handed me the notebook. There was a small pen attached.

The pen looked so…normal. I was afraid to touch it.

“Something wrong?”

“I…chew on pens. I’m trying to break the habit, but…” I was trying to find the courage to crawl out into the night and face whatever the next days would bring.

Clay shrugged and said, “You chew on it. It’s yours.”

Cave

Sunday, December 5, 2010

“Time to go.”

I’d been waiting for the words. Dreading them. “The hardest part is getting started,” I said aloud, caught in a fog of panic.

Logically, I understood what was going on. But that wasn’t helping.

“Getting started?” Clay Thatcher sat there looking at me as though we had all the time in the world to embark on the Sunday stroll ahead of us.

“I’m scared.” There. I’d admitted it.

“You should be.”

No. No, I shouldn’t be. The only thing to fear was fear itself. I knew that. I…

“Fear keeps you aware of danger. It keeps you safe.”

Was he blaming me for my predicament? “Is that your way of telling me that if I’d had enough sense to be afraid of skating alone on a deserted path I wouldn’t be in danger now?”

“Absolutely not! Whoever grabbed you was determined. And patient. If he hadn’t had a chance to take you while you were skating he’d have found another way.”

My stomach calmed a bit as I listened to him.

And then a new churning began. He could ease my emotional distress but I couldn’t?

That was a new one.

One I didn’t like.

At all.

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