The Frighteners by Hamilton Donald

Author:Hamilton, Donald [Hamilton, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

I woke up strapped into a vibrating projectile hurtling through an endless blackness. I was frightened because I didn’t know whether the blackness was inside or outside me—didn’t know whether there was nothing to see or whether something was out there, and I was just incapable of seeing it. The thundering pain in my head made the second seem a likely theory. Then a wonderful blaze of light filled the world for a moment and was gone with a blast of sound.

“Fucking semis think they own the road,” said the woman driving the car softly, without any real anger. She was clearly speaking to herself.

I recognized her voice. She was the one whose name wasn’t Josephine. I had no idea what she was doing there or, for that matter, what I was. Where we were was another problem that would have to be solved eventually. I’d left myself lying dead on the bloodstained carpet of a motel room in a Mexican town called … called … Anyway, after surviving the best homicidal efforts of the best and brightest professionals in the business, I’d let a vengeful young amateur take me by mistake. Dumb, dumb, dumb! I’d died and somebody had raised me from the grave, presumably the woman beside me. The way my head ached, I wished she hadn’t bothered.

Somebody’d tucked my S. and W. back into its hidden holster inside my waistband. I seemed to have a bulky bandage on my head. The straps I’d been aware of weren’t really doing much of a job; most safety harnesses don’t function well with the seat fully reclined. The car was my Subaru wagon—well, it was mine for the moment, unless the lady had decided to take possession. I was in no condition to contest any claim she cared to make. But I could see now and recognize the dimly lighted dashboard and be grateful that there was only one of them. I remembered having had double vision earlier, although I had no idea how much earlier. I also remembered a numbness in my right side, and it was still present as the curious tingling sensation you get after a cold day in the duck blind or on the ski slopes when the half-frozen flesh gradually thaws out in front of the fire in the warm lodge. The toes and fingers on that side seemed to be back in operation, although I wouldn’t have wanted to present them with any demanding tasks like kicking a football or playing a Mozart piano sonata. Not that I’d ever been expert at either chore, at the best of times.

“Did I get him?”

The words surprised me; I hadn’t been aware that I was going to speak or even that I remembered how.

The woman turned her head briefly. “So you’re back. If you’re going to be sick again, let me know so you can do it outside the car.”

“Did I get him?”

She gave an angry little snort. “You keep asking that, you bloodthirsty bastard. How

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