The Betrayed by David Hosp

The Betrayed by David Hosp

Author:David Hosp [HOSP, DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC000000
ISBN: 9780759567672
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2006-07-04T16:00:00+00:00


Chapter Thirty-two

IT WAS PAST SIX O’CLOCK in the evening by the time Sydney was on the road again, heading back toward Washington. She wouldn’t make dinner at her mother’s house—not with a five-hour drive ahead of her. She pulled out her cell phone to call and let her mother and Amanda know that she would be late, and not to worry; she flipped open the phone and had started dialing before she noticed that the service indicator was flashing. Not surprising, really, she thought. Most cellular coverage tended to center on populated areas around cities and suburbs, and it didn’t take a sociologist to recognize that this mountainous region in southwestern Virginia clearly didn’t qualify. She put her cell phone away and reminded herself to call from a pay phone once she was closer to civilization.

She was disappointed at how little her investigation had yielded. The Institute itself was eerie in its isolation, and its shadowy past seemed the stuff of horror movies, but she’d come across nothing that would suggest any connection to her sister’s death. Even Willie Murphy’s tale led nowhere in the end. He couldn’t remember who was responsible for his horrific treatment all those years ago, and if he could, what would it matter? He was right; any decent attorney would be able to shred him on cross-examination, even if he were ever willing and able to identify any of the people responsible for his suffering. Moreover, the statute of limitations had most likely run out on anything other than a murder charge—and proving up a murder charge three or four decades old was a virtual impossibility. Nothing she or her sister had learned seemed to suggest a motive for murder on anyone’s part.

And, of course, that made sense. Even Jack Cassian and his partner still thought Elizabeth had probably been killed during a random burglary. They were only looking for additional information to rule out any other possibility—prudent, she knew—to make sure that they had the right man. Perhaps Dr. Golden had been right, and Sydney’s excursion had more to do with coming to grips with her sister’s death, and with her own feelings of guilt and anger, than with any rationally held belief that Liz had been torn from her as a result of some larger conspiracy. She cursed her foolishness as she drove along the deserted rural highway back toward the real world.

She hadn’t passed another car since she’d left the Institute, she realized, and the quiet of the road was disconcerting. The narrow dirt shoulder slipped precipitously into dense forest, and there were no houses, stores, or gas stations within sight. The feeling of isolation did nothing to brighten her spirits. She should have stayed back in D.C., she thought. Amanda needed her, and instead of being there for her niece when she could provide the most comfort, she’d wasted an entire day in a backwater state mental hospital. Perhaps she was the one who needed to be committed.

She had the radio



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