Thriller Chillers Box Set by Olsen Gregg

Author:Olsen, Gregg [Gregg, Olsen,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00C1OBJP8
Goodreads: 21334037
Published: 2013-03-25T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

No one could have ever confused Leanna Schumacher of being frivolous. She and her Rod had lived quiet, steady, background kind of lives on the Oregon coast. But as the date of Hannah’s day in court came nearer, Leanna was oddly focused on appearances. She insisted Hannah wear a dress for the trial and took her to the only halfway decent ladies’ dress shop in Misery Bay, Marcia’s Fine Things, to buy one. Hannah hadn’t worn a dress since her brothers’ memorial service in early January. Dresses weren’t practical at Icicle Creek Farm.

“Can’t I wear jeans?” she asked.

“I know this isn’t fun,” Leanna said, “but it’s important you look your best; folks will be watching. Even though we’ve got no say in how people think, they’ll be judging you.”

On the morning of March 30, everything seemed to be speeding around Hannah like the faces on the other side of a carousel. Aunt Leanna had placed a tan-and-light-blue Gunne Sax dress on the motel room bed. She took a few minutes to smooth out the fabric with her long, slender, and very freckled fingers.

“You’ll look just beautiful in this,” she said. “The color will pick up the lovely hue of your eyes.”

Hannah had forgotten what color her eyes were, and the fabric’s subtle mix of blue and brown did little to clue her in. She hadn’t looked at her own face for weeks. She hated to see her eyes staring back at her from the silvery field of a mirror.

“I think I’ll look stupid, Auntie,” was all she could come up with, though she put the dress on. They watched television while they got ready to meet their escort to the courthouse. Leanna called Rod at the Speedy Mart, and the two talked while she waited for hot curlers to warm. She burbled something about how Hannah seemed to be holding up “despite the pain of the hour.” She whispered an I-love-you and disappeared into the little foyer in front of the hotel bathroom.

“Hannah,” Leanna called out from the noise of the hairdryer, “you’ll be just fine, honey. I know it. You’re from tough stock.”

Hannah flopped on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, and the world around her spun. Little bits of silvery glitter clung into the dried cottage cheese surface. She started counting the glints of glitter, regarding each as a star in the Milky Way. She wondered what it would be like to be anywhere else just then. She had a duty, and she’d been told so nearly from the day she had been rescued from the farm. Ten minutes later, the pair was headed for the door. Aunt Leanna put the plastic MAID SERVICE PLEASE hanger on the doorknob and pressed the steel door shut.

“Hungry?” she asked as she slipped her room key into her purse.

Hannah shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“You have to eat. You have to put some fuel in that tummy of yours.”

Hannah put her hand on her stomach. “I’m gonna barf,” she said.

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