Now, Hannah’s mind told her, and she forced herself to climb up on the redwood bench. It took all the strength she had, but somehow she managed to raise her arm and hold the melting, malodorous rose as close to the smoke alarm as she could.

There was no way she could breathe. The stench of the smoking plastic or the smoldering wire, she wasn’t sure which, was unbearable. She was probably breathing in carcinogens, but that didn’t really matter in the giant scheme of things.

Hannah held her position until her arm muscles spasmed and what was left of the rose dropped to the floor. She was right behind it, collapsing on the bench and giving way to the horrible lassitude that consumed her body and her mind.

Time passed, how much she wasn’t sure. Life passed and there was a loud, awful ringing in her ears. Images of family, of friends, of things near and dear to her came, and faded, and changed, until they all melded together in one unfinished life. Hannah crawled her way to the wall, the farthest she could get from the cloying lethal heat. And then she curled up, her ears almost deafened by the ringing, her nose to the floor, praying for a breath of fresh air.

“Hannah?” a voice called her name. “Hang in there, Hannah! I’m here!”

A dream. Mike’s voice. It was the last voice she’d hear in this world.

“Hannah!” Mike lifted her in his arms. “I’m getting you out of here now. Don’t worry. I’ll never let anybody hurt you again.”

That’s nice. That’s good, Hannah thought, as her mind began to revolve in concentric circles.

“We got him. We got Tad Newberg. Stella got the call while I was there. He was the stalker at Macalester.”

“Not Tad. Frank,” she squeezed the words out of her parched throat. “Frank…killed Ronni. And he tried to…kill me.”

She heard him give orders for someone to go after Frank. And then he was carrying her out, out where she could breathe again.

“I’ve been such a louse,” he said, placing her on a gurney. “I am such a louse. But I love you, Hannah. I love you more than anyone else in the world.”

He leaned over her as they pushed the gurney to the ambulance. “Just a quick checkup with Doc Knight,” he said.

“I need to go home,” she said, and her voice was weak and scratchy. “Don’t let Doc keep me. Come with me and take me home.”

“I will.”

“Promise?” she whispered, just to make sure.

“I promise,” Mike said.

Chapter Thirty-One