Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Praise for Linwood Barclay
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
The entire length of the massive driver’s door was smashed in, but the Arrival that had rammed them was not there. Katie looked out the rear window, saw the Arrival sitting in the middle of the road, about a hundred yards back, its front end completely caved in, airbags inside deployed even though there were no passengers. What must have happened was, the Arrival came out of the side street, T-boned them, bounced back, and the Caddy kept going until it ran off into the ditch. Katie didn’t remember that part. She remembered seeing the car coming at them, thought that maybe she remembered the crash, but after that, nothing. She touched her temple again, wondering how she’d hit that part of her head, then figured that at the moment of impact, she was thrown toward the driver’s side, and whomped her head on the edge of the steering wheel.
She tentatively touched Bruce’s shoulder, gave him a mild nudge.
“Bruce? Bruce? Can you hear me? Bruce?”
Bruce said nothing.
Tears welled up in Katie’s eyes. “Come on! Bruce! Wake up!”
Bruce did not wake up.
Katie crawled, upward, across the seat, and hung onto the steering wheel so she wouldn’t slide back. She put her ear to Bruce’s chest, held her own breath so she could listen better for a heartbeat.
Thump thump. Thump thump.
“Yes!” Katie said, taking her head away. “Okay, Bruce, you’re still with me. Right? You’re alive. I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but I’m going to get help. I am. I’m going to call an ambulance.”
She dug into her pocket for her phone, punched in 911, and put the phone to her ear.
And listened to it ring, And ring. And ring.
Finally, the ringing stopped.
“Hello?” Katie said. “Hello?”
But she hadn’t been connected. The call had died. She muttered an obscenity, put the phone back into her pocket, and said to Bruce, “So, I don’t think we can get an ambulance out here right now. We need another plan.”
She pondered whether she could slide Bruce out from behind the wheel, get into the driver’s seat, and then drive the car to GGH, Garrett General Hospital. There were two problems with that. The first was, she didn’t know whether Bruce could be moved safely, and second, she didn’t know whether the car was driveable.
“Can you move, Bruce?” she asked.
When he failed to respond, she tucked one arm in between his back and the seat, and looped her other arm around his right leg. If she could tug him out from under the wheel—
“Aw!” Bruce shouted.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Katie said, slipping her arm out from behind his back and letting go of his leg.
Bruce didn’t show any more signs of being conscious now than he had twenty seconds earlier, but he’d sure felt the pain.