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"Hello, Berry."
Her heart nearly leaped from her chest. Even through the phone, despite the noise in the parking lot, there was no mistaking Oren's voice.
"Surprised to hear from me?" he asked.
Caroline and Dodge were bickering over his cigarette, but Ski's gray gaze was fixed on her. Reading her shocked expression correctly, he waved for the others to be quiet and moved to stand within an inch of her, a silent question in his eyes.
She nodded, wet her lips, said into the teleph
one, "Yes, Oren. I am very surprised. Where are you?"
He laughed, the awful sound causing goose bumps to break out on her arms. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He hummed a few bars of a tune.
Berry turned the screen of her phone toward Ski so he could read the number displayed. He scribbled it into his palm with a pen and held it out for Dodge to read. Dodge dropped his cigarette and ran toward a group of sheriff's deputies.
Ski was making a rolling motion with his hand, indicating to Berry that she should keep talking. But it was hard for her to hold a thought with all the commotion going on around her. She thought of switching over to speakerphone but was afraid that Oren would detect that others were listening in and hang up.
"Tell me where you are, Oren, so I can come and help you."
"Help me?" He dismissed that with a snort. "As if."
"You need help. You're hurt."
"Clumsy of me to fall down your stairs. It put my aim off, or you'd be dead."
It was difficult to ignore that, but she did. "Is your leg broken?"
"I'm not sure." He answered nonchalantly, as though she'd asked him whether or not he thought it would rain. "It's black and blue. Very swollen."
"Painful, I'm sure."
"Nothing I can't handle with some ibuprofen."
"You should get it examined. You might have developed an infection that could be fatal."
"Oh, I won't die that ingloriously, Berry. And I won't die without taking you with me."
She shuddered. Ski took her arm in a firm, reassuring grip that fortified her enough to continue. "Please listen to reason, Oren. You're in a lot of trouble. Ben is going to be okay. But the boy you shot last night died."
"That wasn't my fault."
"That's what we think, too."
"We? Meaning you and Deputy Nyland?"
At the mention of his name, Ski's eyebrows shot up, and she realized that he could hear Oren's voice through the phone.
"How do you know Deputy Nyland's name?"
"He's been mentioned in all the news reports."
"Yes, well, he believes you didn't mean to kill the Coldare boy." Ski nodded approval of what she'd said. "He thinks that shooting was an accident."
"Oh, I'll just bet he does."
"He does. He told me so himself. He's giving you the benefit of the doubt, Oren, but you're making yourself look guilty. Turn yourself in and--"
"He's there with you now, listening in."
