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Chapter 62
DECKER FINALLY FELLasleep a little after one o’clock.
He dozed fitfully for a bit and then woke up coughing. He’d gotten wet yesterday and he was afraid he might have caught a cold.
He drew a long breath and coughed again, this time more violently.
He sat up and gagged, then suddenly lurched to oneside of his bed and threw up.
Dizzy, he got to his feet and immediately fell to the floor. He managed to drag himself over to the window, open it, and stick his head out into the rain. He sucked in the chilly, wet air and his fuzzy brain cleared and his nausea passed.
When he brought his head back inside he smelled it.
He lumbered from the room, covering his noseand mouth with his T-shirt.
He pounded on Jamison’s door.
“Alex! Alex!”
When she didn’t answer, he opened the door and looked frantically around.
All he could see was her foot sticking up from the other side of the bed.
This froze Decker for an instant, because that had been exactly what he had first seen when he had discovered his wife’s bodyat their home back in Burlington.
He raced over to the other side of the bed, bent down, and checked the pulse at her neck. He detected it and she was breathing, if spasmodically. He lifted Jamison up in his arms and rushed back to his bedroom, where he placed her next to the window and held her head out the opening.
She gasped, came to, and looked up at him.
“Wh—”
“Stay right there, keep breathing in. And don’t turn any light switch on. Okay? Any spark could trigger the gas.”
She nodded feebly and Decker ran from the room.
He flung open Zoe’s bedroom door. She was lying in her bed.
“Zoe? Zoe!”
He sniffed the air. It wasn’t that bad in here. Yet.
Zoe slowly sat up in bed. “Amos?” she said sleepily.What’s the matter?”
Decker ran over and opened her window. “I want you to put your head out the window, okay. There’s a gas leak in the house. I’m making sure everybody’s okay.”
“Mommy!” Zoe cried out.
“I’m going to get her right now. Put your head out the window and take deep breaths, okay? And don’t turn on the lights.”
She nodded, jumped up, and ran overto the window.
Decker thundered down the stairs, because Amber’s bedroom was on the ground floor, in what had been a den that they had converted into a bedroom. Its bathroom was down the hall.
He opened the door. “Amber?”
Her bed was empty.
He scanned the floor, then he heard a moan from somewhere. His gaze darted to the hall. He ran back out and lookedin the direction of the bathroom.
