AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s actually a good thing.”
“What do you mean?”she said, looking horrified by his words.
“It means we’re making somebody nervous. Which means we’re heading in the right direction. Whichisa good thing.”
“It wouldn’t be so good if we were dead!” snapped Jamison.
“Do you have the graph paper?”
“What?”
The graph paper from the house?”
“My God, Decker, we were nearly killed. And youapparentlydiddie. And all you can think about is the case?”
When he didn’t say anything, she sighed, pulled out the graph paper from the evidence pouch in her bag, and handed it to him.
With the tissues stuck to his head, Decker laid the paper on the ground and used the flashlight feature on his cell phone to go over it. He held the light an inch from the paper and stillhad to squint to make things out.
“See anything?” she asked.
“Just impressions from the pencil or pen he used to draw something on the sheet above this one. It looks to be pretty large. It covers most of the sheet. I’ll take a better look at it when we have some decent light.”
He clicked off the phone light, handed the paper back to Jamison, rose, and leaned againstthe truck bumper.
Jamison said, “Do you think whoever it was we chased came back and tried to kill us?”
“I don’t know. Could be, but that would have been a risk.”
“So maybe somebody else? Do you think we were followed?”
Decker looked back at the dirt and gravel road. “It would have been hard for anyone to follow us here without us seeing them.”
She looked back at the trailer. “Good thing we went over that before it disappeared. Though we didn’t find anything, really.”
“We found some things.”
“Like what?”
He suddenly clutched his head and groaned.
“Decker, what is it?” asked Jamison anxiously.
“Just the mother of all headaches.”
A few minutes later two police cars, an ambulance,and two fire engines showed up.
The firemen dealt with the trailer, dousing it and the surrounding area with water. Two EMTs checked out Jamison and Decker. She had some bumps and bruises and some smoke inhalation. They treated her and gave her oxygen. They did the same with Decker, but after examining his head wound and testing his cognitive responses, they insisted that he go to thehospital for an X-ray and other tests.
“I don’t have a concussion,” said Decker. “At least not a bad one.”
Jamison admonished, “Decker, you stopped breathing. So you’regoingto the hospital. I’ll ride with you in the ambulance.”
As they drove off, Decker lay back on the gurney with a bloody bandage wrapped around his head. Jamison had wiped her dirty face and triedto get some stains off her clothes with a clean wet cloth that one of the EMTs had given her.
“I’m going to have to get some new clothes. When packing for this trip, I didn’t account for being nearly drowned in a monsoon and then almost blown up.” She leaned back against the interior wall of the ambulance and closed her eyes while Decker stared at her from the gurney.
Deckersaid quietly, “So, Alex, are you enjoying it?”
She opened her eyes and gave him a bewildered look. “Enjoyingwhat?”
“Your vacation.”
