Free Chance Of A Lifetime 1987 by Unknown Page A

type?“
    „That’s a very open-minded attitude.“ It was taking all her strength to get him to the passenger side of the Toyota.
    The man seemed to weigh a ton.
    „I am a very open-minded man.“
    „That’s very reassuring.“ She groaned as she finally let his weight slide from her shoulders down onto the
    passenger seat. She frowned worriedly as she started to close the car door. „Chance, maybe I should call that
    ambulance instead.“
    „No.“ His voice was stronger. „I promise you it looks worse than it is.“
    Rachel shook her head and got behind the wheel. „What happened in the coach house?“ she asked as she swung
    the car back out of the drive. „How long have you been lying in there?“
    „Beats me.“ Chance slouched in his corner, watching her through narrowed, bleary eyes as she drove. Then he
    remembered to glance at his watch. „I was headed for the car about – “ he frowned, trying to read the dial „ – about
    twenty minutes ago. So I couldn’t have been in there very long. I don’t think I was unconscious, just badly dazed for a
    few minutes. It was a while before I felt like moving, and then I heard your car in the drive.“
    „But what happened?“
    „For the past few days I’ve been sorting through the stuff in the coach house. You know that. Today I’d planned
    to take a load of junk to the dump.“
    „What load of junk? Yesterday when I took a look in the coach house, I saw absolutely nothing but a few
    cardboard boxes in the discard pile. As far as I could tell you’re keeping everything you come across in there. You’re a
    regular pack rat. You probably missed your calling, Chance. You should have opened up a junkyard.“
    „The stuff I’m keeping is not junk. It’s valuable, useful equipment,“ he retorted forcefully. The effort of defending
    his coach-house collection made him wince. His hand went to his head, and he gritted his teeth.
    „Most of it looks like junk to me, but never mind.“ She slanted him a worried glance. „Are you sure you’re okay?“
    „I’m okay.“ He lowered his hand and absently wiped the blood off on his jeans. „I guess I must have moved some
    stuff in the loft earlier that was supporting something heavy. It must have been poised to fall, and I was just unlucky
    enough to be under it when it did.“
    „It looked like a car radiator.“
    „Hmm. Yeah. Could be.“ He brightened noticeably. „There was an old one stored up there. A real nice one that
    probably belonged to a ‘57 Chevy. Looked like all it needed was flushing out and maybe a little patching. I was going
    to store it downstairs, but I hadn’t gotten around to moving it from the loft yet.“
    „Store it! Chance, what would you want with an old radiator for a ‘57 Chevy?“
    „Are you kidding? Original equipment for that kind of car is worth a lot of cash.“
    „I give up. All right, so you think it just toppled over on you?“
    „It must have been sitting precariously up there waiting for the slightest movement to knock it down.
    When I went in there today I probably jarred one of the posts that holds up the loft, with just enough force to make
    the radiator fall over the edge.“ He paused for a moment and then added quietly, „Although I don’t remember hitting
    any of the posts. I was just going to collect some cardboard boxes.“ He shrugged and winced again.
    Rachel’s hands clenched and unclenched around the wheel. She stared straight ahead. „You were very lucky,“ was
    all she said. She wondered why she was so concerned. Theoretically she was supposed to be nursing a fierce anger
    toward this man. Yet all she could think about was that he was hurt and had very nearly been killed. Her stomach was
    in a knot.
    „I know.“ He frowned intently as if trying to recall something. „It must have made some noise when it started to fall.
    Probably scraped the edge of the loft floor or something.“
    „Why do you say that?“
    „Because I heard a sound