Free Ransom by Denise Mathew Page A

just about to hang up when she said. “Lexie no matter what mistakes you make, I still love you.” She paused and I heard her draw in a long breath before she finished. “It doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get an earful when I see you though.”
    I smiled and the phone disconnected. Oddly, just talking to Mom for those few minutes was enough to calm me. The adrenaline that had filled me with dread and apprehension evaporated and the alcohol seemed to take over. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift.  
    I woke up to rapping on the window next to my head.  
    “Mom?” I said, opening my eyes.
      I was more than a little surprised to see sunlight filtering through the car windows. Still groggy from sleep, I stared into the brown eyes of the State Trooper who was tapping furiously on the glass. My breath caught because the last thing I needed was to be pulled in for under-aged drinking.
    “Can you come out of the car?” the Trooper said, his voice muffled by the glass window that separated us.  
    I nodded.
      It was then that I noticed Trinity, Aiden, and quite a few other people I knew, gathered around the car. All wore somber expressions. I was positive that someone had reported the party and we were all going to be in a heap of trouble.
    As I edged open the door I wondered if I had been drooling when I was sleeping, and how many of them had seen me in that state. It was a stupid thing to think about since I should have been more worried about the kind of trouble I was in.
    Still barefoot, I stepped out of the car, unsure why Trinity hadn’t just opened the door and shook me awake, rather than having the State Trooper pound on the window. Now out of the car, I noticed that he was probably around my father’s age with a rounded face and deep lines in his cheeks that most likely turned into dimples when he smiled. His brow was furrowed beneath the wide brim of his regulation beige hat. For some reason his expression made my stomach tighten into a knot.  
    I opened my mouth to speak, but the trooper beat me to it.
    “Lexie Adams?” he said.  
    His formal tone had me half expecting him to read me my rights. It was then that Trinity broke into tears. Aiden slung an arm around her, not taking his eyes off me. I saw a shimmer in his eyes too. Overwhelming cold enveloped me.
    I nodded. “Yes.”  
    My voice was a raspy whisper.
    The police officer shifted his stance. In that moment he seemed so tall, looming over me like an enormous Oak tree.
    “I regret to inform you that last evening between the hours of one and one-thirty a.m. your mother was involved in a fatal car accident,” he said, almost in one breath.
    At first his words were meaningless because I had just talked to Mom and… I grabbed my phone from the purse that was still wrapped around my wrist, ignoring the hands that seemed to paw at me.
    I heard Trinity and Aiden, and too many other voices around me, but none of that mattered because I had to talk to Mom. I had to hear her voice and know that it was all a mistake. When I looked down at the screen, everything seemed to go in slow motion. I saw the missed call from her, and next to it a light flashing that indicated I had voice mail.
    All the people around me fell away and all that mattered was the blinking square on the screen, because I knew it was Mom. I pressed the square and put the phone to my ear. I closed my eyes and as if in a dream I listened to my mother speak.
    Her voice was breathy as if it took all she could muster to talk. There were long pauses between the words as she obviously needed a break to catch her breath. The words that she said chilled me more than I thought possible because they couldn’t be true. None of it was true.  
    Only it was.  
    Before I fell into the darkness that took me away I heard her say.
    “Lexie…” She coughed loudly before she continued. “I’ve been in an accident…I’m not going to make it…I want you to know that I love