Free Tumbledown by Cari Hunter Page B

talking more than a week before I know anything concrete.”
    She tried hard to keep the disappointment from her voice. “Any advice for us until then?”
    “Keep your heads down.” His response was automatic. “If this guy is dangerous and he’s suspended from work, he has a whole lot of time on his hands.”
    “Yeah.” That was something she had already considered.
    “We are watching them,” he said. He didn’t need to be any more specific; she knew he meant the remaining members of the Deakin family and those from the Church of the Aryan Resistance who had so far escaped criminal charges. His reassurances would have been more effective, though, had he not already told them the outcome of the FBI’s surveillance review meeting three months previously. With no sign of a credible threat, the budget for the surveillance had been reduced in spite of his arguments, leaving it little more than a monthly exercise in checking the criminal records of everyone on the watch list and ensuring they were all still living where they should be.
    She rested her head against the receiver for a moment and then forced cheerfulness into her voice.
    “Listen, thanks, Mike. It helps just to chat, y’know.”
    “No problem, honey. I’ll check in with you in a week or so. I’m gonna make a start on the paperwork, okay? Tell Alex I said hi.”
    “I will.”
    “I’ll be in touch.”
    She didn’t want to hang up, but reluctance to put the onus on him made her end the call. The phone gave a tinny beep as she returned it to its charging unit, and she saw Tilly’s ears prick up.
    “Shh, girl, everything’s fine.”
    Tilly lay back down, taking her at her word. The absolute trust made Sarah smile sadly; she wished she could be so easily convinced.

    *

    Lying as still as she could, Sarah listened to Alex mutter unintelligibly in her sleep. A touch on her arm and a few whispered words were all it took to soothe her, and she turned over without waking. Sarah watched the drapes sway in a breeze that didn’t reach the bed and wondered whether this was what people meant when they said they were too tired to sleep. She was too hot, too restless, and no matter how hard she tried not to move, something unreachable would itch as soon as she thought about it. The stark red display of the alarm clock told her that over twenty-four hours had passed since she last slept.
    Unable to lie motionless any longer, she inched herself out of bed and wandered into the living room. Three sets of glinting eyes tracked her progress, but none of the animals seemed inclined to leave the sofa. She envied their drowsy, untroubled state. With nowhere comfortable left to sit, she poured herself a glass of water, added ice, and took it out onto the back porch.
    She had grown to love the darkness that night in the middle of the forest brought. Above her, there was nothing but a waning moon and the tiny pinpricks of millions of stars. She wrapped a thin blanket around her shoulders, curled up on the bench, and let the coldness of the glass in her hand numb her fingers. Her eyes were growing heavy and her head was beginning to nod when something suddenly flew down from the eaves, its rapid wingbeats so close that she felt them stir her hair. She jumped, making water slosh from the glass. Even when the creature flitted past again and she realized it was a bat, her hand still trembled.
    “Jesus,” she whispered. She pulled the blanket closer, unsure whether to laugh or cry. “Jesus Christ.”
    She looked out across the yard, toward the point where the trees thickened and crowded around the edge of the land she and Alex had cultivated. Leaves and undergrowth rustled as creatures stirred, but she couldn’t see what was moving out there, and the sound of her heartbeat thumping in her ears quickly obliterated any further noise. Fear made her clumsy; she banged her thigh on the arm of the bench as she stood and turned to go back inside. She shut the porch door behind