Free Blind Pursuit by Michael Prescott Page B

she now?
    Had she been in an accident on the way to or from the office? Jumped by a mugger? Attacked by her own patient?
    Crazy, she thought as she went back inside the building. Just crazy to think that way.
    Mrs. Williams was off the phone by now. She rose from behind her desk, uttering the first syllable of a welcome. The greeting died when she saw Annie’s face.
    “Miss Reilly. What’s the matter? Nothing’s wrong, is it?”
    Reflexively, Annie smiled. She wondered why her mouth would do that when she knew of no reason to be cheerful.
    “Oh, no,” she said in a light tone that matched her careless grin, “nothing’s wrong, except Erin’s sort of hard to find today.”
    “Hard to find?”
    “You haven’t seen her, have you?”
    “Why, no.”
    “Her car’s not around. She’s not at work. It’s funny, isn’t it?”
    Annie knew it wasn’t funny, but she couldn’t erase the witless smile of denial from her face.
    Mrs. Williams seemed to see beneath that smile. “Maybe you ought to telephone the police.”
    “The police. What for?”
    “See if there’s been any problem. A traffic problem. You know.”
    Accident , she meant to say, but couldn’t. Annie nodded. “Yes. I guess I should do that.”
    Mrs. Williams took out a phone book and found the number of the police department’s Traffic Enforcement Division. Annie was about to dial when she realized she couldn’t remember Erin’s license plate.
    “We have it on file,” Mrs. Williams said, opening a cabinet drawer. “Have to ensure that our tenants park in their reserved spaces.”
    Annie reached a traffic-division sergeant, who took down the car’s make, model, and license number, then put her on hold. She waited through an interval of silence, shifting her weight and wishing she could make her damn mouth shed its idiot grin.
    You are no good in a crisis, Annie, no good at all.
    If this was a crisis. But it wasn’t; it couldn’t be.
    In her mind she heard the sergeant’s voice, oddly tentative. Ms. Reilly? I’m sorry, ma’am, but your sister was in a crash earlier today.... Hit by an oncoming truck, a Mack truck, big one ... She’s dead, ma ‘am.
    She’s in a coma, ma’am.
    She’s paralyzed, a quadriplegic.
    She’s —
    “Hello?” The sergeant again. The real sergeant, not her fantasy tormentor.
    “Yes?” Fear throbbed in her chest, and she felt the spiraling onset of light-headedness.
    “I’ve checked. There’s no report of any accident involving the vehicle you described.”
    Annie put out her free hand to grip the edge of Mrs. Williams’s desk. “I see. Well ... that’s good, isn’t it?”
    “Ma’am?”
    “But then—where is she?”
    The sergeant cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”
    Annie blinked. “Nothing. I just ... nothing. Thank you very much for your help.”
    Her fingers continued to grip the handset even after she had set it down in its cradle.
    Mrs. Williams regarded her with worried eyes. “No traffic accident?”
    “No.”
    “I’m glad to hear that, at least.”
    “Yes. So am I.”
    “Do you have any idea ... I mean ... Has your sister ever disappeared before?”
    “She hasn’t disappeared,” Annie snapped.
    Mrs. Williams said nothing.
    Annie lowered her head, bit her lip. Her knees were trembling.
    “Sorry,” she whispered. “I guess ... I guess she has.”

 
     
     

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    16
     
    “Anybody there? Can anybody hear me?”
    Fists hammering the cellar door. Shock waves of sound echoing in the room.
    “If you hear me, please answer! Please! ”
    Nothing.
    Exhausted, Erin turned away from the door and slumped against the wall.
    She had expected no response. Her abductor was too smart to hide her in a place frequented by other people. She doubted there was another habitation within a mile of this one.
    Still, there was always a chance someone would pass by, near enough to hear her—a mailman on a rural route, a child playing in a forbidden yard, a