Free The Twenty-Three 3 (Promise Falls) by Linwood Barclay Page B

a second,” he told Marla. “Unlock those doors.”
    He ran from the house, down to the street, and got behind the wheel of his car. He steered it up the driveway, then veered onto the grass and drove the car down between the Pickens house and the one next to it, flattening blades of grass, putting ruts in the sod along the way.
    Once past the house, he turned hard left and brought the car right onto the flagstone patio.
    Marla had the sliding doors open, Matthew now in her arms. David leapt from the car, opened a back door, then ran into the kitchen and dropped onto his haunches by Gill’s head. He got his arms under Gill’s and slowly lifted him to the point where David was standing,and his uncle stretched out in front of him. He dragged the man out of the kitchen, eased himself into the back of the car first, pulling Gill in with him as he shifted across the rear seat. David opened the door on the other side to get out.
    “Come on,” David said to Marla, who exited the house, not bothering to close the doors, and got into the passenger seat, clutching Matthew, gently touching his head to her shoulder.
    “What will happen to him?” she asked as David turned the car around on the patio and drove back down between the houses.
    He didn’t look her way, but he was pretty sure she was talking about her baby and not her father.
    “When did you give him his bottle?” he asked.
    “In the last hour.”
    “He seems fine.”
    “I—I don’t know. I mean, he seems okay.”
    David, first of all, didn’t know for sure the water was to blame. But assuming it was, he had no idea how long it took for symptoms to develop once it had been consumed. Everyone seemed to be getting sick this morning.
    “When did you make it up?” David asked, glancing in the mirror for any signs of life from Gill as he sped toward the hospital. He had a bad feeling that even once they got Gill there, he might not get the attention he needed in time. But where else was he to go? He knew off-duty medical staff would be getting called in, that more help would be at Promise Falls General than even a few minutes ago.
    “Make up what?” Marla asked. “Don’t you believe me? You don’t think my father’s sick?”
    Marla had become so accustomed to people questioning her honesty, and sanity, that she’d misheard the question. “When did you make up the bottles of formula?” David asked, taking a second to look at her.
    “Oh,” she said, shifting Matthew from one shoulder to the other. “It was . . . it was yesterday. In the afternoon? I think it was the afternoon. I made up half a dozen bottles.”
    “Not today.”
    She shook her head.
    “Not this morning,” David pressed.
    “No! It was yesterday.”
    “Okay,” he said. “What about you? Have you had any water this morning?”
    More thinking. “I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet.” She craned her head around and said to her father, “Dad? Can you hear me? I love you.”
    “I need you to do something for me,” David said, handing Marla his cell phone. “Call up the recents.”
    She took the phone, looked at the screen. “Okay,” she said.
    “See the one that says Sam? Call that number.”
    “Who’s he?”
    “Just call it. Whoever answers, tell them not to drink the water. It might be a woman. It might be a boy.”
    Marla made the call, put the phone to her ear. “It’s ringing,” she said.
    David’s grip on the steering wheel tightened while he waited. “Still ringing,” she said. “That’s eight rings.”
    “Are you sure you touched the right number?”
    “Sam. Yes. That’s the one. Ten rings. Who is this guy?”
    “It’s not a guy,” he said. He took one hand off the wheel, ran it over the top of his head, pulling on his hair at the same time, trying to release the tension any way he could. He put the hand back on the wheel.
    “Twelve rings. Wait. It’s going to message.”
    “Never mind,” he said. David had already sent a text. He couldn’t see