Free The Last Passenger by Manel Loureiro Page A

Stepanek took advantage of that fact and managed to get away. Somehow, the ship loosened its grip long enough for him to jump out of the window at the psychiatric hospital.” Carroll placed his bony hands on Kate’s arm. The heat emanating from his body was not normal. He was burning up.
    “That’s crazy, Mr. Carroll. Nobody was trapped aboard the Valkyrie .”
    “That’s where you’re wrong, Miss Kilroy. That’s where you’re wrong.” He coughed hoarsely and doubled over. A bit of blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and continued, despite the fact that his lungs sounded like the wheezing bellows of a foundry. “Come closer.”
    Nearly in a trance, Kate acquiesced and leaned closer. His breath was hot and dry next to her ear.
    “They’re still trapped inside. Dozens of people,” he whispered. “I broke free because I didn’t spend long enough for it to take hold. But that thing did something to me because I can see them.”
    Kate moaned and tried to free herself from Carroll’s grip. The old man was completely deranged.
    “Ah, yes. I can see them all right. And talk to them.” His eyes were ablaze, and he gripped Kate’s arm tighter. “They’re still there. Dozens of them. It’s a place worse than hell. Stay away from that ship.”
    Carroll finally let go and Kate pulled away. He tumbled back in his chair and panted heavily, nearing collapse. Kate stood up and took two steps toward the door. Her legs wobbled as she picked up her notes and bumbled out a hasty farewell. She wanted to get the hell out of there. But just as she made a motion to grab the doorknob, Carroll’s feeble voice stopped her.
    “The boy,” he huffed. “The boy was important. The Jewish boy was important.”
    Kate paused at the door, thinking she’d misheard him. She turned around and walked back into the living room.
    “The boy was Jewish? Jewish? Why do you say that?”
    “The bo y . . . he was circum . . . circumcised, an d . . . ” His breathing sounded like a whistle filled with dead skin. “He had a sta r . . . the Star of Davi d . . . hung around his neck. He was wrapped in a Jewish thing y . . . used to cove r . . . ”
    “A tallit ,” muttered Kate. A Jewish boy aboard a Nazi ship. It didn’t add up. Unless, perhaps, he was a stowaway.
    Carroll motioned weakly with one hand. He had said all he needed to say and had closed his eyes, exhausted. Kate placed a pillow under his head, so he could breathe more easily. He raised his head in thanks and grasped her hand.
    “Be careful.” His voice was almost inaudible. “There’s something about that shi p . . . a . . . somethin g . . . Please be careful. I beg of you!”
    Kate nodded to placate the elderly gentleman and began to tiptoe out of the living room. She began piecing it all together. If the boy was Jewish, Isaac Feldman’s involvement in all this made more sense. Feldman was Jewish and even had Israeli citizenship. What if Feldman was somehow related to that boy? In fact, maybe he was the boy. Why not? They were close enough in age.
    Lost in thought, Kate walked down the house’s front steps without noticing the headlights that were fast approaching from her right. A car thundered straight toward her at a tremendous speed.
    “Look out,” shouted the cabdriver.
    Kate was startled back into reality mere seconds before it was too late. She looked up to see the nose of an SUV with tinted windows hurtling like a rocket toward Carroll’s house. Without thinking, she leaped to her right and landed in a pile of cardboard boxes a bum had probably planned to use as a mattress.
    As the vehicle sped by, the side mirror hit Kate’s arm. The car continued forward, and the mirror dragged across the front of the house and broke off in a burst of metal and glass. The SUV managed to uproot the mailbox, sending beer cans and trash cans flying. The sound of metal grating against cement chilled Kate as