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.”“I know where the key is,” Amy admitted sheepishly, also smiling.They were quiet again, too full of their own thoughts to say anything, for the second time that evening—and for the millionth time that week.“When I was there? At Chloe’s?” Amy began, quietly and more calmly.“It was weird—like it hadn’t been lived in for a while.Nothing was messy, but it just had this stale feeling.A little dusty or something.” She screwed up her eyes, trying to think about the last time she had been there, before they’d walked across the bridge, the last time they’d seen Chloe.“I don’t think the glasses near the sink were washed,” she hazarded, “but I’m not sure.”“Too bad they have voice mail,” Paul said with a wry smile.“You could have seen if the answering machine light was blinking out of control with all the calls we left her.I don’t suppose you have their password for that, do you?”“No,” she pouted.“If I did, there are a lot of messages I left over the years that I would have erased an hour later, when I calmed down.”Paul smiled and ran his hand up through her hair at the base of her neck.Amy closed her eyes and pushed her head back into his hand.“Maybe it’s time we called Mrs.King at work,” he suggested quietly, picking up the phone.Amy looked at him in surprise, then at her watch.“It’s ten after five—she’ll definitely be there.”He dialed and Amy pressed her head to the other side of the phone.“Greenston and Associates,” the receptionist said in a deep, interested, expensive-receptionist voice.“Hello, can I speak with Anna King, please?” Paul spoke in an even voice.His tone might have been youthful, but the sound was polite and professional, something Amy never could have accomplished.“No, I’m sorry, she’s away on vacation this week.Can I help you or direct you to another lawyer?”Amy and Paul looked at each other.“Uh …” Paul cleared his throat.“Where did she go?”“I’m afraid I can’t divulge that kind of personal information,” the receptionist said regretfully.“I hope it’s someplace warm.”“When will she be back?”“She has a lot of vacation time saved up, so I’m not exactly sure precisely which day—would you like her voice mail? She often checks it when she’s away.”“Uh, thanks anyway.It’s nothing urgent.I’ll call back in a couple of weeks.”“Thanks for calling.”He slowly hung up the phone.Both of them stared at it.“Now can we do something?” Amy finally demanded.SeventeenThis was a different sort of dream, restless and real.It was daylight and silent; Chloe’s feet made no sounds in the harsh grass beneath her feet.The broad blades cut into her soles, but it didn’t matter.The only thing that mattered was the hunt.She saw her quarry on a rolling hill below her, a familiar doe who paused to watch a plane overhead.There was something wrong with that, but through her thickened mind Chloe couldn’t figure it out.With two powerful leaps she flew over yards of scrub, landing in the middle of the perfect road that separated her from the kill.The pavement was velvet black with solid yellow lines and seemed to focus all of the sun’s heat on her.She prepared to leap again.The deer turned toward her, as if it had known she was there all along.“Chloe,” it said, in an achingly familiar voice.Chloe froze and screamed, but no sound came out.* * *She sat up suddenly in her bed—no, the couch.It was the middle of the night—no, she checked her clock and it was only seven thirty.Another nap, she realized.Chloe had drifted off to sleep again while she tried to plow through The History of the Mai It was Bible thick and combined all of the confusing names of a Russian novel and the deadly dullness of a badly translated history text.She fell asleep fairly easily these days; if she was full, warm, and not immediately occupied, it seemed like sleep was the inevitable next step.Chloe rubbed her temples with her knuckles.The doe in her dream had spoken with her mother’s voice.It was the scariest nightmare Chloe had ever had.Just a few weeks ago she’d been fighting with her mom, making up, going to work, and hanging out with her friends.And now she was … not.She fingered the soft, richly colored velvet spread she had slept on.She squinched one eye shut, noticing how she could suddenly see all of the individual furry threads in different shades of ruby, like through a magnifying glass.Then they turned darker and matted down, sucked up into the weave of the fabric, as her tear was slowly absorbed by it.She sat up again.“I have to get out of here,” she said aloud.“I want…” She couldn’t quite figure out what she wanted.She ran a hand through her hair.A haircut? Some new vintage clothes? She leapt up and ran out of the room, suddenly terrified by the silence.Out in the hall she slowed herself down, embarrassed by her behavior.Then she pulled her cell phone out of her back pocket and turned it on.Technically she didn’t need to use it for this phone call—no one cared; in fact, they probably encouraged her speaking to Alyec.Only an eighth of a battery left and she had to talk to him now.“’Alloo?” he asked, accented, as if he expected someone Russian to call.“I need to go out,” she said without preamble.“Chloe!” She could hear the happy boyish grin on his face.Simple, just glad that she had called.“Didn’t you just go out on a hunt?”“I don’t want …,” she growled, shaking her hands in frustration.If she couldn’t make Alyec understand, she was doomed.“I just want to go out and do something normal.Fun.You know? Fun? Like a date?”“I don’t think Sergei will let you out alone with me.I’m a pretty strong boy, you know, but not a trained bodyguard.”“Okay, okay.” Chloe thought furiously.“We’ll make it a group date.He can’t object to that, can he? A bunch of us—whatever goons he wants to send along with us— we’ll all go out.To a movie together.How about that?”She fell back against the wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]