Her Last Scream Read Online Free Page B

tuning on his stereo system. I saw a deserted filling station at a lonesome crossroads, a corroded Hadacol sign hanging from the sun-bleached wood. I pulled in beside the rusted pumps, keeping the engine running for the AC. It was ninety-five outside, the sun a white ball in the corner of the sky.
    “What’s here?” Harry asked.
    “The story.”
    “What story?”
    “Rein said she owed a lot to people and I didn’t know the story. Tell me a story, bro.”
    Harry dry-washed his face in his palms, looked out the window for a long time, like arranging things in his head. “Reinetta lost her parents seventeen years ago,” he finally said. “Her parents, Johanna and Bayliss, were on a small boat that went down in a storm on Lake Michigan. A freak thing, blew in out of nowhere. They were visiting friends in Muskegon, Rein staying back with her granny in Greeneville.”
    “Jesus,” I whispered. “How old was –”
    “Ten. Granny was getting feeble, so the family met to decide who would raise the girl. Everyone wanted to step in, so a committee was created to vet the choices. It came up with a half-dozen possible couples.”
    “Who was Rein staying with at the time?”
    A pause. “My sister, Molly. I was around a lot, too. It was for six months, to give Rein some stability. She went through tough days, but was resilient. Her parents were spiritual, passed their faith on. Rein didn’t see them as gone forever, so that helped.”
    “The couples?”
    “The question was put to Rein, who did she want to live with? She said, ‘Can I live with all of them?’ So Rein lived with a bunch of folks over the years. A high school coach whose wife is a chemist. My cousin and her husband in Raleigh. He’s an attorney, she’s an accomplished regional actress. Then with relatives in Chicago – you met them, James and Twyla …”
    I nodded. “The trumpeter and dance instructor.”
    “Rein lived with musicians, businesspeople, athletes, science types. They’re all part of her world.”
    “Talk about raised by the village.”
    “She went on to study law and law enforcement at Old Miss. Great grades. Played on the lacrosse team. Acted in plays, musicals, everything … a reflection of everyone she lived with.”
    “But Rein didn’t become an actress or a chemist or a lawyer or a dancer, Harry,” I said. “She became a cop.”
    Harry closed his eyes and blew out a breath. “When Rein was a kid she carried a plastic gun and badge and arrested people. Called herself Harriet Nautilus, girl detective. I never figured she’d get stuck that way.”
    “You’re talking like Rein’s got an affliction.”
    “She was on a good, safe road, Carson. College, law school …”
    “I was on a good safe road myself ten years ago. Studying to be a psychologist.” I patted my mouth in a yawning motion.
    “It was different for you. You were older and a …” he paused.
    “A guy?”
    “That’s not it,” Harry snapped. “Not it at all.”
    “It’s Rein’s life, Harry,” I said quietly. “She’s a grown woman.”
    Harry stared at me like I was speaking Mandarin. “You know the kind of people out there on the streets. It’s just too damned dangerous.”
    I started to re-state my position, realized it would be like talking into a hurricane. I pulled out of the station, rolled through the crossroads and aimed toward Mobile. Harry was silent on the return trip, staring out the window and watching the phone poles blow by like measurements of time and space.
     
     
    Treeka had changed from the regional bus to a Boulder local and was now heading toward the women’s center. She felt her stomach go hollow and her heart start to race. Can I do it?
    She exited the bus and angled toward the center, veering away at the last moment, circling the block instead. Again in front of the center, she made herself stop where the center’s walk met the sidewalk. Turn! her mind screamed and she turned toward the building. Walk! her mind yelled.