Rest In Peace Read Online Free Page B

If they could, it might help enormously in solving your disappearance.”
    â€œI just wish I could thank him. I think of him every day, and I try so hard to remember something about him . . . anything about him.”
    â€œMaybe you’re trying too hard.”
    â€œAll I know is, he wasn’t the one in the cave.”
    â€œAnd how can you be so sure?”
    â€œI can’t explain it, but I just know. His voice was different.”
    â€œHallucinations can seem very, very real.”
    Hallucinations? Well, maybe she really had imagined it. Maybe she really was going insane.
    â€œYou remembered drifting in and out of consciousness,” Dr. Fielding had said, going over his notes once more. “And the will to survive is an incredible thing. It gives us the endurance we might never have under normal circumstances.”
    â€œBut what if I’m right? What if I’m right, and whoever I escaped from comes after me again?”
    â€œYou’re catastrophizing, Lucy. Even if this person were real, how could you be any safer than you are right now, with all this attention being focused on you? No one would dare try to kidnap you twice.”
    Lucy had bitten her lip in frustration. Twisted her hands even tighter in her lap.
    â€œSo if I wasn’t kidnapped, then what did I do after the wreck? Just wander around for miles and miles? Find shelter in some place that doesn’t even exist?”
    â€œThere was no serious frostbite on your feet; the hypothermia you suffered was relatively mild. Not nearly severe enough to suggest your wandering outdoors for any extended length of time. Your other injuries were consistent with those from a car accident, or from falling down a hill, as you described—scrapes, bruises, mild concussion, those nasty gashes on your head. No broken bones, incredibly. And the rest of the examination showed no evidence whatsoever of any sexual molestation.”
    Lucy had turned her head away, and stared out the office window. But someone took my clothes. And someone touched me. And something stung like fire, something I’ve never felt before . . .
    She still remembered the sensation. Remembered it all too clearly, though she hadn’t been able to find any unusual marks on her skin; no tell-tale punctures, no secret scars, nothing intimate or the least bit intrusive. Yet a few times it had come back to her in the middle of the night, in writhing dreams, flushing her entire body with heat and a sense of perpetual emptiness.
    Just remembering it in Dr. Fielding’s office today had caused that strange, unsettling ache deep, deep within her. An untreatable ache that made her squirm restlessly in her chair.
    â€œI’m very pleased with your test results,” the doctor had continued, not seeming to notice her sudden uneasiness. “Your stitches can come out in a week or two; your soreness, I’m afraid, will take a little longer. And I expect you to make even more progress in the days to come. But injuries take time to heal, you know.” His gaze was one of genuine sympathy. “Not just the physical ones, but the emotional ones, as well.”
    The ache inside her had suddenly focused on her heart.
    â€œYou want me to talk about Byron,” she said quietly.
    â€œI understand his funeral is this weekend.”
    Lucy had swallowed tears, barely able to answer. “Tomorrow.”
    â€œAre you going to attend?”
    But the tears had only thickened as she shook her head. “I can’t. There’s no way I can do it.”
    â€œDo you think it might help give you some sort of closure?”
    â€œHow can there ever be closure? I can’t stop thinking about him. I can’t stop thinking about his grandmother, and how she’s going to manage now that he’s gone.”
    â€œDo you know his grandmother?”
    â€œI’ve only heard about her. I know she’s sick and that Byron took care of her. And I feel