Shadows Fall Away Read Online Free Page A

vinyl.
    A sofa? Maybe a table.
    Doctor’s table.
    The sheet covering me moved, startling me. I opened my eyes a little. Everything was a blur, but I made out a shape, a female shape. The small round glasses were vaguely familiar. Her fingers were lightly tracing the scar from that time I missed the stair Ollie and broke my skateboard deck, damn near impaling myself on the splintered board.
    “Agatha?”
    “Eugenia!” a man’s voice called sharply.
    The girl coming into focus gasped. Her fingertips jerked away from my side.
    So the girl was definitely not seventy-year-old Aunt Agatha. She was probably a nurse or med student, maybe?
    “I think he’s waking, Father.” She stepped aside.
    I tried to sit.
    “Go slowly, young fellow,” the approaching man said as I managed to push up on one elbow.
    My vision blurred again and I let doctor help me sit up all the way. “Where am I?”
    “In my surgery. I’m Dr. Cornelius Trambley.” He glanced over his shoulder when another man entered the room. “Inspector.”
    Inspector?
    I moved my head to look at the man in the doorway. Shit. He was a cop. He had that look just like my dad. There’d been a cop in park when the storm hit. I sort of remembered knocking someone down though it wasn’t on purpose.
    I was in for it now. I needed to get out of here. Fast. I tried to pull the sheet away. Strangely both men stepped closer to the table, blocking me.
    The doctor addressed the nurse.
    “Eugenia, you may go.”
    “But, Father—”
    “Go, Eugenia.”
    She slammed the door shut when she left and I wished I could just evaporate away.
    “Look,” I addressed the cop, “I’m sorry about the park. It was an accident. Your guy tried to help me up, but I couldn’t stand. When I fell I guess I pulled him down with me and he thought I was being an ass…My memory was fuzzy and I wasn’t even sure what had happened after that.”
    The inspector’s eyebrows inched up like he was about to call bullshit and haul my sorry butt to jail, but the doctor muttered a few words to him, which seemed to smooth things over.
    The doctor handed me a glass. “Some brandy will help steady you,” he said. “Drink it down, take a few deep breaths. Then try to focus on the last thing you remember.”
    “Brandy? You’re sure?” I asked. I’d been hot to tackle champagne at the party, but brandy? I’d never tasted the stuff. But hey, there was a first time for everything. If I could get a buzz on to kill this headache before Agatha showed up so much the better. I knocked the drink back and it burned all the way into my stomach. I wasn’t sure if I liked brandy. But it did work amazingly fast. And yet something seemed wrong with this picture.
    “Okay,” I said once the burning in my throat faded. “My head doesn’t hurt quite so bad.”
    “Do you know your name?” the inspector asked, reminding me even more of my dad when he was on duty. Mom called it his “cop mode” attitude.
    “Stewart. Mark Stewart.” I wiped my face with my hands, not much into being on the receiving end of an interrogation when I had no idea what I might be accused of—especially since I didn’t remember what had happened after Agatha went off. I made a grab for the ultimate kid-in-an-uncomfortable-situation Trusted Tactic #1: Change the subject. “What happened to my clothes?”
    “They were soaked through and muddy.” The doctor turned and took a small bundle from atop a nearby table. “These should fit you.”
    With a nod of thanks, I pulled on the button down shirt then swung my feet off the table, regretting it when my head spun. I wasn’t looking at the inspector or the doctor, but they were staring at me so I concentrated on pulling on the loose pants. I went to zip up and stopped short. They were fly front like Levis 501s, only made out of stiff cotton, or maybe wool.
    “Something’s not right here!” every instinct and nerve ending in my body screamed. But I didn’t know what was wrong and