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Chapter Ten: Nightmares
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Before He Wakes Chapter Eleven: Suspicion
CHAPTER ELEVEN: SuspicionSheriff Hammett lookedup at the knock at his office door. One of the newer deputies, Sanchez, stuck his head in. The man looked vaguely ill and a little nervous. “Um, Chief?”Hammett forced himself not to roll his eyes. He hated the moniker “Chief.” It made him feel like he was one of the Village People. Still, it was what most of his officers called him and he had come to tolerate it, if not accept it. “What is it, Sanchez?”After a slight hesitation, Sanchez said, “They’re back.”Now Hammett did roll his eyes. He didn’t even have to ask who theywere. Over the past few months, there had become only one theyreferred to in the office. Theyare holding on line one. Theyhave been blasting the sheriff’s department on Facebook. Theypublished another Letter to the Editor in the Greenville Newsaccusing the police of ignoring leads. Theyhave sent twelve emails in four hours.Theyare here. Again.Mr. and Mrs.
Before He Wakes Chapter Twelve: Getting Through the Door
CHAPTER TWELVE:Getting Through the DoorClare stood againstthe back wall, fingers plugging her ears, as Patrick used the already dented bucket to beat on the doorknob, denting the bucket even further. A dull, hollow gong! reverberated in the air with every strike.The sound also seemed to reverberate in her bones, making her feel as if her skeletal frame was going to simply break apart and she’d collapse onto the floor, a collection of ivory shards in a loose sack of skin.Of course, she realized this was only the fear talking. Fear that Big Daddy would return and discover what had been done, the hole in the plaster wall and the damaged doorknob, and he would make them suffer for their insolence and disobedience. She realized they’d really gone too far to turn back at this point. They couldn’t repair the hole in the wall. Their best course of action was to continue forward and try to get out of this cell before Big Daddy got back.Be brave, Clare, she told herself. No givin
Before He Wakes Chapter Thirteen: Dinner Time
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Before He Wakes Chapter Fourteen: Confrontation
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:ConfrontationRobert had justleft Manly Hall a little after 8 a.m. when his cell phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he recognized Mrs. Young’s number.He answered immediately and said with desperate hope, “Any news?”Silence from the other end then a sigh. “I guess that answers my question. I was calling to see if you had heard anything from Patrick.”“No, ma’am,” Robert said, feeling near tears again. He’d been in a constant state of crying or just-about-to-cry for the past couple of days, leaving him feeling perpetually exhausted and dehydrated. “So I guess that means the police haven’t come up with anything new?”“No. Well, actually yes, but nothing that helps us. Nothing that tells us anything we didn’t already know.”Robert meandered aimlessly past the library, heading toward the front of campus with no particular destination in mind, his feet moving on autopilot. “What do you mean?”“They located a woman who was walking at the lake Sunday morning,
Before He Wakes Chapter Fifteen: Venturing Out
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Before He Wakes Chapter Sixteen: Linda’s Abduction
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:Linda’s AbductionWhen Linda Childers heard the dingof the microwave, she carefully placed a bookmark in the Ruth Ware paperback she was reading and got up from the cushy recliner, leaving the book on the end table. In the kitchen she took her Banquet meal out of the microwave, sitting it on the counter to cool for a few minutes, while she made herself a cup of herbal tea. She placed the meal and her teacup on a tray and carried it all back to the living room. Settling on the sofa, she placed the tray on the coffee table in front of her. She turned on the television and found a rerun of Murder She Wrote and began to have supper.This was a nightly ritual, though aspects of it changed. Sometimes her frozen meal was lasagna, other times macaroni and cheese, still other times beef stroganoff. The television program varied, depending on what was on, but it was typically some rerun, since she didn’t find most modern shows appealing. If not Murder She Wrote, then To
Before He Wakes Chapter Seventeen: Mommy Dearest
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:Mommy Dearest“I think I know her,” Patrick said.Clare glanced back at him. “Really? You do?”“Not personally or anything, but she looks so familiar. I think I remember seeing news stories about her disappearance.”Turning her gaze to the woman once again, she scanned her features to see if they sparked any memory, but there was nothing. Not surprising. Clare didn’t pay much attention to the news, local or global, and that had become even truer since she started dating Hank. She could admit that she had turned into one of those girls who thought of nothing but her relationship, doodling hearts with arrows through them and writing her first name with his last name. Silly high school stuff from a girl who claimed not to believe in fairytales but still expected her life to turn out like one.Even after she’d been abducted, such fantasies persisted. After all, most fairytales had a dark period before the happily ever after. Cinderella had to flee the ball, Snow Wh
Before He Wakes Chapter Eighteen: Ashes to Ashes
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:Ashes to AshesSue Barrett layin bed, resting on her left side with her back to her husband. Her body was balanced precariously on the very edge of the mattress, on the verge of toppling onto the floor. Behind her she could hear her husband snoring softly, had been listening to the sound for hours. According to the clock, it was nearing 9 a.m., which meant they’d been in bed almost four hours, and she’d been awake the entire time, watching as the darkness gradually gave way to a grainy light through the windows.Listening to Phil’s snores.She found herself baffled that he could sleep, baffled and angry that he could find escape in slumber so easily after everything. She simply couldn’t shut her mind off, thoughts churning and twisting like laundry in a dryer. Any time she closed her eyes, she saw a blaze reflected on the backs of her lids and adrenaline pumped into her system, taking sleep even further out of her reach. She groped for it, and it would shrin
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