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.Sharon sat there in her robe, with both of her trembling hands wrapped around a cold coffee cup that had earlier held hot chocolate; she had drained the last drop over three hours ago.Every now and then she would get up and slowly walk into the living room with her hands still clasped around the empty cup, and look at the trophies and pictures of her and Chelsea that adorned the walls.After staring at these memories for a few minutes, she would turn and slowly walk back into the kitchen and sit back down.Every now and then her chest would jerk and a hiccup-like hitch would come forth as she teetered on the brink of another bout of crying, but she never quite crossed the threshold.Sharon had just returned to her chair from yet another trip into the living room when she heard a sound coming from the direction of the barn.It sounded like a horse.Chelsea? Sharon thought.She strained her eyes and looked through the window, toward the barn.It was hard to make it out from that distance, but past the yellow Police Line - Do Not Cross ribbon, she could swear she saw the shadow of a horse inside the barn.My mind is playing tricks on me, Sharon thought.Nevertheless, she stood and put her coffee cup down for the first time in four hours.She hurried through the kitchen to the back door, where she turned on the back porch light.There was Chelsea standing in the pen, just outside the barn.“Chelsea?” Sharon mumbled, tears streaming down her cheeks anew.In the back of her mind she knew something wasn’t right, but she didn’t care.She opened the back door and stepped out onto the porch.“Chelsea,” Sharon said softly, smiling.Like a ghostly apparition, she descended the steps of the back porch, with her long blond hair blowing out to the side in the cool October wind.Her maroon robe billowed away from her body revealing her slim pale figure, which was naked except for a pair of white panties.Even her smile had a ghostlike quality — it creased across her mouth, but stopped at her eyes, which still looked strangely hollow.Oblivious to the cold, she walked across her back yard toward the barn.She opened the gate and stepped inside the pen.The haunted smile still on her face, she walked toward Chelsea, who was slowly approaching from the barn.As they drew close together, Chelsea snorted and shook her head as if in recognition.“Chelsea,” the apparition said dreamily, reaching out to touch the horse’s velvety nose.Just before her hand reached Chelsea’s nose, Sharon was struck on the left side of her head by a blow that completely severed her head from her body.Chapter 3Awake in the NightJames awoke and sat straight up in bed, “Oh my God!”Angie stirred beside him and asked, “You okay, James?”“Sure, Honey,” James answered.“Just a cramp in my leg.”“You sure?” Angie asked sleepily, without raising her head from the pillow.James knew she wasn’t one-hundred percent awake.“Yeah, it’s better now.”“M’kay," Angie muttered.She went right back to her deep slumber.At first, James wanted to call the sheriff’s office and get them to tell Greg to call him, but if he called Greg while he was on duty, James would end up having to tell his story to Sheriff Oates.If Sharon Perrett was dead, how would he answer questions as to how he knew so much about her death? Greg knew about James’ visions, but he was sure that just about anyone else would lock him up in a small padded cell if he told them he was some sort of psychic.Or worse yet, they might try to pin him for Sharon’s murder.James decided to wait until Greg went off duty at six in the morning.James lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours.Finally he realized there was no way he was going to get any sleep, so he got out of bed and went into the living room to watch television.* * *Early the next morning Sharon’s cousin, Sarah Infante, who lived two miles away, in one of only three other houses on the dirt road, drove out to Sharon’s house to check on her.She knocked on the door, but received no answer.Fearing her eccentric, and now severely distraught, cousin may have taken her own life, Sarah quickly drove home and called the sheriff’s office.She was told that an officer would be out immediately.Sarah then drove back to Sharon’s house and waited.About seven minutes after Sarah returned, a county patrol car pulled in the driveway and parked behind her car - good reaction time considering the distance covered, but not fast enough in Sarah’s opinion.She wouldn’t have been satisfied if the patrol car had been waiting in the driveway when she returned to Sharon’s house.Deputy Darren Woolford stepped out of the patrol car, and Sarah, who had been sitting on the hood of her car, chain smoking cigarettes as fast as she could get them out of her purse and to her mouth, walked briskly over and met him halfway.Tossing a cigarette butt to the ground, Sarah fumbled with her pack trying to get another out with her trembling hands.Before Darren could ask a single question, Sarah started chattering answers.“I’m Sharon’s cousin, Sarah.Sarah Infante.After what happened yesterday I promised her aunt, my mother, Nelda Wiggins, that I would check up on her this morning on my way to work.I got here around six-thirty.She didn’t answer the door when I knocked.I tried the door but it’s locked.God, I hope she’s okay.I mean, I hope she hasn’t done anything stupid.That horse was her life you know.It was all she had.Momma is worried sick about her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]