Page 43 of Head Room
He laid them beside her other belongings on the floor, then rocked back on his heels.She sensed his eyes studying her, but she kept her head bowed, her face impassive.
“She wrote that note, warning us,” the tall one said quietly as if speaking only to himself.
But the others heard.
“What?”
“You’re crazy, Ransom.”
“Her?”
“We don’t even know if she can write.”
“Write?Hell, she can’t even talk.”
She could talk, she thought fiercely, she’d just learned the dangers of talking.
“You wrote the note, didn’t you, Maggie?”
The tall one’s soft voice, came as a seduction in her ear, trying to draw her out—oh, there could be danger in softness as well as cruelty.No, she wouldn’t be lured out.
She’d found safety, and she would stay here.
****
What note?
I flipped back on the device, checking the pages.No previous mention of a note, except that question in the part markedNotes.No pages missing.
It would have been less frustrating if a page or two had burned up.
Maybe if I read on, the note would appear again.Or—.
I shifted in bed and my phone’s home screen came to life.
Way past time to go to sleep.
I eyed what I’d read and what I still had to read.Not even staying up all night would get it done.
DAY TWO
SUNDAY
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Wardell Yardley presentedme with a conundrum.
He provided an update on Colonel Crawford.
“The report on your colonel is — well, I wouldn’t say squeaky clean, because that sounds too wimpy for this guy.Not going to bother you with the official bio, because you’ve already gotten that yourself.Let’s say—” His pause said what came next would be the truth.“—he’s the real deal.”
Calling from the Eastern to the Mountain time zone, he woke me up to deliver it.
And he enjoyed that.
Did I thank him or tell him what I really thought?
Option One.
