I suppose I should feel something, Keenan thought, as she studied the shaded face of the driver. But I can’t. How could anyone I relate to your special brand of hell?
Her gaze drifted up the granite cliff that bordered the creek. Two hundred feet above, the car had toppled off the embankment.
Keenan shifted her weight, adjusting her black blouse around the 9 mm handgun she had tucked in her belt. Her right hand traveled to the ragged tear at her bare left shoulder, where he had ripped her blouse less than a half an hour ago. Her clothes told the story of their physical conflict: mud caked the knees of her jeans, her shoes were filthy, and both her hands were streaked with her own blood, which oozed from a cut over her right eye.
She glanced back at the upside-down body, suspended in its seat belt.
As she shone the flashlight through the window, she reached for the butt of her gun. Had the mix of light and shadow fooled her eyes – or had the head actually moved? Yes, it had. There it was again.
“God, please no,” Keenan said aloud, as she stared. She yanked the 9 mm gun from her belt and rose to her feet.
Wading into the water of the creek bed, she crept forward with the light trained on the window. It would be like you to come back one more time, wouldn’t it?
She was two yards away when the head once again twitched to the side.
Keenan flinched, took aim and nearly pulled the trigger, but restrained herself – the last thing she wanted was a bullet hole in the body.
Flanking the window, she lowered the weapon, and realized that the head movement had simply been due to gravity settling the weight of the corpse.
The revulsion and trauma of the ordeal had fully settled into her. Her eyes welled as, like scenes from a tragic movie, the memories came. God Damn you, she thought. Of all people, why did you choose me? Why me?
Rainer Rey
| A sample of my new novel. My four others are currently on the market, published by Turner Publishing of New York/Nashville – titles: Cosmosis, The Find, Replicator Run and Day Of The Dove, please see more on my website rainerrey.com |