Silent Night 3(34)

“Grant, it’s awful about Liza. But she’s dead.” Reva grabbed his arms and gave him a little shake. “I’m the one who needs you now!”

“Liza needed me, and I wasn’t there.” Suddenly furious, Grant glared at her. “Don’t you get it? I wasn’t there!”

“So be here for me!” Reva told him.

“I can’t! I feel too guilty.” The anger disappeared from Grant’s voice, and he lowered his gaze again. “Too guilty,” he muttered. “Too empty.”

Reva stared at him in disgust. “I don’t believe this. I came to you for sympathy, and all you can do is whine about how guilty you feel!”

“Reva, I—”

“Oh, forget it!” Reva cried. “If you’re going to fall apart, do it somewhere else.”

Spinning away from him, Reva hurried off, leaving Grant alone in the middle of the hall. What a wimp! she thought. Boo-hooing about how guilty he feels when I’m having such an awful time.

Disgusted and angry, Reva strode out to the parking lot. She’d go home and take a hot bath and try to forget this horrible day ever happened.

As she turned the Miata onto Division Street, a dark-colored car pulled away from the curb and began driving behind her.

The light at the corner flashed to yellow. Reva pressed the gas pedal so she wouldn’t get caught at the red.

A horn honked loudly. Reva glanced in the mirror again. The dark car had shot through the red light and was right behind her again.

Reva gripped the steering wheel nervously. Was she being followed?

You’re being paranoid, she told herself. Or are you? There have been two murders, both very close to you. Why shouldn’t you worry?

They might be coming after you, too!

You could be next!

Reva checked the mirror. The dark car was still on her tail. Another car was coming up on her right. She let it pull ahead. Then she twisted the wheel and swerved into the right lane. Screeched around a corner and zipped down a sidestreet.

Breathless, she glanced up at the mirror.

The dark car was nowhere in sight.

Relieved, Reva drove on. She took a roundabout way home, checking her mirror every few seconds until she finally pulled into her driveway.

Frightened and edgy, she hurried inside and up the stairs. I’ll call Daddy before I take that bath, she decided. Maybe the police have caught a suspect by now. If they haven’t, I’ll tell him about the car following me.

As Reva passed the guest room, she heard Grace’s voice cry out. “Rory, you have to stop calling me! I’m begging you, just go home and leave me alone! What? No! Listen, Rory . . .”

Reva kept walking. I absolutely have to get rid of that girl. Things are bad enough without her and her psycho boyfriend around!

In her room, Reva shrugged out of her coat and let it fall to the floor. Then she headed straight for the phone to call her father.

Please tell me the police have caught somebody! she thought. If they have, then this whole nightmare will be over!

She sat tensely on the bed and picked up the phone.

Grace’s frantic voice came over the line. “Rory, please don’t say that! Please, just stop threatening me!”

Reva frowned. But as she started to lower the phone, a second voice came on the line. “The time is eleven forty-five and twenty seconds,” it said. “The temperature is thirty degrees. Need a wake-up call? Dial 555-W-A-K-E!”

Huh? Reva scowled at the phone. What’s going on?

Why is Grace talking to the weather line?

“No, Rory!” Grace’s voice cried. “You can’t keep following me like this! It’s over, don’t you understand?”

Then came the recorded voice again. “The time is eleven forty-five and forty seconds. The temperature—”

Grace’s voice broke in, pleading desperately. “Leave me alone, Rory! Leave me alone! Stop calling me!”

As the time and temperature repeated and repeated.





Chapter 22





“REVA—GET HELP!”


As the voice announced the temperature again, Reva slowly hung up.

She stared at the telephone, her heart pounding.

Grace had been faking that call to Rory.

But why? It didn’t make any sense! Grace hated Rory. Why would she pretend to talk to him when he wasn’t there?

Reva frowned as a new thought occurred to her.

Had Rory ever called? Had Grace been faking everything? The calls, the threats, the black eye?

No, she couldn’t have, Reva told herself. Grace wouldn’t give herself a black eye!

Would she?

I don’t know Grace that well, Reva thought. We’ve been roommates for three months. But what do I really know about her, except that she’s kind of shy and mousy? And that her ex-boyfriend beat her up?