Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense - By Hallie Ephron Page 0,68

or dark.”

Diana turned her back to him. It wasn’t until she went to dial that she realized her hands were shaking. She brought up recently placed calls, found Pam’s number, and hit send. She waited through the message telling her that she had fifty-three minutes left in the prepaid account.

Pam picked up on the second ring. “Diana!” she said. Diana felt a rush of relief that Pam had recognized her number. “Where on earth—”

“Hey, Ashley,” Diana said, cutting her off. “It’s me.”

There was dead silence on the other end. Diana pretended she was listening. As if in response, she said, “Yeah, well, I got to Mill Village and I thought he wasn’t there but it turns out he was.”

“Mill Village? Where the hell is that?” Pam whispered. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m not,” she said, keeping her voice upbeat, hoping that Pam would tune out the emotion and hear the words. “Right. Staying with some old friends.”

“Online friends?” Pam asked.

Diana laughed. “Yes, and no.” She waited through a few beats of silence. “No, don’t bother to pick up groceries for me this week. I could be here awhile.” She laughed again. “Yeah, yeah, I’m taking notes and photos, twenty-four/seven, proof that I left the house.”

“What do you want me to do?” Pam said. “Should I try and find you?”

“I’ll let you know.”

Jake gestured to her from the doorway to speed it up.

Diana raised her index finger, threw a couple of “uh-huhs” into the phone. Then: “Tomorrow morning, I’ll be in touch. And, Ashley, Pam said she’d call. Could you two talk so I don’t have to call her too? I’ve gotta go now. We’ll talk soon.”

“Tomorrow,” Pam said. “I’ll reach Ashley.”

Diana hid a smile and disconnected the call.

“Did it sound as if she bought it?” Daniel said, coming out to her.

“Of course she bought it.” Diana tried to keep her voice even as she tucked the cell phone into her pocket.

“Mission accomplished,” Daniel said. “Are we still allowed to say that?” She let him wrap her in his arms. “You’re as amazing as ever.”

She rested her head on his shoulder and for a moment let him support her weary body. She’d forgotten how good this felt. Despite his betrayal, she still ached for him.

“You know, there’s one thing about this that bothers me,” he said, pulling away.

“Right.” She slipped the cell phone from her pocket and looked up at him. “This?”

“GPS signals. They can be tracked.”

She looked down at the phone, possibly her last link to the outside world. “But if Ashley tries to call . . .”

“She won’t. I faked my own death. How hard will it be to fake yours as well?”

She gave him a long look, like she was making up her mind. Only she was thinking how easy he thought it would be for her to let her sister think she was dead—after all, it had been no big deal for him to let Diana think he’d died.

“Do you trust me?” she asked. She’d learned about trust from Daniel. Trusting was the first and most essential step—you couldn’t get betrayed if you didn’t take it. “Actions speak, right?”

She dropped the cell phone on the floor, and ground it with her boot heel until the case cracked. Then she unlatched one of the windows in the corridor wall and held it open.

Daniel picked up the broken phone and smiled at her. He glanced past her at Jake, who was standing in the doorway to the silo. “I told you she’d be cool,” he said. Then he reared back and tossed the phone out the window.

Diana watched it arc across the cloud-streaked sky and disappear. A few seconds later there was a splash as it landed in the reservoir.

Later that night, Diana was alone with Daniel, back in the makeshift bedroom. She was ready to stop trying to stay awake. “I’m exhausted. You’re not, are you?”

Daniel shrugged. She remembered now how he’d never seemed to run down the way normal people did. He could go flat out, wired and crackling with energy, for literally days on end. Then, practically midsentence, he’d collapse into the sleep of the dead.

“You still pull all-nighters?” she asked.

“Sure. You used to be able to do it too. All the time.”

Jake had picked up pizzas for dinner. Once upon a time, she could’ve put away an entire pie. Now, after just two slices, the pepperoni started to taste like salted wax and the cheese felt as if it were hardening into a layer of