Page 133 of Forever Dark
“Get to the motel as fast as you can.Call in extra units.I’m not far.Do you know the room number?”
“No, sorry, Connor called ahead to ask the motel.”
“Get moving, Arnold!”
Silence on the other end for half a heartbeat.
Then Arnold said, “On it!”
Selena floored the accelerator.
The engine whined.The speedometer climbed.Trees and mailboxes and open pasture started slipping by too fast to register as separate things.She drove one-handed for a few seconds, using the other to snatch the radio up again.
“Connor, if you can hear me, answer now.”
Static hissed back.
No voice.
No curse.
No irritated demand to know why she was screaming into the radio.
Nothing.
That was what frightened her.The thought of something terrible happening to Connor sparked something inside of her.An ember she had long thought extinguished.The thought of him ending up like one of the victims turned her stomach with worry.
She hit the motel turnoff harder than she should have.Tires spit dust.The Rest and Be Thankful sign flashed by in peeling blue paint and buzzing neon.Selena jammed the car into the lot, braked hard, and the nose dipped so sharply her shoulder belt locked for a second across her chest.
Rows of faded blue doors.
Two work trucks.
A soda machine humming under the awning.
No idea which room Pruitt was in.
“Damn it.”
The front office sat twenty yards away with lace curtains and a hanging plastic CLOSED sign.She ran over and banged on the door.No reply.
Her gaze swept the lot and landed on his SUV.
Parked near the far end.
Close to Rooms 8–12.
Good enough.She’d start there.
She drew her gun, held it low alongside her leg, and moved fast along the concrete walkway, boots thudding in clipped beats.
Room 8.
Curtains open.TV on inside.A woman looking at her strangely.
Room 9.Empty.
Room 10.A family.
