A Penny for Your Thoughts Read Free

prank. There’s this thing I’ve read about--some kind of caller ID spoof--where people can buy a phone card and put in whatever originating number they want.” She heard him clear his throat. “I wonder if that’s what happened. It can’t be my phone. I have it in my hands. And I sure as heck didn’t call to threaten you.”
    Penny swallowed a moment of skepticism. She’d known Tim for five years. He wasn’t capable of this type of call...even as a joke. His dry sense of humor bordered on irreverent, but never cruel. 
    “Penny. Are you... I mean, are you all right?”
    Penny heard that certain note in his voice, a note many therapists had--a quiet search for an unspoken truth.
    “Do you mean...have I recovered?” Penny choked down the familiar wave of nausea. “No, not yet. I’m not ready to come back, Tim.”
    “I understand, Penny. Take your time. Your job is waiting for you. We’ve got your clients farmed out to the other therapists. Everyone seems to be doing okay although they say they miss you.”
    Penny tried to chuckle. “I miss them too,” she said, although she felt certain that she lacked the strength of character--the stability--necessary for the job. After all, she’d turned her back on them and run for the hills...or the beach.
    “Well, listen, I’ve got to get going. I’ve got a client who’s been waiting for me for ten minutes...and he’s hovering around my door, but I want you to call the police. Now! Do you hear me?”
    Penny shook her head and shuddered. “I’ve had enough of police, Tim. I can’t face them anymore.”
    “That’s your misplaced guilt talking, Penny. I don’t think the police blamed you in the least. You kept Jerry on the phone as long as possible. You know very well if a person wants to take their own life, they’re going to do it.”
    Penny slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle an unexpected sob.
    “Call the police. Where are you?”
    “I’m still in Gulf Shores, Alabama,” she mumbled. “At the beach.”
    “Which beach? Maybe you shouldn’t return to your place right now. You’re staying in a condominium, right?”
    Penny jerked. “What? My condo? Why not?”
    “Because this guy took the time to call you. He knows something about you...and me. Maybe it’s a prank, maybe not. I don’t think you should take the chance. Take this seriously, Penny. Call the police!”
    “Okay!” she said irritably. “Okay! I will.”
    “And call me and let me know what they say. Because if you don’t call them, I will.”
    “Yes, Tim.” Penny hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment. What was she supposed to do? Call 911? As terrifying as the phone call had been, it hardly seemed like an emergency. Maybe she should just go down to the police precinct.
    Penny stuffed her cell phone in her pocket, grabbed her tiny chair and folded it up. The sun had settled on the horizon, glowing bright orange as it lingered there momentarily before disappearing for the day. A purple-blue haze descended over the once sunny beach, and Penny shivered as the temperature dropped dramatically. February on the Gulf Coast was proving to be colder than she’d imagined. She trotted back to her condominium and made a beeline for her car in the open air parking lot on the ground floor. Tim’s words of warning left her more uneasy than ever, and she opted to go down to the police station before returning upstairs. Maybe she could coax them to send over a patrol to check out her apartment before she went in. Did they do that sort of thing? Or was that just something she’d seen in movies?
    Penny dragged her keys out of the pocket of her shorts and unlocked the trunk of her small white hybrid. She dropped the chair in, closed the trunk and hurried to the driver’s side door, unable to stop herself from looking over her shoulder.
    She reminded herself that the call had come from Michigan. As she pulled out of her parking lot and headed down the highway toward the police station,