Distemper Read Free Page B

Whatever it was, it sent me running,
     snagging my tights on the undergrowth. I was trying to watch where I was going and look around at the same time, and it didn’t
     work; I went sprawling over a log and landed on all fours. As I scrambled back up I was sure I could hear something behind
     me but I was afraid if I looked back it would be all over. Five seconds later I was by my bike. I forced myself to wait long
     enough to turn it around before I jumped on and went barreling down the hill.
    If I’d had time to think about it, I would have realized that even if someone was chasing me, there was no way he could catch
     me on foot when I was going twenty miles an hour, but all I could think of was getting away. I was coasting faster and faster,
     the trees whipping by in a gray-brown blur, my helmet swinging lamely from the handlebars where I’d left it when I got off.
     I must have hit a rock, because the next thing I knew I was somersaulting over the handlebars. I landed with a thud, and then
     I was no use to anybody.
    What happened right after that is sort of hazy, whichthe doctor tells me is perfectly normal for someone who flew ass over teakettle ten feet in the air. I was out for a while,
     how long I don’t know, but somehow I got back on my bike and drove into town. The police station is on Spring Street, a half-hour
     ride from where I fell, and I have a very dim memory of thinking I had to get there. I know I could have just gone out to
     the road and flagged someone down, but at the time it never even occurred to me. I rode all the way to the cops, ditched my
     bike, and dragged myself inside.
    There was a uniformed officer behind a heavy plastic partition. He took one look at me and disappeared, which in my altered
     state seemed the height of rudeness until I realized he was coming through a door to my left. Later, I found out he’d taken
     me for a battered wife.
    “I need to see the police…”
    “Ma’am, what’s happened?”
    “I need to report… a murder.”
    “Let’s have you sit down.”
    “No, I don’t want to sit down.” I was swaying on my feet, and everything hurt. “Please, she’s out in the woods. Someone has
     to go get her. Don’t you understand? It’s just like the other one. I found her. I found another dead girl in the woods. Please,
     you have to go get her.”
    The cop got it instantly; after all, we don’t see a whole lot of murders around here. The previous body was hanging over everyone,
     and I was telling him there was another. “Can you wait right here?” I nodded, which was a big mistake, since it made the whole
     hallway spin and start to fade at the edges. I wanted to sit then, but I was afraid if I took a step I was only going in one
     direction, which was down. I heard a door open behind me.
    “Miss,” said a man’s voice. “I’m Detective Cody. I need to ask you a few questions.”
    I turned around to face him, and that was it. I got a glimpse of reddish hair, and the next thing I knew I was keeling over
     in a full-out faint. The last thing I remember is someone catching me before I hit the ground, and the random thought that
     whoever he was, he smelled pretty good.
    I woke up in the hospital, which was exactly where I belonged. You always see in movies where the hero gets really badly hurt
     but he has to go save the world so he refuses to stay in bed and checks himself out against the advice of his doctor. All
     I wanted to do was lie under the covers and have some male nurse bring me sugar-free Jell-O. But the first thing I heard was
     yelling from out in the hall.
    “So when
can
I see her?”
    “When she wakes up. I told you, she’s had a damn good bump on the head.”
    “Don’t you have to wake her up to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion?”
    “We’ve already ascertained that. She doesn’t. But she’s got two broken ribs, a sprained wrist, and thirty-two stitches. She
     needs her rest.”
    Jesus
, I thought,
they’d better be