B004U2USMY EBOK (41 page)

The answer made no sense. Ten below and he
was walking through the snow in expensive leather shoes and
pressed pants. To have a look around? Her heart was still thumping
and she just nodded.

She made to turn Chad around, but the man
stopped her. “No, don’t turn him. I want you to tell me, first.”

So Rosa repeated what she’d told him on the
phone earlier that day, how Chad could blink answers to her
questions. “And to think that everyone here thinks he’s retarded.”

“Who else knows?”

“Just you and Dr. Pardo. He’ll hurt me if he
finds out I told you. I know he will. In spite of everything he’s
done to…help me.”

The man just nodded, and this surprised her.
Surely, he’d be upset or show
some
emotion. Instead, he
looked thoughtful and eyed Rosa in a way that made her squirm.
Maybe he didn’t believe her. Rosa reached into the pocket of her
scrubs and pulled out a small flashlight. “Here, let me show you.”

The man took her wrist with a strong grip.
“That won’t be necessary.”

The grip hurt. “What are you doing? Let go.”

And then she saw something in his other hand
and her apprehension turned to fear. It looked like a police
officer’s baton, but with two prongs on the end.

“Sorry, Rosa,” he said. “Sorry you got
involved. Pardo shouldn’t have brought you here. I told him that.
It was a big mistake.”

She turned toward the building, but he jabbed
the baton into her side. An electric jolt sizzled through her
body. She dropped to the ground, muscles convulsing. Her body
writhed. She remembered Chad in his bed, every muscle straining
and the silent grimace on his face.

Only Rosa wasn’t silent. She screamed, and
when the electricity began to tingle out the ends of her toes and
fingers and her scalp, she screamed again.

Another jolt, and this time her attacker was
on top of her in the snow. He took duct tape from the pocket of
his coat and taped her mouth, wrapping it around her head several
times. When he finished and she could no longer scream, barely
breathe, even, through the snow choking her nostrils, he started
on her hands.

As he did, he spoke soothing words, as if
talking to a child. “I didn’t mean this to happen. You never
should’ve got involved with Pardo.”

He climbed off her, then jabbed her again
with the electric prod, and again after he lifted her to her feet.
Her legs dropped out from under her, but he grabbed her and kept
her from falling. Chad still sat in his wheelchair a few feet
away, wearing nothing but pajamas and a thin blanket. Rosa
couldn’t feel the cold through the burn and tingle of electric
shocks.

The man gave her one last jolt, then tucked
the stick in his belt and lifted Rosa over his shoulder with a
grunt. He made his way toward the gate.

“I
am
sorry,” he repeated. “I hope
you know that.”

-end-