Page 31 (1/2)

Chapter 1

The telephone rang, unnaturally loud and shrill in the darkened room – and I felt my nerves screw taut as I stared down at the desk

The phone rang again I watched it, sitting frozen in the big leather chair The sound of the double note seeent and insistent inuntil at last I leaned forward reluctantly and reached out for it

The sound stopped abruptly asover the receiver I leaned back, relieved

A few minutes later Mrs Hortez appeared ti her hands on the tails of her apron She knocked on the open door and ducked her head into the gloomy office

“It was her again, Mr Noble,” Mrs Hortez said in broken English, her voice alers of one hand “That five times so far today”

I nodded The leather chair creaked as I shifted ht I propped an elbow on the arers grazed across the unshaven stubble that bristled my cheeks

“Thank you, Mrs Hortez,” I said quietly “Did you tell her that I was unavailable?”

“Si,” Mrs Hortez nodded heavily, like she was soirl, Mr Noble She no believe me”

The silence drew out I said nothing After hosted fro the door quietly closed behind her

I sat alone in the dark Outsidelow over the distant hts like pinpricks in the night Scuddingaway the loom

My eyes drifted back over the darkening shapes of yptian deity, Horus I closed my eyes and sat back wearily in the chair

Dust to dust…

Leticia Fall would make it as a journalist – of that I had no doubt She had the raw talent, and she had the persistence to hunt down a story lead and pursue it with the tenacity of a bloodhound given the scent

Today she had phoned five times Yesterday it had been the same Even over the weekend she had made repeated calls to the house

I had avoided her for teeks, but I knew I could not avoid her forever

It had been exactly forty-one days since I had sent her away – al, and watched her walk, crushed and broken, to her car… watched her drive out of my life

Not a minute passed that I didn’t think of her; recall the brilliant, disar flash of her smile, or the innocent beauty of her features, or the quizzical way she tilted her head and watchedmy story

Not a minute passed where the pain in my chest and the ache in le me

So

Would that line be my epitaph?

I mused darkly Would that noble sentiment be the words carved into my headstone – the phrase the world would remember me by?

I ed in the back of lass

I didn’t want to be gallant

I wanted to live

Nobility, honor… how h the price I had paid?

The phone rang again, the sound jarring in the tomb-like darkness of the office My hand reached out for it instinctively – I snatched it away at the last instance as though scalded

Abruptly the sound was cut off

I waited

Mrs Hortez knocked on the office door then pushed it open a few inches, looking harried and sounding out of breath

I sighed “Was it Leticia Fall again?”

Mrs Hortez shook her head She looked disturbed “No, it is someone else He sound important”

She gestured with her head that I should pick up the extension My hand stretched out slowly

“This is Jonah Noble”

There was the sound of round and above it all a ravelly and somber I was suddenly overwhele of the desk

“Mr Noble, this is the Ha about an employee of yours named Travis Dickson”

Tiny – my driver My best friend

I felt an ice-cold fist of dread deep in o, and loomy room became suddenly dark My hands became hot and clammy The blood drained away from my face and an icy sweat broke out across my forehead I leaned forward in the chair with a sudden sense of foreboding and jaainst my ear

“I regret to tell you, Mr Noble, that Travis was fatally injured in a car accident an hour ago He was rushed by paramedics to the hospital, but passed away soon after on the operating table”

A loud roar – a surging, pounding rush of noise seemed to hiss in my ears The shock of it , and I felt the searing sting of tears well up in my eyes

“Can you tell me how it happened?” I choked the words out

There was a brief pause “It appears as though the car that Travis was driving went off the road on a bend,” the ”

“Was anyone else hurt?”

“No The authorities still do not know if there were any other vehicles that ht have been involved in the incident”

I clung tightly to the receiver feeling the blood drain froers and knuckles I felt my entire world tilt off its axis

“Thank you for calling,” I said numbly “I will come to the hospital”

I threw the phone down It clattered across the desk The clenching fist in my chest uncoiled like a serpent and wrapped itself aroundblade that ripped at my very soul

Tiny – the one man I trusted Tiny – the one man who had been a loyal friend for so many years, was dead

An unbidden iination It ca on detail until it was so real, so true that I blinked in disbelief I tried to hold that picture into it and keep it alive, but it drifted and then faded away as a dark shutter flickered over my vision