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Chapter 26

Dude,

I swear ood But I vastly overestimated Laura&039;s state of s could deteriorate And when Tina started having trouble sending and receiving e-mails, I honestly didn&039;t etting ahead offroiving the charitable organizations where she could send the devil worshippers, and soon there were Satanists all over thein Meals on Wheels

I ado intopeople always put es, needed me as much as any patient It&039;s just too daon

Tina came and went, always on her own schedule, and I knew better than to ask her what she was up to Mostly because it was none of my business, but also because she was as closed-mouthed about her work as I was about mine

There had been a bad crack-up on I-35-no fatalities, thank God-so I didn&039;t get hoht for the kitchen (I had finally gone grocery shopping, so there was actual food in the fridge), where I found Tina sitting at the counter with her laptop, ," she said, not looking up

"Everything okay?"

"Mht, I see"

Ah Right I had found it prudent to change out of ot home-or, even better, before I left the hospital It didn&039;t matter if the blood on me was ten minutes old or ten hours They could always s myself a tuna sandhile Tina pecked away at her laptop She see okay?"

"H &039;s fine I&039;nal My e-"

"So call"

"I have"

"Oh You don&039;t think anything&039;s wrong, do you?"

"I&039;m sure they&039;re fine"

I believed her But I also kneas bugging her Tina lived for Betsy and Sinclair, the waycars or ot antsy Not unlike a drug addict going through withdrawal, to be perfectly blunt

"Betsy answered my e-mail," I volunteered It was a typical Betsy missive: bitchy and shrill She really hated e-mail acronyms The woo "I&039;m sure she&039;s already won over the olves and they&039;re so like it&039;s 1999"

Tina slapped the laptop closed and sht Now, if you&039;ll excuse o out"

To hunt And feed She was too polite to say so, of course But I sure as hell wasn&039;t going to stand in her way A grury ones were even worse

"Heck," I called after her, "they&039;ve probably declared it National Betsy Day out on Cape Cod You know she can win over just about anybody"

Yes, dude, I know In retrospect that was beyond ignorant But hoas I supposed to know they were going to kill her?