Читать книгу The Unthinkable - Lois A. Schaffer - Страница 13

Chapter

1

“What the hell is going on here?”

Those were the last words Rachel heard her mother, Susie, say. They were talking on their cell phones. At first, Rachel heard rumbling, then cracking sounds. “Weird,” she thought. Then the connection was lost. Rachel redialed her mother’s cell phone. No ring. She tried again, but still nothing. Then she dialed her mother’s home phone. It rang, and then all she heard was her mother’s outgoing message on the answering machine.

Twenty-three-year-old Rachel was a practicing paralegal at a New York City law firm. Her mother lived in St. Louis and owned a newly opened exercise and fitness studio. Mother and daughter were chatting about their lives, respective work, and the weather. A major snowstorm had crossed the nation, resulting in frigid temperatures. Power outages and losses in electricity and heat were prevalent.

Rachel dialed her mother’s cell phone again. No ring. She redialed the home phone. Again, she just heard the outgoing message. No one answered—not her seventeen-year-old brother, Daniel, not her sixteen-year-old sister, Sarah, and not her mother.

“Strange,” Rachel said aloud to Stephanie, one of her coworkers.

“What’s strange?” Stephanie asked.

“I was talking to my mom, and all of a sudden her cell phone conked out.”

“Hmm, maybe it’s due to the storm. I heard that many phone lines have been knocked out.”

“Yeah, must be,” she said. “But I heard things that didn’t sound normal. I think I heard rumbling and then like a cracking sound. Then I thought I heard my mother say, ‘What the hell’s going on here?’ as she was talking to me. Then her phone went dead.”

“Why don’t you try calling her again?”

“I did—several times.”

“Try again.”

Rachel redialed her mother’s cell phone. Still no ring. She tried the home phone once more. Again, all she heard was the outgoing telephone message.