Читать книгу The Dead Place - Rebecca Drake - Страница 2

Elizabeth broke into a run. The car was coming. The engine noise grew stronger, and she imagined she could feel the heat of the motor. It approached in darkness, no headlights.

No longer caring how it would look, Elizabeth punched 911 on her cell phone and continued to run while holding it to her ear. Only it didn’t ring. She looked at the screen and saw zero coverage. She was in a dead zone.

The car rumbled closer. The edge of the park was coming. All she had to do was get past it and there’d probably be reception.

The car was at her back; then it pulled alongside her, moving so slowly that she knew the driver wanted her to know that she was being watched. She kept her focus ahead of her, blinking back tears and clutching the phone like a lifeline.

The car moved past, pausing at the corner before turning left and slipping away into the night. A half block. A quarter. The perimeter of the park was a stand of soaring pine trees. All she had to do was get past them and she’d probably have coverage. But getting past them meant landing on the street where the car had turned.

Something was wrong with the streetlight on that corner. It flickered on and off, on and off. As she approached it, the light went out again. She glanced at her phone. No coverage yet.

She didn’t see the gloved hand come out of the darkness until it settled on her wrist. The phone dropped, forgotten, onto the street. She screamed once before the other hand closed over her mouth…