21 Dares: A Florida Suspense Mystery (23 page)

Abbie
disconnected the call and stared at the cracked screen. She willed Clinton Reed
to call her back. Mentally, she commanded her phone to ring. It didn’t.

Abbie
sighed and thumbed through the photos. The screen cracks felt sharp against her
thumb, and she slowed the swipe as she found the pic. She stood in line with a
group of boys. Charlie Hicks looked almost camouflaged in the background. Abbie
studied every detail.

A
thousand questions flooded her mind. How could it be the policeman who rescued
her when she was a little girl? After all these years, what did he want? Why
was he waiting on the rooftop? Was he warning her about Dr. Wachowski? McKenzie
had been talking to the doctor. Rocky had been seeing him too.

Almost
as if in response, her cell phone chirped. Abbie opened the text message and
the color drained from her face.

Abbie
looked at the caller ID. It was a new phone number. This message wasn’t from
Dr. Wachowski’s number. Abbie stared at the area code. She pressed the redial.
Waited for an answer.
The phone rang. It rang again.

An
automated voicemail came on the line. “You’ve reached Hicks Investigations. This
is Charlie Hicks and I am unable to take your call at the moment. Please
leave—”

Abbie
ended the call.
That proved it.
Hicks was
sending the text messages. But what was Dr.
Wachowski’s involvement?
Her thumb barely left the screen when the phone
chirped with another text message.

Abbie responded with a
text.

She waited for a
response.
 
After a moment, she typed a
new message.

Still
no response.
Frustrated, Abbie tried again.

She
sent the message and another was returned.

Abbie
put down her phone and rose from the couch. She looked out the dark hospital
windows. There were cars parked along the circular drive. An ambulance headed
toward the emergency entrance. But she saw nothing unusual. No sign of Charlie
Hicks.

Frustrated,
she returned to the couch and grabbed her phone.

She
sent the message, waited for a reply. When none came, she typed again.

Still no response.
She sighed, looked up,
then back at her phone. She typed a new message.

She
sent the message and waited. Her phone chirped. She read the new text message.

Abbie
licked her lips and dropped her phone into her purse. She rose from the stiff
couch and made her way out the double doors. They swooshed behind her. She
hesitated in front of the hospital entrance.

She
couldn’t see the ambulance, but its lights lit the trees in rotating flashes of
orange and yellow. There was no one else around.