And she remembered that Julia was talking with a guy at the bar, and she'd tried to get Julia's attention but Julia wouldn't make eye contact? so Kim had gone for a walk on the beach.? And that was all she remembered.
Her cell phone had been clipped to her belt but switched off. And now she was thinking that Doug had flipped out, rage-aholic that he was – stalker that he'd become. Maybe he'd paid someone to put something into her drink.
She was getting it together now. Brain working fine.
She shouted, “ Douglas? Dougie?”
And then, as though God Himself had finally heard her calling, a cell phone rang inside the trunk.
Chapter 3
Kim held her breath and listened.
A phone rang, but it wasn't her ring tone. This was a low-pitched burr, not four bars of Weezer's “ Beverly Hills,” but if it was like most phones, it was programmed to send calls to voice mail after three rings.
She couldn't let that happen!
Where was the damned phone?
She fumbled with the blanket, ropes chafing her wrists. She reached down, pawed at the flooring, felt the lump under a flap of carpet near the edge, bumped it farther away with her clumsy? oh no!
The second ring ended, the third ring was starting, and her frenzy was sending her heart rate out of control when she grasped the phone, a thick, old-fashioned thing, clutched it with her shaking fingers, sweat slicking her wrists.
She saw the illuminated caller ID number, but there was no name, and she didn't recognize the number.
But it didn't matter who it was. Anyone would do.
Kim pushed the Send button, pressed the phone to her ear, called out hoarsely, “Hello? Hello? Who's there?”
But instead of an answer, Kim heard singing, this time Whitney Houston, “I'll al-ways love you-ou-ou” coming from the car stereo only louder and more clearly.