Just Me - M J Marlow (reading strategies book .txt) 📗

in my heels and he lost his balance. He slapped me as I kept screaming for help but I would not stop. I could hear people coming to help me and I was not going to let this man take me. “This isn’t over, precious,” the man whispered as he leaned in close. “You will be mine. That is your fate.” I screamed as his hands clamped around my throat and began to tighten. “I’ll be back for you, Kerrigan,” he whispered in my ear. “You can count on that!” I blacked out then as the panic overwhelmed my mind and I collapsed to the forest floor. Someone touched me and I screamed and struck out blindly. Then I heard a familiar voice and I opened my eyes and saw Joseph. I threw my arms around him, sobbing in relief. He helped me up and let me cling to him until I felt calmer. I heard the others moving out to try to find my attacker. “I never saw his face,” I told them when we got back to my home and were sitting in the kitchen. I was holding a glass of whiskey between my hands and Joseph was rubbing my shoulders, frowning darkly. “He was all in black and he was wearing a hood over his face. I shivered. “He had to be wearing colored contacts because his eyes were glowing red. No one’s eyes glow red.” I put my hand up to my throat. “He said I was promised to him and he would be back for me.” “He’s not getting near you again, Maggie,” Joseph said tightly. He looked at the others. “I need to get to work.” He made me look at him and I saw his concern and his anguish. “Please be careful, Maggie. I’d die if anything happened to you.” I sat there frozen in shock as he left the house. He really cared about me. That expression had left nothing open for interpretation. How could I not have known he felt like that about me, though? I jumped as Cheryl put her arms around me from behind. “You feel up to your meeting with the chemistry professor?” she asked me as a way to get my mind back on track. “We want to make just the right impression.” Bradley! I looked at the clock and saw it was only ten a.m. I nodded. I should be all right by two p.m. I followed Cheryl upstairs and she made me take a shower. She had my robe and slippers and pajamas in a bag. I did not question why. There might be evidence there that would help James and his people find that man. She pulled out a camera and took a picture of my bruised throat and wrists. “So tell me how things are between you and the Sheriff,” Cheryl said to take my mind off of the attack. I told her about last night and she laughed. “He actually got in James’ face?” I nodded. “Brave man, your Joseph.” “He tried to apologize this morning,” I answered her, as I got dressed. “I was too angry to listen.” “Is that why you were out in the woods?” Cheryl asked. I nodded and she looked at me understandingly. “Men can be such idiots sometimes.” She laid her hand on my arm as my lips started to quiver. “Don’t worry, Maggie. We’re not going to let this man near you again. Why don’t you lie down for a while and try to relax.” She nodded to the rocking chair. “I’ll be right over there if you need me.” I did as she suggested, but I could not seem to relax. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw red glowing eyes and felt my air being choked off. I finally was forced to give up. I went down to my office and put my mind to work on the case, hoping that would help me forget. Instead, it was all brought back to me as I read the witness reports and saw the phrase ‘man in black’ repeated with chilling frequency. My phone rang and I picked it up without thinking. “You shouldn’t be looking into that, little girl,” his voice hit my ear and sent a chill down my spine. “They hid you so you would never have to know.” “What?” I demanded of the man. “What did they not want me to know?” “Can’t you guess, little girl?” he laughed coldly. “Your real name, and your real family, of course.” I shook my head in denial as he taunted me. I knew I should hang up, but my hand seemed glued to the receiver and my body would not move. “Ask your lover. He knows the truth. Everyone knows but you.” “Maggie…” James walked in and saw me sitting behind my desk frozen with the receiver to my ear. He pulled it free. “Leave her alone, you bastard or I will kill you!” He slammed the receiver down and the noise broke the spell I was under. I looked at him in anguish and he reached out to touch my cheek. I shook my head and backed away from him. “Maggie, honey…” “No,” I shook my head as I backed into the corner. “He – he said you knew the truth. You know why this man is stalking me, James. What is it?” “Maggie, please…” “I’m not listening to you, James,” I said coldly, putting my hands to my ears. “You’re lying to me!” He came towards me slowly and I looked around for something to fend him off with. I picked up the swimming trophy I had won when I was sixteen and gripped it tight. “Leave me alone, James Kerrigan Kellogg, or I will hurt you! I swear I will.” He sank back on the desk and began to laugh. I could not believe he would actually think this was funny. I was certainly not amused. I looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Somehow his amusement broke through my anger and panic. I felt my grip relaxing on the statue and realized I was fighting the wrong person. I set the statue down and sank down on the floor with a sigh. Someone was stalking me and I was taking his word for it that James was the one lying to me? How pathetic was that? When James came to sit down next to me I did not argue. He put his arms around me and I leaned against him and drank in the comfort he was offering me. I was asleep in moments. “That was all she needed,” Cheryl smiled as she came in to see what was up now that the storm was over. “Was that her stalker?” “He is taunting her now, Cheryl,” James said. “He told her I knew who she really was.” “But he didn’t tell her,” Cheryl nodded. “Damn him! How can anyone be so sick as to do such a horrid thing to these girls? Is it on tape?” “Yes,” James nodded as he stroked my hair while I slept. “Maxine insisted that Maggie keep all her conversations recorded. Seems Maxine has a very poor memory.” “Our Maxine?” Cheryl laughed. “Sharp old bird.” She looked at me. “She’d probably be more comfortable in her bed, James…” “Leave her be,” James broke in. “She’s just fine where she is.” He shifted his position slightly and I whimpered in protest. “Poor kid. She’s had a hard time of it.” “At least this time we’re in a position to help this one,” Robert spoke from the doorway. He shook his head as he saw the trusting way I was leaning against James in my sleep. “You always did have a way about you, Kellogg.” “You came in here for a reason, Rob?” “Sheriff North called,” the man said softly so he would not wake me. “One of his deputies called him en route to his office with a report of a late model sedan, black with tinted windows, racing along the forest road just south of where Miss Grady was attacked. The license was covered in mud.” He frowned. “The car was found abandoned at a rest area twenty miles south of town. His deputy was out cold nearby. I’ve asked him to bring us a copy of the report once he’s through with it.” He smiled as my eyes started to open. “Feeling better for the nap, Miss Grady?” I looked up at him and saw where I was. I blushed and got up to my feet so fast that I stumbled. James caught me and he felt me stiffen. I was still hearing the man’s lies in my head and I was having a hard time fighting it. There was something these people were not telling me and I needed to know what it was before this went any further. “I want to know what you’re really doing here,” I said as I looked from James to Cheryl and on to Robert. “If you don’t tell me, I am going to ask you to leave.” “Sit down, Maggie,” James said in a voice that had me obeying him. He looked at the others and they nodded. “We are an FBI task force,” he said simply. I nodded, accepting this could be true since he had already told me he was with the FBI. He relaxed. “We have been tracking a man who has been targeting former residents of the Holy Angels Orphanage over the past year.” “He’s been doing this to others?” I asked him. He shook his head. It didn’t make me feel any better. In fact, it made me angry. “He’s been telling them he knows who they really are and then what?” James hesitated. “This is my life being disrupted, I need to know.” “He gets them to meet him alone,” Robert said when James wouldn’t, “and tortures them, Miss Grady.” He saw me go white but he would not stop. “Then he…” “That’s enough!” James snapped as he saw me go white. “We’re not going to let that happen to you, Maggie. You believe me, don’t you?” “I want to believe you,” I said as I looked at him. I fell silent for a few minutes. “Why the Grady case?” “What?” “You could have asked me to research anything,” I said to him. “Why the Grady case?” He didn’t answer and I had a thought. “You think this is the man who murdered my parents?” Each of them nodded and I choked. “He’s looking for me, isn’t he? He’s going after the girls because he’s looking for me; Kerrigan Grady.” I knew then where we had to be looking. I went to the files my adopted father had taken from the orphanage and hidden in the closet. I had found them after he had died and begun compiling the information into a computer file as backup. I pulled out a box and pulled out the folder. “There were ten girls around my same age at about the time I came in.” I saw the list of the other girls who had arrived within three months of when I did. “Where did you get these records, Maggie?” James asked as he looked through the box. “The nuns told us they were lost.” “Uncle Craig asked them to say that,” I said. “I never asked why he wanted them. I put them on the computer recently, so these are just the paper files.” They looked worried. “He was a good man and he cared about me. He saw to it that I had a good home and a good education and that I never had to worry about my future.” I suddenly went pale. “He said he owed it to me.” “About Mr. Craig, Maggie…” “I need some air,” I stammered as I backed away from the box and left the office. I couldn’t let myself question