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

me to him and laughed in delight. “I knew you were my girl!” “I need to tell you the truth, Joseph,” I said as I went to sit on a nearby bench. He sat down next to me and nodded. “The man who left me in the orphanage gave the nuns a false name when he dropped me off. I think you should know who I really am before this goes any further.” “Maggie….” “No,” I shook my head and put my fingers on his lips. “I need you to know the truth.” He nodded and kissed my fingers. “My name is really Kerrigan Margaret Grady. My parents were murdered when I was seven and the man who is stalking me now may be the man who murdered them.” Joseph whistled and I nodded. “It changes things…” “It changes nothing, Maggie,” Joseph broke in firmly. “I love you, Sweetness; no matter what your real name is. And I am going to keep you safe from this maniac. I promise you that.” “We’d better get these results back to the house,” I said as we strolled back to his car many long and happy moments later. I froze as we saw the damage that had been done while we were in the Science Building. Someone had sprayed ‘He can’t protect you’ all over the vehicle. Joseph called for a tow truck and called my office to have someone come get me. “Why is he doing this, Joseph? I wasn’t there when my parents were killed. It makes no sense!” “This man is not right in the head, Maggie,” Joseph said. He saw his deputy pulling up and made the man wait with them until Maxine arrived with Simon. “You take care of my girl,” he said to Maxine. He kissed me and left with his deputy ribbing him. “It’s about time, Maggie,” Maxine smiled as I got into her car. “He’s only been after you for eight years.” “What can I say?” I shrugged and willed her to stop. “I was blind. Simon,” I addressed the man seated behind us, “Doctor Norman was an attending physician on a lot of the cases involving the Grady family deaths. He is involved in all of this somehow.” “I’ll look into it, Maggie,” Simon nodded and got out his cell to make the information request regarding the background of Doctor Norman. “There was some information that wasn’t included in the internet file,” I said a few minutes later. “Do you think we could stop at the library, Maxie? I’d like to see if I can find it there.” Maxine took the next left and we headed up the hill to the Briarton Public Library. I went to the Archives section and the lanky red-haired man who worked that section smiled as I appeared at the door. As usual, his glasses were hanging at the end of his nose and he was on the computer. Charles Novak was a former classmate. We had spent a lot of time together: Charles, Bradley, and I, the class brains, and Joseph the football star, had all been inseparable in school. “I hear Muscles finally landed you, Sweetness,” he said as he let me in. “You certain about that?” “He’s a good man, Brain,” I said to him, wondering why he was scowling about it. He used to sit with me for hours while I babbled about Joseph. “He has been waiting for me for eight years. I can at least see if something might work, don’t you think?” “Just be careful, Sweetness,” Charles said as he left me to explore. “If you need my help…” “I’ll sing,” I finished the phrase and smiled. He returned my smile with a bit more hesitation than normal and I shook my head. I knew he wasn’t talking about the Archives. I moved to the year the Grady murders had happened and found the date and took the box with me to a table in back. I had been disturbed that no photographs had appeared of the victims or their daughter in the police file. That had not seemed right, and I realized where the photo in the first care package had to have come from. I found the first report and there was a photo of the family; my family. It wasn’t that photo that interested me. According to the police file, someone had taken a photo of the mysterious ‘man in black’ that night. I was hoping it had leaked to the internet and been placed in the files. I was disappointed when it wasn’t there. I returned the box to its place and froze as the lights went out. “Brain?” I called out as I felt my way along the stacks. “Did you forget I was back here?” He didn’t answer and I felt my blood turn to ice. I grabbed my purse and pulled out my cell phone as I headed for the Emergency Exit. “Maxine?” I whispered as she answered. “I’m in the Archives. The lights are out here and Brain isn’t answering me. What should I do?” I heard someone moving nearby and turned. “Brain? Is that you?” “Your friend can’t talk right now, precious,” the man who had been taunting me for the past week laughed. The figure moved into my sight and I backed away. “Hang up the phone, Kerrigan. It’s time for you to come home.” “Leave me alone!” I whimpered as I continued backing away from him. He kept coming so I threw my purse at him. He batted it aside and I saw it hit the table and rest there. “Why are you doing this to me? I can’t hurt you.” “Hang up the phone, Kerrigan,” the man repeated as he backed me into the corner. “You won’t need it where we’re going.” Someone moved up behind him and he whirled to face him. As they struggled, the second man’s hood fell back and I shook my head in denial. It wasn’t him! It couldn’t be him. “No…” I sobbed as the world spun around me as confused as I was. “Not you! It couldn’t be you!” The phone slipped from my hand and I followed it to the floor. My hand hit the camera function as it hit the phone and the two men jumped back, cursing as the light blinded them. Then the lights came back up and my attacker whirled and struck my would-be rescuer. “No one is keeping you from me, Kerrigan,” my attacker said as he hefted me over his shoulder and headed for the emergency entrance. “It’s time for you to come home. “No!” Brain hissed and brought the book in his hands down on the man’s head. He pulled me up as the man fell and carried me back towards the main doors. He did not see the attacker get up but he found himself flying towards the wall and his head being slammed into the surface repeatedly. He slipped down the wall with a groan. “You are more trouble than you’re worth, boy,” the man snarled and brought out the rope. He started to strangle Brain and had to give up before he was through as he heard other people arriving. He looked over to where I was lying. “I will be back, little girl,” he said as he stroked my cheek. “You can count on it.” I came awake to the murmur of voices. People were talking around me as if they did not want to disturb me. I knew I was in the hospital before I had even opened my eyes. I felt something in my nostrils and I tried to remove it with an irritated sound. I saw Maxine get to her feet and come over to kiss me on the forehead. She had been crying and I was frightened. She made me leave the oxygen feed alone. “It’s helping you, dear,” she said as she straightened the plugs and put my hands down. “Leave it alone.” “I’m not dying, am I?” I asked in a soft whisper. I was so tired. “Is Brain all right?” I asked her. “He hates the dark.” She choked and turned away and Cheryl took her place. “Brain?” “The man who attacked you strangled him,” Cheryl told me the truth as she laid her hand on mine. “He was without air for several moments, Maggie. He may have suffered some brain damage. They’re still checking him out.” “No,” I sobbed as this news felt like my fault. “There was no reason to do that. Brain would have been paralyzed just by the lights going out.” I looked for my purse and my phone and I couldn’t see them. “Cheryl, I need my purse. There’s something in there I need you to see.” “We didn’t find your purse, Maggie,” James said as he came to stand by Cheryl. He pulled up a chair. “Maxine and Simon heard the conversation you had with your attacker and the man who stopped him. You know the second man, don’t you?” “I know him?” I looked at him in confusion. “I never saw his face, James. I blacked out when he went after my attacker.” I could see he thought I was lying and I wondered why. I had never lied to him. “That’s all I can remember.” “Shock will do that,” Doctor Norman said as he entered the room and pushed everyone aside. “We should be glad that she can remember anything after what she’s been put through.” He moved over to the other side of the bed when Joseph refused to let go of my hand and I finally noticed I was hooked up to a monitor. I didn’t know how I could have missed the beeping sound. He hit a print button and a tape came out of the machine. He looked it over and frowned. “What’s wrong?” I asked him as I caught his concern. I saw that same concern on every face in the room. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” “I wasn’t lying when I said you had a heart ailment, Maggie,” Dr. Norman said as he took the chair next to the bed and held my hand. He smiled briefly and I squeezed his hand weakly. He nodded. “Agent Kellogg found your medical records in the boxes at the mansion. You were born with a heart defect and your parents were getting the money together for the surgery that would have repaired it. But they were taken from you before that surgery could be performed and you were left with the defect.” He saw my worry. “Your quiet nature has kept anyone from realizing you had a problem until recently when this stress and your tendency to overwork aggravated the condition.” “Why did Dr. Abrams give me arsenic, Dr. Norman?” I asked him weakly. “Is that the normal treatment for someone with a damaged heart?” “Arsenic?” Norman looked at the FBI agents and then me. “I don’t understand. How did she get arsenic tablets?” “They were in the vial the Pharmacist gave me, sir,” Joseph said. He gripped my hand tightly. “Maggie had one tested when they were making her feel weak and sickly.” “Dr. Abrams wouldn’t have prescribed arsenic,” Norman frowned. He pulled out his handheld and checked the date and the prescription logs. He went pale. “Someone switched the order numbers around,” he cursed and called the Security Office. The Chief came running and he showed him the handheld. “Find out how this happened, Martin. Now!” “Yes, sir!” “I assure you, child,” Norman said as he turned back from the door. “Abrams would never prescribe a poison for a young woman who is already in a weakened physical state. Whoever did that was looking to hurt you.” He looked at me seriously. “I had been the Grady family physician for most of my career. When Ruth came to me a few months with a photograph of her brother and his ‘friend’, I