Chapter 3THE CLOCK READ 3:00 when the ringing began.
Braden bolted straight up in bed. That’s how loud it was.
His first thought: Where am I?
His second thought: Fire!
He jumped out of bed and raced out of the room. When he saw Ali standing by the bar, he jumped. He’d forgotten they’d come here together. To visit Mom and Leon for Father’s Day.
The pieces were falling into place.
The phone. The coffin phone. On the bar. In the moonlight filtering in through the basement window. That’s what Ali was looking at.
The ringing sound... it wasn’t a fire alarm. That clanging metal noise was coming from the antique telephone.
“What did you do?” Braden asked over the mind-numbing clatter.
“Nothing,” Ali replied.
“Did you plug it in?”
“Plug it in to what?”
Braden’s brain struggled.
