CHAPTER
24
For I don’t know how long, all I could do was stare in abject horror. My heart drumming painfully in my throat, I rushed to the water’s edge, but then stopped and stripped off my coat, socks and boots and rolled up my jeans before splashing into the cold pond. Totally fixated on my goal, I barely noticed the water temperature. “Dear God, please make him be alive!” My feet sank in the mud and the water was up to my thighs by the time I grasped the door handle. Rigid with fear, my breath ragged, I tried to prepare myself for the worst—the sickening vision of Duane’s lifeless body.
Gingerly, I peered through the half-open driver’s side window. Aided by multiple lightning flashes I saw no one inside and exhaled a slow, shuddery breath. While immensely relieved that he hadn
