The Collector of Dying Breaths

Chapter 38

With nothing to do in the lab, Jac was uneasy in the house. Griffin had expected to get there late that afternoon, but that left hours. Pulling on a sweater, she decided she’d get out and take a walk, maybe return to the folly, with its lovely broken stone arches and moss-covered statuary.

Jac was circling the ruin for the second time when her cell phone rang. Looking down at the LED, she saw it was Griffin and answered quickly. But the connection was bad, and she couldn’t hear most of what he said. Frustrated, she disconnected the call, then punched in his number. This connection wasn’t much better. She could only hear occasional bursts of words.

“Meeting… not conclusive. Bizarre…”

“What are you talking about?”

His answer was all the more confusing and frustrating: “And that Robbie was…”

“I can’t understand. What about Robbie?”

She only got two words back. “Tests showed…” Then more of the crackling, and the connection went dead.

Twice she tried to call back but failed. Where was he? Why couldn’t he get a signal? But more importantly, what had he been trying to tell her? Griffin had sounded concerned. Why had he mentioned Robbie?

Jac walked up the uneven steps and sat on a cracked stone bench. There were clouds in the sky, but every few seconds the sun peeked through and shone down on her, warming her. She’d thought escaping the château and the laboratory might relieve some of her free-floating anxiety, but the opposite was happening.

Jac closed her eyes and tipped her face up to the sky. She took several deep breaths. Let them out slowly. Forced herself to use the relaxation technique Malachai had taught her.

The wind blew through the trees. She still had her eyes closed, and the wind sounded like weeping. It was unnerving. Jac had known heartache, but had never known what sound someone’s heart makes when it breaks. She knew it now. She was hearing it. And it reached inside of her and pulled her out of her time and place.