Mark Edward Hall

Chapter 15

The rain shower passed quickly. The air felt crisper and cooler than before. Doug, still restless, strolled along the paths of the estate, determined that there was some mystery here that he could not see, some important clue that might shed light on the reasons he and Annie had been so suddenly wrenched from their quiet lives and propelled headlong into the world of high power, brutal murder and abject uncertainty.

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Chapter 14

Annie stood at the window hugging the rag doll from her childhood to her bosom, watching Doug make his way up from the beach. She saw him stop in the garden among the life-size figures of David, the Thinker and so many others of her father’s fancy. For a moment Doug looked as if he belonged there with them, forever frozen in some weird and classical time warp.

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Chapter 13

He stood on the beach alone, breathing raggedly after his run, hands on knees, feeling a terrible weight in his heart. The calm blue surface of the Gulf of Mexico spread out before him, a wilderness he wished he could get lost in. Tiny swells lapped earnestly at the shore. On the western horizon huge thunderheads bruised the sky. Doug bent down and picked up a smooth flat stone, angrily throwing it, skipping it along the surface of the calm sea.

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