Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain Read Free Book Online Page A

you, Marcus?” Laurel asked. “You’re a mess.
    Are you okay?”
    “Fine,” I said. “But I’d like Andy to tell me why he’s a hero.”
    There was no place to sit, so I leaned against the side of
    Laurel’s chair, hands in my pockets. Andy jumped into the
    story with a zeal that made me forget my anger at Laurel for
    not calling me. He was suddenly a storyteller.
    Laurel glanced up at me as Andy spun his tale. Our eyes
    locked for about half a second. She was quick to look away.
    Andy was on a roll. “So, I clumb out the—”
    “Climbed, sweetie.” Laurel stroked her thumb over his hand.

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    “I climbed out the boy’s room window and onto the metal
    box with Emily and then went back in and got everyone else
    to follow me out.”
    “Unreal,” I said. “Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.”
    “Who’s that?” Andy asked.
    “The Pied Piper is a man from a fairy tale, Andy,” Laurel
    said. “Children followed him. That’s what Uncle Marcus
    meant. You were like the Pied Piper because the children
    followed you.”
    “I thought it was rats that followed him,” Maggie said.
    I groaned.“Never mind. It was a bad analogy to begin with.”
    Laurel looked at her watch, then stood up. “Can I talk with
    you a minute?” she asked.
    I leaned toward Andy, my hands on the sides of his head as
    I planted a kiss on his forehead. Breathed in that stench of fire
    I never wanted to smell on him again. “See you later, Andy,” I
    said.
    I had to run to catch up with Laurel outside the room. She
    was a jogger—a vitamin-chomping health nut—and she didn’t
    walk as much as dart. Now she turned toward me, arms
    folded—her customary posture when talking with me. That
    was the way I usually pictured her in my mind—arms across
    her chest like a shield.
    “Why the hell didn’t you call me?” I asked.
    “Everything happened so fast,” she said. “And look. Keith
    Weston’s here somewhere.”
    Whoa. “Keith was at the lock-in, too?”
    She nodded. “He was airlifted. Sara left the fire about the
    same time I did, but I haven’t seen her.”
    “Come on.” I started walking toward the reception desk.

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    “An ATF agent was here talking to Andy,” Laurel said.
    “Good.” They were moving fast. That’s how I liked it.
    “He said three people were killed. Do you know who?”
    “No clue.” I knew she was scared Keith was one of them.
    So was I. I touched her back with the flat of my palm. “There
    were plenty of injuries, I know that much.”
    We’d reached the desk, but the clerk was too overwhelmed
    to be bothered. I stopped a guy in blue scrubs heading toward
    the treatment area.
    “Can we find out the condition of one of the fire victims?”
    I asked after identifying myself. “Keith Weston?”
    “Sure,” he said, like he had nothing better to do. He disappeared down a hallway.
    I looked at Laurel. “Is this for real?” I nodded toward the
    treatment room. “He led other kids out?”
    “Unbelievable, isn’t it? But the agent said it was true. I think
    it was because he didn’t think like everyone else—you know,
    heading for the front doors.”
    “And he has no fear,” I added.
    Laurel was slow to nod. Andy had plenty of fears, but she
    knew what I meant. He had no sense of danger. No real understanding of it. He was impulsive. I thought of the time he dove
    from the fishing pier to grab a hat that had blown off his head.
    The guy in scrubs came back.“He’s not here,” he said.“They
    took him straight up to UNC in Chapel Hill.”
    Laurel covered her mouth with her hand. “The burn
    center?”
    He nodded. “I talked to one of the medics. They induced a
    medical coma on the beach.”

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    “Is he going to make it?” Laurel’s hand shook. I wanted to
    hang on to my anger at her, but that trembling hand did me in.
    “That I don’t know,” the guy said. “Sorry.” His beeper
    sounded from his waistband, and he spun