Found by Harlan Coben Read Free Book Online Page A

Donkey. I was his protector.
    And I had failed him.
    It was no use. I started sobbing.
    Spoon said, “Mickey?”
    “I’m so sorry,” I said through the sobs. “I’m so sorry.”
    “For what?”
    I just shook my head and held on to him.
    “For what?” Spoon asked again. “You didn’t shoot me, did you?”
    “No.”
    “I didn’t think so. So what are you sorry about?”
    I let him go. I checked his face to see if he was just playing with me, but he looked genuinely baffled.
    “It’s still my fault,” I said.
    Spoon frowned. “How on earth do you figure that?”
    “Are you serious?”
    “As a heart attack,” Spoon said. He started laughing. “Man, I always wanted to use that line. Serious as a heart attack, except it really isn’t funny, I mean, not in here. Mr. Costo down the hall, he had a heart attack. That’s why he’s in the hospital. I met his wife. Nice lady. She went to elementary school with Tippi Hedren. You know, the old actress? From
The Birds
? Isn’t that something?”
    I just looked at him. He smiled again.
    “It’s okay, Mickey.”
    I shook my head. “I got you involved in all this.”
    Spoon pushed the glasses up his nose. “Really?”
    I looked at Ema. She shrugged. I turned back to Spoon. “Are you putting me on?”
    “No,” Spoon said. “And no offense, Mickey, but you’re kinda sounding full of yourself.”
    “What?”
    Spoon’s eyes met mine. “You’re not that powerful, Mickey. You didn’t make me do anything. I made my own choices. I’m my own man.” He looked at Ema and winked. “That’s why the ladies dig me, am I right?”
    Ema rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me punch you.”
    Spoon laughed at that. I just stood there.
    “You weren’t the only one the Bat Lady chose,” Spoon said. “Sure, you’re our leader, I guess. But we’re a team. We are all a part of Abeona—you, me, Ema. Rachel too. Can we walk away from it? Well, I can’t. I mean, I really can’t. My legs aren’t working right now. But even if they were, I don’t think I could. And that has nothing to do with you, Mickey. You’re not to blame.”
    “Wow,” I said.
    “What?”
    “You’re kind of making sense.”
    Spoon arched an eyebrow. “I’m a constant surprise.” Another wink for Ema. “Another reason the ladies dig me.”
    Ema made a fist and showed it to him. Spoon howled with laughter. When he finished, he spread his arms and said, “So?”
    “So?” I repeated.
    “So why do you think I told my dad I had to see you? We rescue kids. That doesn’t stop because I got hurt. So who do we need to rescue now?”
    “Just rest,” I said. “You need to concentrate on getting better.”
    Spoon frowned at me and looked toward Ema.
    “A guy I met in a chat room,” Ema said to him.
    “A boyfriend?” Spoon asked.
    “Sort of.”
    Spoon shook his head. “I get shot and you’re already on to a new guy?”
    “I will hurt you,” Ema said.
    Spoon pushed the glasses back up his nose again. “Tell me about him,” he said.
    So she did. Spoon nodded. He never showed doubt. He never judged. He just listened. It made me wonder who indeed was the leader of this group. Ema was just finishing up when a nurse came in and told us it was time to leave.
    “I have my laptop,” Spoon said. “I’ll get us everything I can on this Jared Lowell.”

CHAPTER 9
    I decided to walk home because I needed to see something.
    I cut across Northfield Avenue and tried to clear my head. I made a right on the next corner. I had a destination in mind, even if, in a sense, it no longer existed.
    Bat Lady’s house.
    I know that I shouldn’t refer to her as that anymore. The Bat Lady was the name the town kids had given to the creepy, crazy old lady who lives in the creepy, crazy old house, the one that children whispered about and made up stories about and even genuinely feared.
    The Bat Lady was not crazy. Or maybe she was, but either way, she was not what any of those kids ever imagined. In a way, the