Race Against Time by Christy Barritt Read Free Book Online Page A

a few minutes. I can’t afford to take many days off of work. I need to start rescheduling some of my appointments that I missed yesterday and today.”
    “You going to be okay going back inside by yourself?” His gaze searched hers.
    Madison nodded, though she didn’t feel as confident. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
    She waited until Brody had torn down the plywood on the front of her home before she ventured inside and down the hallway. Her breathing became shallow with each step she took. The door to her bedroom remained closed and she left it that way. That was the one room in her home that she wasn’t prepared to face yet.
    Instead she slipped into her office. Sensory images began hitting her, first of the knife at her throat, then the sound of the man’s gravelly voice as he’d forced her in here and made her write that suicide note. She’d done so, afraid of upsetting him, hoping maybe she’d buy some time and figure out a way of getting out of the situation. No such luck. She’d only delayed the inevitable.
    If it hadn’t been for Brody…
    She shook her head and gripped the edge of the desk. She couldn’t let herself think like that. But obviously God did want her alive for a reason. He had a plan and purpose for her life. Her time wasn’t up yet. She’d do her best to ensure it remained that way.
    But if the killer had his way, would he remedy that? Would he play God again and try to end her life? Shivers racked her body.
    Focus, Madison. Focus.
    With shaking hands she opened her appointment book and stared at the sessions she’d missed yesterday. If she wanted to pay her bills this month, she would need to reschedule those appointments for tomorrow. She had two family-portrait sessions, baseball-team pictures for a local high school and a store opening for the newspaper. Today she’d had scheduled some headshots at a dance studio, pictures of a foster family for the newspaper and even a few properties she’d agreed to photograph for a real-estate agency.
    Her favorite thing to take pictures of was the bay outside her window. But she found taking pictures of people paid better. Nature wasn’t as picky about its pictures. People were. It didn’t cooperate or complain or try to tell her how to set up the shot. Because she had to make money, she let her clients have the final say most of the time. After all, the customer was always right. But one day she had dreams of taking pictures of nature—God’s handiwork—that she could frame and sell at local galleries. But until that dream became a reality, she only had time to take pictures that guaranteed money. If that’s what it took to provide for her family, then that’s what she’d do.
    Sure, Reid had had life insurance. He and Madison had purchased it at the ripe old age of twenty-three. Back then they’d assumed they were both going to live forever. They’d taken out a policy that had ultimately allowed her to pay for the funeral, pay off her student loans and the remainder of her car. Certainly if they could have looked into the future, they would have planned better. But they hadn’t and what was done was done. The church was kind enough to give her a discounted rate on Lincoln’s preschool. Without that answered prayer, Madison didn’t know how she would manage to work. Childcare was so expensive. Her parents had offered to move back up here and help her out, but Madison knew that she had to learn to stand on her own two feet. She couldn’t ask her parents to give up their lives in order to help her. The idea had been tempting, however.
    In the distance, she heard Brody hammering away. Hearing a man work in her home felt odd. Reid had been the handyman in the family, the one who could fix anything she needed. Since he’d died, her house didn’t quite look the same. Sure, she’d learned to hang pictures halfway straight and centered, and even to change hard-to-reach light bulbs without electrocuting herself. She’d even bought a new