Stirred by Blake Crouch, J.A. Konrath Read Free Book Online Page A

spare time he’d studied the writings of people who had died hundreds of years ago.
    Still, it was his life. Marquette had lived it as best as he could. Made some mistakes, had a few regrets, but there were still things he wanted to do. Stand in a castle in Scotland. Swim with dolphins. And though it was cliché, he’d always planned to get around to skydiving someday.
    But now, all he wanted was to see his family. One last time.
    “Can I call my wife?” His lower lip quivered, the tears starting to come. “Tell her goodbye?”
    “No.”
    Siders parked near Adler Planetarium and killed the engine. The sun coming through the windshield made it tough to see anything.
    “There is some good news here,” Siders said.
    “What?”
    “All those scary-looking tools you saw back there? That’s postmortem entertainment.”
    “What are you talking about?” He was having a hard time following, his thoughts coming at him in fractured streams of fear and sorrow and regret.
    “You’re getting off easy is what I’m saying. See this?” Siders held up a cheap-looking paperback book with a garish cover. The title was The Killer and His Weapon . “The girl on the bridge? She became intimately familiar with another book by the same author. Ever read him?”
    Marquette squinted at the writer’s name. “Andrew Z. Thomas? No, no I haven’t.”
    Siders smiled. “Trust me. This one will really get under your skin. Look here.”
    Marquette looked at the man’s other hand, saw he was holding a syringe.
    “What’s that?”
    “One hundred milliequivalents of potassium chloride. It’s the final stage of state-sponsored lethal injections.”
    Marquette looked at the needle. At the clear liquid in the cylindrical tube.
    “What does it do?” he asked.
    “Stops your heart.”
    “How long does it…” He couldn’t get the words out.
    “To die? Between two and ten minutes.”
    “Does it hurt?”
    “I’m not going to lie to you. Having your heart stop hurts. But not nearly as much as what’s behind the black curtain.”
    This conversation had gone from surreal to positively insane. “Will…will I be conscious after my heart stops?”
    “I don’t know, brother. That’s part of the mystery of what lies beyond, that you’re on the verge of knowing. It’s kind of exciting, actually.”
    Marquette looked out over the harbor, the skyline standing indistinct in the haze.
    “I’m not ready,” he said.
    His heart beating so fast.
    “No one’s ever ready,” the man said. “I could’ve done this anywhere, you know. Figured you loved this city. That you’d want to go sitting back, staring at the skyline across the water.”
    “I haven’t talked to my daughter in two years. A stupid fight.”
    “Most fights are.”
    “Do you…have family?”
    “Not for a long, long time.”
    “I need to apologize to her.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay?”
    Marquette turned away from the window.
    “I’ll let you call her.”
    “You’re serious?”
    The man pulled an iPhone out of an inner pocket in his jacket, glanced at it. “Sure, we’ve still got a little time. And a friend of mine once told me that murder shouldn’t be without its little courtesies. What’s her number?”
    “Oh, thank you. Thank you.” He had to think for a moment, years since he’d dialed it.
    As the man punched it in, he prayed for the first time in ages.
    Prayed her number hadn’t changed. Prayed she’d answer.
    The man held up the iPhone screen, her number displayed.
    “You understand what the purpose of this call is not , correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “If you try to save yourself, give away our location, anything like that…”
    “I understand. Completely.”
    The man pressed the green call button and handed him the phone.
    “One minute.”
    It rang.
    Twice.
    Three times.
    On the fourth, he heard his daughter’s voice, and he had to fight with every atom of his being not to break down.
    “Hello?”
    “Carly?”
    “Dad?”
    “Baby.”
    Figured she