Six Seconds. Rick Mofina

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СКАЧАТЬ sidewalk, all began to swirl. Maggie steadied herself, placing her hand on a Star-Journal newspaper box. She raised her head to the sky in a vain effort to blink back her tears.

      “My son is all I have in this world. My husband came back from working overseas a changed man. It’s been five months now and no one’s been able to find them. I may never see them again.”

      Stacy’s phone rang. She glanced at the number then shut it off without answering.

      “I have to go.”

      “What would you do if you were me?” Maggie said. “I’ve gone to police, a lawyer, a private detective. All in vain. I have nowhere else to go. No one else to turn to. I have no family, I have no friends. I’m all alone. You were my only hope. My last hope.”

      “I’m sorry. I’m sure things will work out. I’m so sorry. I really have to go.” And with that Stacy disappeared through the doors of the Star-Journal.

      Maggie stood alone in the street, the flutter and clang of the flagpole sounding a requiem to her defeat. She returned to her car and she met a stranger in her rearview mirror. She blinked at the lines stress had carved into her face. She’d let her hair go. She’d lost weight and couldn’t remember the last time she’d smiled.

      How did her life come to this? She and Jake had been in love. They’d had a happy life. A good life. She thrust her face into her hands and sobbed until she heard a tapping on the window and she turned to see Stacy Kurtz’s face.

      Maggie lowered her window.

      “Listen.” Stacy was searching her notebook. “I’m sorry things ended that way.”

      Maggie regained a measure of composure as Stacy snapped through pages.

      “I’m not sure that this will help, but you never know.”

      Stacy copied something on a blank page then tore it out.

      “Very few people know about this woman. She doesn’t ask for money. She doesn’t advertise and when I asked to profile her, she refused. She does not want publicity.”

      Wiping at her tears, Maggie studied the name and telephone number written in blue ink.

      “What’s this?”

      “I have a detective friend who swears this woman helped the LAPD locate a murder suspect, and that she also helped the FBI find a teenager who’d vanished and, I guess, about ten years ago she helped find an abducted toddler in Europe.”

      “I don’t understand. Is she a police officer?”

      “No, she senses things, sees them in her mind and feels them.”

      “Is she a psychic?”

      “Something like that. It’s up to you whether you go to her or not. I apologize, today’s been a bad day at the paper. Please keep me posted. Bye.”

      After Stacy left, Maggie stared at the name she’d written.

      “Madame Fatima.”

      She clenched the note in her fist as if it were a lifeline.

      4

       Faust’s Fork, near Banff, Alberta, Canada

      Graham hung on to the girl.

      How long had it been? Half an hour? An hour? He didn’t know.

      The river’s force was draining his strength but he refused to let go.

      Where’s the chopper? They’ve got to see us. Come on!

      Shouting was futile. The current pummeled him, the pain was electrifying. His body went numb. He was slipping from consciousness.

      He thought of Nora, his wife. Her eyes. Her smile.

      It gave him strength.

      The river was relentless but he refused to let go. His hands were bleeding but he refused to let go, reaching deep for everything drilled into him at the training academy in Regina.

      Never give up, never quit, never surrender.

      He held on until the air began hammering above them.

      A helicopter.

      Everything blurred in the prop wash: A rescue tech descended, tethered to a hoist and basket. Graham helped position the girl into it, then watched her rise into the chopper. Then the tech returned for Graham, strapped him into a harness and raised him from the water. Mountains spun as they ascended over the river to a meadow where they put down. The techs pulled off his wet clothes, wrapped him in blankets and they lifted off.

      As rescuers worked on the girl, the helicopter charged above a rolling forest valley that cut through the mountains. In minutes they came to a clearing near a trailside hostel where several emergency vehicles waited, including a second helicopter—the red STARS air ambulance out of Calgary. Its rear clamshell doors were open. Its rotors were turning.

      “She’s not responding,” Graham heard the techs shout to the medical crew.

      Wearing their flight suits and helmets, the emergency doctor, paramedic and nurse worked quickly, administering CPR, an IV, slipping an oxygen mask over her face, transferring her to a gurney. They packaged her into the medical chopper which thundered off to a trauma hospital in Calgary.

      Graham stayed behind on the ground. He was barefoot and enshrouded in blankets as paramedics from Banff treated him for mild hypothermia and cuts to his hands and legs. Other officials watched and waited.

      “Let’s get you to the hospital in Banff for a better look,” a paramedic said.

      Graham shook his head, watching the red helicopter disappear in the east.

      “I’m fine. I want to stay with the search.”

      A park warden trotted to his pickup, dug out a set of government-issue orange coveralls—the kind firefighters wore for forest fires—woolen socks and boots, and tossed them to Graham.

      “They’re dry and should fit,” the warden said, nodding to a change room. “When you’re ready, I’ll drive you to the search center.” He shook Graham’s hand. “Bruce Dawson.”

      A few minutes later, with Graham in the passenger seat, Dawson ground through all gears as his truck rumbled along the dirt road that cut southwest through pine forests. On the way, he radioed a request to the searchers to retrieve the Mountie’s bag from his campsite, along with his badge, boots and things he’d left by the river, and bring them to the center.

      “What’s the status?” Graham asked. “Those kids didn’t come up here alone.”

      “Right, we figured on adults, too. We’ve expanded the perimeter downstream.” Dawson kept his eyes on the road, letting several moments pass before he said, “I was listening on the radio after they spotted you in the river with the girl. That’s a helluva thing you did.”

      Graham СКАЧАТЬ