Dying Light by Kory M. Shrum Page B

Gloria.
    “ So does this place have a
back door too?”
    “ Yes.” She leans out of
her chair and pulls open the curtain, revealing a bridge stretching
over a canal. She points at the shadows beneath the bridge. “I have
a boat under there.”
    “ Good to know.”
    “ We can jump from this
window if we need to.”
    “ Are you trying to break
your other leg and mine too?”
    “ Parachute
jump.”
    I blink at her. She stands and
demonstrates. “Put your legs together like this and bend into the
knees. It distributes the impact evenly. Most of the
time.”
    “ How can you do that with
your cast?”
    “ I’ll manage.”
    “ Or destroy your knee.” I
raise my voice so Nikki can hear me over the clank of pans. “Do you
know how to parachute jump?”
    Nikki who’s got a pot of water on the
stove, ripping open the box of macaroni, pauses. “Unfortunately.”
She fishes out the packet of powdered cheese and dumps the noodles
into the water. Sometimes I’m amazed at how useful Nikki is, how
functional. If Jesse were here, she’d be pacing the room or lying
across the sofa whining dramatically.
    I wish she was here. What is she doing
right now? Is she frightened? Does she have Winston? Is she in
pain?
    I scoot my chair closer to Gloria.
“You said you know where Jesse is.”
    Blue shadows dance across her face,
projected by the computer in front of her.
    “ She’s here.” Gloria turns
the laptop toward me.
    Here is in the middle of Lake Michigan, about half a mile from
shore.
    “ Oh my god.” I grab the
screen and adjust the angle. “They killed her and dumped her body
in the lake?”
    I imagine Jesse wrapped in chains and
thrown into the icy water to die over and over and over
again.
    “ No.” Gloria pulls her
computer away. “She’s in The Needle.”
    It was described as a modern marvel on
our city tour. Jesse had absolutely hated being on that bus with
all the Asian tourists taking pictures of the buildings.
    Why do they have to take
pictures of everything? It’s just a Coca-Cola can.
    I enjoyed learning a little more about
the city. It was a nice activity, incredibly normal, and for one
afternoon it was just us. We got coffee and when I got too cold,
Jesse wrapped her arms around me and tucked me into her coat,
insisting I warm my hands in her pockets.
    She was very sweet that
day.
    “ So Caldwell owns the
building?” Nikki grins at me triumphantly. “You owe me
$5.”
    “ I’ll pay you
later.”
    Gloria frowns.
    “ I bet it was Oprah’s.” I
shrug. “She seems like the type to want an impenetrable fortress
suspended over water. Don’t you think? Caldwell has so many other
properties in town, I just assumed he wouldn’t need
another.”
    “ It was a good guess,”
Nikki says.
    I lean over and peer at the screen.
“How are you following her?”
    “ I implanted a tracker
when we were still at Tate Tower, when I yanked out her
IV.”
    She’s very good. I hadn’t even seen
her do it.
    I lean back in my seat. “What inspired
you to tag her?”
    Gloria frowns and suddenly looks very
old. The skin under her eyes is puffy and unflattering. More lines
than I’ve ever noticed before bisect her forehead and surround her
mouth.
    “ When he took her before,
we wasted too much time looking for her. As soon as I knew he’d
contacted her on the roof, I wanted to prepare for
this.”
    Nikki opens and closes several
cabinets, making a whole lot of noise.
    “ What are you looking
for?” I ask, turning in my seat.
    “ A strainer.”
    “ I don’t have one.”
Gloria’s full attention has returned to the screen.
    Nikki closes the cabinet door. “That’s
okay. I’ll make do. You have a can opener though, right? If not, I
might have a multitool in my bag.”
    “ Drawer to the right of
the stove.”
    I reach out and touch Gloria’s hand,
forcing her to look away from the computer and meet my eyes. “How
are we going to get her out of The Needle? The tour guide said it
was surrounded by rocks that