Read Online Before He Finds Her by Michael Kardos - Free Book Online Page A

accident? A cheap feel? In the span of seconds, the whole place had turned sinister.
    On the next loop she spotted Phillip again—he had moved off to the side, near where she’d be exiting—and she shouted, “Stop the ride!” just as it began to slow. The attendant started letting people out of the cars beneath her, but the process was maddening: one car, then another, then another. Finally, hers. She ran down the ramp and nearly collided into Phillip.
    “Did you see that man?” she asked.
    “Who?”
    She grabbed Phillip’s arm and tugged him in the direction the man had gone. “He was watching me. He took my picture. We have to find him.” As they ran, she described him: thin, older, gray facial hair, faded blue jeans. They move in and around the crowd, which had swelled from just a few minutes earlier. There were too many people. They’d never find him. He was already gone.
    Then, remarkably, there he was: over by the game where you threw Wiffle balls into colored cups to win prizes. His camera was out again.
    “Why did you take my picture?” Melanie asked, breathless.
    The man turned to face her. “I did?” He studied her face. “Oh—the Ferris wheel.” He stuck out his hand. “Manny Simpson, Mason City Democrat .”
    “You work for the newspaper?”
    “Of course.” He nodded to his camera. “I’m taking pictures for tomorrow’s paper.”
    She was momentarily relieved. Who had she thought this man was? She’d been reading too many Hardy Boys novels. But her relief lasted only a moment. “You can’t put my picture in the paper.”
    “You looked lovely up there—so happy. And with that flower in your hair...”
    She reached up to where she had put the dandelion behind her ear, but it must have fallen out during her rush across the carnival grounds. “You can’t use it.”
    “She doesn’t like being photographed,” Phillip said.
    “I’m taking hundreds of photos, and the paper will probably only use two or three, so it’s highly unlikely—”
    “You can’t, though,” Melanie said. “You have to promise.”
    “All right. I’ll make a note of it. No lovely girl on the Ferris wheel.” He smiled and turned away.
    Still feeling uneasy, and no longer hungry, Melanie said to Phillip, “I want to leave.”
    “Are you sure?”
    She didn’t want to disappoint him. This was supposed to be their day out. Their day together. “I’m sure,” she said.
    They walked away from the carnival, back toward Phillip’s house, neither of them talking. Finally, he said, “What about my own camera. I’m just curious. Would you ever let me take a picture of you?”
    She thought about it. “No.”
    “Don’t you trust me?”
    “It isn’t a matter of trust.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “If I didn’t want you to photograph me naked, would you understand that? Even if you never planned to share the photo with anyone else?”
    “Sure,” he said.
    “Then just think of me as naked all the time.” She didn’t like her own response—too flippant for the occasion—and she stopped walking. “Okay, I don’t like having to say this, but I will. I need you to protect me. Not like a policeman or a parent. I’m not a helpless child. But I’m also not some typical college freshman. I spend every minute of every day looking over my shoulder. It isn’t a joke.”
    “I get that,” he said, rubbing her arm. “It’s just that it was all so long ago—”
    His touch felt good, but she needed him to understand. “You’ve been dealing with this for less than a day. I’ve been dealing with it for fifteen years.” The sun had moved out from behind some clouds and was heating up the ground. Before long, the day would probably be as oppressive as yesterday. They started walking again. “Forget it,” she said. “We can talk about it some other time.”
    “All right.” He put his arm around her. “But I can handle it. I really can.”
    These were reassuring words that raised her spirits until