Read Online What Doesn’t Kill Her by Max Allan Collins - Free Book Online Page B

good, girl. Healthy, even.”
    “You, too.”
    Jordan shrugged. “Stepped up the workouts a little, but what’s your excuse?”
    Kara yawned, stretched, fists clenched, giving Jordan a glimpse of her friend’s scarred wrists. “Haven’t been having nightmares lately.”
    “Cool.”
    “Yeah. Haven’t dreamed about my stepfather fucking me for weeks now. Just him
trying
to fuck me.”
    “Well, it’s a start.”
    “Plus, I’ve been talking to Dr. Hurst. Doubled up on the sessions. Kind of… opening up a little. You must be a good role model.”
    “A role model for opening up? Maybe not.”
    Kara lifted a lecturing forefinger. “ ‘The secret to life is not surviving the storm, but learning to dance in the rain.’ ”
    “This is the kind of bullshit Dr. Hurst is telling you?”
    Kara shook her head. “Fortune cookie. They ordered takeout for us last night, special treat. Kinda seemed like good advice. How is your rain dance goin’?”
    “If you mean me and Mr. Google, I’m mostly getting my toes stepped on.”
    “How so?”
    She told Kara about the first meeting of the group and how afterward she had added the Elkins case to the Net search mix.
    Kara frowned. “You aren’t reading up on your own case?”
    “No. That’ll come.”
    “Okay, baby steps, I get it. But look how you’re limiting yourself, honey.”
    “I just got out,” Jordan said defensively.
    “Yeah, I remember. Who sprinkled the Dimpna Dust on who, anyway? Have you talked to this Elkins dude yet?”
    “No.”
    “Well, you must know that everything the cops have on a crime like that isn’t gonna be on the web. They always hold back some shit. Like maybe they’re working on how these two family killings are linked.”
    Jordan frowned in thought. “I guess that is something they might keep back.”
    “Damn straight. So the only place you might find
out
what the cops already know is—”
    “By talking to them?”
    “The cops? Hell no!”
    “Oh.” Jordan nodded. “Elkins, you mean.”
    “Actually, there’s one other place.”
    “Yeah?”
    Kara tapped a finger on Jordan’s forehead. “
You
, sweetie. How long have we known each other? And you never talked about what happened. Granted, you were playing mime games most of the time.”
    “Mime games. Bad joke.”
    “Good advice, though. Comparing notes with Elkins? Couldn’t that maybe get you someplace?”
    “You mean… those similarities between the cases that the cops held back?”
    “Like they say in the geezer wing, bingo! Plus, it might jar some stuff loose from the back of both your brains.”
    “Huh?”
    Kara shook her head and her pink-and-blue bangs bobbed. “It’s like my therapy with Dr. Hurst. Some things that I remembered, I only
thought
I remembered. When the doc and me started digging into it, she found what she called
false memories
.”
    “Yeah?”
    “It was my mind trying to protect me from something even worse than what I remembered.”
    Jordan shook her head, once. “Believe me. I’m not doing that.”
    Kara held her hands up, and the scars showed again. “Okay, but the only way to
really
find out is to start looking at what’s going on under all that black hair.”
    Jordan’s eyes tightened. “Trust me, Kara, I know enough already.”
    “You think so? You’re probably right.”
    Jordan forced a smile as she got to her feet. “Appreciate the advice. Gotta get to group. I was late last week.”
    Kara ignored that, looking up at her, a child with an old woman’s eyes. “Why did you suddenly want to get out of here? What made you finally break your… your vow of silence?”
    Jordan pointed toward the nearest door and spoke evenly, softly, wanting no one but her friend to hear. “There’s a monster out there killing families. And if I don’t find him, and stop him, he’ll kill again and again.”
    “
You’re
gonna stop him.”
    “Yeah.”
    “You’re gonna… kill him?”
    “Oh yeah.”
    Kara studied her for the longest time.