Chapter 1 - The Answering Call
Clara pressed her trembling thumb against the green button on the cracked screen.
She slowly lifted the phone to her ear while the entire cemetery watched in stunned silence.
Lawrence Cobb stepped forward with a panicked look in his eyes.
He tried to snatch the phone away, but Clara turned her back to him.
She held the device tightly against her face and waited for a voice.
“Leonard is awake,” a deep, unfamiliar man’s voice whispered through the speaker.
Clara felt her heart stop for a fraction of a second.
“Where is my son?” she demanded, her voice echoing across the silent graves.
Before the man on the other end could answer, Veronica lunged forward.
Her daughter-in-law slammed into Clara, knocking the phone out of her hand.
The device hit a gravestone and shattered into dozens of jagged pieces.
Veronica fell to her knees, sobbing hysterically into her hands.
“You ruined everything, Clara,” Veronica screamed.
Lawrence grabbed Clara by the arm with a grip like cold steel.
“You are having a grief-induced breakdown, Clara,” Lawrence said loudly for the crowd to hear.
He signaled to the two men in dark suits who had been checking their watches earlier.
The men stepped forward and flanked Clara, completely blocking her view of the open casket.
“Take her to my car so she can calm down,” Lawrence ordered them.
Clara tried to pull away, but the men were far too strong.
As they dragged her backward, she looked down at the spilled contents of Veronica’s purse on the grass.
Right next to a tube of lipstick, there was a heavy brass key with a leather tag attached to it.
The tag had the name of a notorious private psychiatric facility located outside the city limits.
Clara kicked her heel backward into the shin of the man holding her right arm.
He cursed and loosened his grip just enough for her to break free.
May you like
She dove into the grass and snatched the brass key before anyone could stop her.
When she looked up, she saw Lawrence reaching inside his suit jacket for something metallic and dark.
