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there was a difference. Her mouth was slack and her tongue protruded. The perpetually pasty face was bloated and discolored. |
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"What the hell is going on here?" Madden fumed. |
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"That's the way we found her," Kelto protested. |
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B.C. raced across the room and threw her arms around my neck. She was shivering and crying. Her words were racked out by sobs. |
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Consolation has never been my long suit. It's not that I don't feel compassion; it's just that I'm not very good at expressing it. Besides, in this case, there wasn't much to do but hold on, and B.C. was doing that. I patted her on the back and mumbled something inane like "everything will be all right." |
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Kelto was equally shaken. His haunting brown eyes darted from Madden to me and back to the lifeless form of the old woman. He was frantically searching through the maze of pockets in his tattered old fatigue jacket. |
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"I heard from the Emissary," he blurted out. "I've got his note here somewhere." Finally his trembling hand emerged with a crumpled piece of paper which he shoved at me. |
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It was a piece of waterlined graph paper, torn in half and carelessly folded. It said simply: |
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