Page 40 of Mason

“Okay, I’ll let you guys go to sleep. I just wanted to call and say goodnight.”

“Goodnight, baby. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“No, you stay there. I think I’m going to pass out in an empty on-call room until the roads clear out enough to travel on.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. No sense in you being the next ER victim.”

She hung up after that and set about scarfing her food. She was starved. She’d grabbed lunch around noon and hadn’t eaten since. Maybe she could sneak a snack back to her cubicle. Mrs. Grinch might be too busy to notice any kind of crinkly sounds when she sat down with her pockets stuffed full of chips and cookies.

Well, she still had thirty minutes before she had to be back, so she opened the Kindle app on her phone to try to read a little more of the book she’d downloaded last week. As much as she’d love to finish it, she tended to read it in stolen moments.

Jo settled back against the wall and let herself get lost in the fantasy world that seemed more dystopian than actual fantasy, but she didn’t care. She loved this book.

A creaking noise broke through the silence of the basement, and Jo looked up, expecting to see someone coming through the set of double doors, but there was no one. She glanced up and down the hall, but again, it was empty. Shaking her head, she went back to her book.

A few minutes passed before her phone dinged and a text message notification popped up. Thinking it was Mason, she pulled it up.

Unknown: Hey, baby, you look beautiful sitting there on the stretcher.

Her whole body tensed, and this time she studied the hallway a little more thoroughly. Was someone down here with her? There wasn’t anywhere to hide, though. It was just a corridor leading to the morgue. But how did they know she was sitting on a stretcher?

Jo: Who is this?

Unknown: Baby, I’m hurt. You know who this is.

Jo: No, I don’t, and this isn’t funny! Stop texting me.

Unknown: Did you like your flowers?

She ignored it and got up. She needed to get back upstairs where there were people. She shouldn’t have come down here by herself.

The double doors leading to the elevators and the stairs were locked. They hadn’t been locked when she came down here. The first hint of panic tried to crawl up her spine, but she pushed it down. Panicking was not the smartest thing to do right now.

Her phone dinged again.

Unknown: We need to talk, baby. I had to lock you in. I had no choice. You won’t talk to me.

Jo: Is this Ray?

He didn’t text her back.

Oh, God. Was it Ray? He wouldn’t try to scare her like this, would he? But she had refused to talk to him. She’d even blocked his number, but he knew hers. He could be calling from another phone.

Jo: Ray, why are you doing this? It’s not funny.

Unknown: Baby, I need to talk to you. You look beautiful standing there. I love you, baby.

Jo: Stop it, Ray.

Unknown: Why do you think this is Ray?

Jo paused. Wasn’t it Ray? Or was Cara right? Was it some fan gone crazy?

Jo: Because I won’t talk to Ray anymore.

Unknown: I’ll be there in a minute, baby. Just you and me. Like it’s supposed to be.