Freeway Close
by
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The chloroform is wearing off. A pang of relief. He wasn't sure how much to use. He'll never forget the idiotic look on her face as she comes to. Her fantasy of stardom has more staying power than the chloroform shoved up her nose. "Hey, like, what's going on? Where are we? You said the office was in Hollywood!" He stares into her eyes to watch reality dawn, as they say. This has always been one of the best parts, when the stupid cunts figure out their expectation for whatever has gone wrong. He loves the way their eyes change from anticipation to confusion, then finally to fear that dilates the pupils and has the eyes rolling around in their sockets, searching for escape. And the violent trembling from their racing hearts pumping out all that adrenaline with nowhere to go. The human body is a miraculous thing! Inevitably, she reaches for the door lock, which of course has disappeared. "You let me out of here this minute! Take me home!" Now is that a contradiction or what? He slaps her lightly on the cheek, just enough to get her attention, and watches indignation boil up, only to give way to terror as he grips both wrists in one hand. He pulls her close and gently kisses the slap, whispering, "I still want you to give me that audition." Her face actually brightens with the possibility that this is all some terrible joke, a cruel test that she has somehow passed. He relaxes his grip a little, and she starts a tentative smile that turns down at the corners, gears in her tiny brain trying to choose between relief and outrage. What's that called, cognitive dissonance?
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About the Book
STRANDED.... Julie looked up and down the freeway. Vehicles zoomed by in an endless string of lights. It could be hours before anyone came to help. Headlights glared behind her. A man got out. Let me take you to a phone, call a tow. Sometimes you could tell a person's character by their eyes. It was too dark. But she had to take the chance, accept his offer of help. If she didn't get home soon, her husband would really kill her. ANOTHER SERIAL KILLER COMES TO LOS ANGELES.... In vast yet isolated Southern California, connected only by freeways, a new monster is evolving. He strikes and slips away into the river of traffic to brutally rape and strangle his victims. Cathy Buchanan, housewife and mother living in upscale Torrance, and Lorraine Johnson, a postal worker in South LA, are preoccupied with their lives. Cathy's idyllic existence is slowly dissolving as she grows certain her husband is having an affair. Lorraine has a broken heart and issues with her disapproving mother and drug-addicted sister. As the killings mount, the Southland begins to panic. Evidence from the latest murder suggests the killer is black. Lorraine's got her doubts. Cathy feels relieved. The media go crazy. Family crises and a random set of events will bring these two very different women together when the killer strikes again. Now they have only each other. They never imagined what would become necessary for a chance to survive. And no one could have predicted the way their ordeal will end.
About the Author
Susan Calhoun has worked in various public housing projects throughout