Plum Island by Nelson DeMille
Quote:“Look… Can I call you Beth?”
“No.
“Look, Detective Penrose, I know you think I’m attracted to you and you probably think I’m coming on to you… and you think this could be awkward…”
She turned her face away and look out at the bay.
I continued, “…this is really hard to say, but… well… you don’t have to worry about that… about me…”
She turned back and looked at me.
I sort of covered my face with my right hand and rubbed my forehead. I continued as best I could. “You see… one of those bullets that hit me… God, how do I say this…? Well, it hit me in a funny place, okay? Now you know. So we can be sort of like… friends, partners… brother and sister… I guess I mean sister and sister…” I glanced at her and saw she was staring out to sea again.
Finally she spoke. “I thought you said you were hit in the stomach.”
“There, too.”
“Max said you had a serious lung wound.”
“That, too.”
“Any brain damage?”
“Maybe.”
“And now you want me to believe you’ve been neutered by yet another bullet.”
“It’s nothing a guy would lie about.”
“If the furnace is out, why is there still fire in your eyes?”
“Just a memory, Beth—Can I call you Beth? A good memory of a time when I could pole-vault over my car.”
She put her hand up to her face, and I couldn’t tell if she was crying or laughing.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
