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Page 271
nose. Was he glad? Remorseful? She could not tell. She had never felt any of his emotion ricocheting about this underground chamber.
Suddenly she felt nothing from Mike. She gasped aloud, the tears she had been holding back coursing down her cheeks.
"He'll be all right," Hannah said from beside her. "I sense it. Don't you?" She looked hopefully at Abby.
But would he? Or was he already gone?
The paramedics had not ceased their ministrations. That gave Abby some comfort. Perhaps Mike had merely lost consciousness.
Abby glanced back at Hannah, who looked haggard and frail, for all her chubbiness. Abby swallowed. She was not the only one who needed comforting. Hannah had known Mike much longer than she. "Of course I feel it," Abby lied, taking Hannah's icy hands in hers.
Abby sat beside Hannah for many long minutes, not quite hearing the words of the paramedics treating Mike only a few yards away. The police had found the security guard, also unconscious in the garage, and another team of paramedics was seeing to him. Abby thought that, in years to come, no matter where she was, she would always recall the smell here: the lingering stench of gunpowder, the dank mustiness, the medicines.
The circle of paramedics around Mike broke. Abby could see the body on the floor being held down by strong arms.
"Wait, sir," a voice commanded.

 
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