Page 9 of Blind Trust
Chapter 3
Cecelia was pleasedto hear Hazel’s voice on the line. Hazel was one of her best friends.
Hazel Whitaker worked as a receptionist at the Rosewood Center, and she and Cecelia had become good friends while Cecelia had stayed there, learning braille and how to be a receptionist and secretary. After she’d taken the new job and moved to Montana to the brand-new Triple C Ranch to be the receptionist there, the women had kept in touch.
Both centers worked in a similar way. Women went to the centers to learn how to empower themselves, learning self-defense and other life skills to be safe and stronger when they left and started their new lives.
After graduating from the program, a woman who had been as terrified as a mouse after being the victim of a violent attack or a domestic abuse situation left the centers with new confidence, life skills, and strength.
This was certainly true for Cecelia. Her time at Rosewood Center had been amazing. Newly blind, she’d had so many challenges. Learning to find her way around the house, the sidewalk, the grocery, the sand dunes behind the house and the ocean beyond.
She had never been terrified of the ocean before. It had taken the love and support of all her house sisters before she would even put one foot in the water.
And moving through the dunes? Another major hurdle for her.
With the support of her housemates, she’d overcome that hurdle as well. They had become as close as sisters. They all stayed in touch via email, but a phone call was a special treat.
Sometimes, working together in the same company, though at different locations, she and Hazel got to talk on company time. They always managed to catch up a little on personal matters.
Much as she enjoyed chatting with Brian, he wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, he would be here tomorrow and the next day, doing his job.
Hazel, though… Talking to her was a real, once in a while, treat.
Cecelia leaned back in her chair, enjoying the call and forgot all about Brian.
* * *
The dream broughtit all back as the night of the fire replayed in her mind…
The sound of gunfire woke Cecelia at once.
She reached for her braille phone on her nightstand and dialed the sheriff.
“Hello, please hurry, there’s been a gunshot at Three C’s Ranch. I don’t know what’s going on. I was asleep, and it woke me. Please hurry,” she repeated.
The dispatcher on the other end of the phone told her to leave the line open, so they could hear what was happening.
She left the phone open on the nightstand and moved to the closed bedroom door. Placing her hand on the door so she’d feel anyone trying to open the door, she waited, listening.
Nothing.
The house was silent again.
She turned the doorknob and opened the door, stepping out.
Someone was in the hallway. She sensed the person before she even asked, “What’s happening?”
She reached out, her hand finding a man’s hairy forearm. Her hand closed around the man’s arm.
He quickly pulled Cecelia out of the doorway into the hall and moved her behind him.“Put your hand on my back.”
Hank Patterson.She knew his voice.
His hand was trying to move her hand to his back. She should have let him guide her.
Hank was the head of the Brotherhood Protectors. She knew and trusted him.But she was frozen with fear, standing still, listening. Sniffing.
Then she smelled it.
