CHAPTER 13
When Debby shrieked and fainted on the floor, both men rushed to her side. Polaski got there first and knelt beside her. Her breathing was shallow, her body still. Her opened eyes gazed upward with a dreamy quality to them. They seemed very tranquil, very at peace with the rest of life. “Get me a blanket, quick,” he told the sheriff. “I think she’s gone into shock of some sort.”
Maschen hurried off to comply, and suddenly the tranquil girl erupted in Polaski’s arms. She shrieked some more. She kicked and spit and wriggled. She scratched at him with her fingernails and even tried to bite. She writhed in convulsions that were as violent as they were sudden. Her voice reverberated off the walls with its shrill protests, “No, don’t! We can’t! Let us alone!”
Then the fit stopped a
