It tasted metallic in his mouth and he wondered what the vase, which had been sealed, contained."Hey, Smith, look what a mess you made," Billy said an... laughed with his friends."Hey, idiot, leave him alone," a female voice called from the side and Jim looked over to the voice, seeing Ella, one of their classmates standing there."This isn't any of your business, Ella," Billy said and looked back at Jim. "The nerd probably thinks we will be easy on him the last weeks of the school year." You and. He said that it was good tohear that even with that tragedy that Derek's friend would berecovering. He asked if there had been any leads from the police on themcatching the men responsible. Jenny said that Derek didn't mentionanything about that and she didn't think that they knew anything morenow than they did at the start.Brother Paul knew that they wouldn't. Cody and Stephen had been verycareful when they went up to Asheville to take care of this. They hadeven had film of the two of them. The speed limit in Louisiana is 70 mph on the interstate, but the traffic was eating us up, so I kicked it up to 78 and we stayed right with them.A few minutes before 1:00, we crossed into Texas. Not bad, four hours from downtown New Orleans, I thought.“Murphy, when we get through Beaumont, pull over and let me drive some.” Kelly said“Kelly, are you sure, we’ll only be a few miles form Houston when we get to Beaumont.”“OH DANG, then after we get through Houston, I’ll drive, I sure don’t want to. He reached forward and took the choker from my hands. Stood. Opened the lock with his key, which he then shook back up his arm and under his shirt sleeve. Opening the hasp he then leaned down and kissed me as he gently looped the choker around by neck. It was perhaps just the slightest bit tight on me. Not uncomfortably so, but I was completely aware of its presence on me. I heard a click and knew that the chocker was now locked around me. I felt the lock dangle against my throat and wondered.