Chapter 80

  I WAS HEADING “HOME” to Joe’s apartment, battling rush-hour traffic, when my cell phone rang. I jacked the phone off my hip¹, heard Yuki’s voice screaming my name.

  “Lindsay! He’s stalking me.”

  “Who? Who’s stalking you?”

  “That freak! Jason Twilly.”

  “Slow down. Back up. What do you mean ‘stalking’?”

  I jerked the wheel left at the intersection² of Townsend and Seventh instead of taking a right toward my former apartment on the Hill. It felt like I was swimming against the tide.

  Yuki’s voice was shrill³. “Stalking as in haunting me, dogging me. Ten minutes ago, he was sitting in the passenger seat of my car!”

  “He broke into your car?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t remember if I locked it. I was carrying like a fifty-pound -”

  The signal cut out. I hit speed dial, got Yuki’s outgoing message, disconnected, tried again.

  “Fifty-pound what?” I called into the crackle.

  “Fifty-pound box of files. I just got my key into the door lock when this arm reached over from inside the car and pushed the door open for me.”

  “Before this car thing, did you tell him to leave you alone?”

  “Yes! Did I ever!”

  “Okay, then, it’s illegal for him to be inside your car,” I said, negotiating a lane switch, passing a rental⁴ car whose driver leaned on the horn and gave me the finger.

  “You ready to swear out a complaint?” I asked Yuki. “He’s going to go public. So think about it.”

  There was a moment of static-filled silence as Yuki considered the media ramifications⁵.

  “This guy is sick, Linds. He talks to me like I’m a character in his book. He’s twisted and maybe dangerous. He got into my car. What’s next?”

  “Okay,” I said, pulling over to the curb⁶. I took out my notepad and wrote down what Yuki had told me.

  “You’re going to have to go to civil court in the morning, get a restraining order,” I said. “But effective now you’ve filed a police report.”

  “Tomorrow morning? Lindsay, Jason Twilly wants to scare the hell out of me - and he’s doing it!”

1 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

2 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

3 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

4 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

5 ramifications   

n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These changes are bound to have widespread social ramifications. 这些变化注定会造成许多难以预料的社会后果。
• What are the ramifications of our decision to join the union? 我们决定加入工会会引起哪些后果呢？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。