The Doll 45（文稿）end

<p style="color:#333333;font-weight:normal;font-size:16px;line-height:30px;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;hyphens:auto;text-align:justify;" data-flag="normal">Chapter 45<br>DALLAS, TEXAS<br>FIVE MONTHS LATER<br>A quarter of a mile of gravel separated the blacktop county road from Bradford’s front door; a quarter of a mile between foyer and mailbox.&nbsp;<br>For the most part, the distance was meaningless. He wasn’t home often enough to worry about collecting the mail— Felecia did that for him, and anything urgent was sent to Capstone’s office.<br>But today he was home, and so Bradford swung the truck off the blacktop, along the shoulder, to collect what lay within the box and spare Felecia the trip.&nbsp;<br>Paper gripped between his fingers, he tossed the stack onto the passenger’s seat,&nbsp;<br>and not until he was around the back of the house, parked in the garage and leaning over to collect the meager bounty of inserts and magazines, flyers and envelopes, did he catch sigh...