A Midsummer Eve's Nightmare by Donna Fletcher Crow Read Free Book Online Page A

“Goodness, no. Desdemona and Olivia are quite enough strain. I’m just one of the spirits. It’s great, I don’t often get a chance to use my dance training.”
    Richard looked at his watch, and Elizabeth’s stomach growled. “So no one’s been here that you can remember?”
    Tori shook her head. Then Erin spoke. “Besides Dirk and Gregg, there was just Larry as far as I can remember.”
    “Larry?”
    “Larry Bohanon. He’s a genius with wires and light bulbs and things. We couldn’t get Mrs. Martin to have that light over the sink repaired, so I asked Larry to stop by and do it for us. I don’t think it took him more than fifteen minutes. It was driving me crazy having it flicker off and on.”
    “Oh, I remember,” Tori added. “Sally came with him, too.”
    “That’s right.” Erin put her hand to her mouth. “I hadn’t thought of that. Oh, poor Larry. I think they really liked each other.”
    Elizabeth recalled the thin young man in tight jeans and a faded T-shirt. “The one who did the lights for Othello ? He didn’t seem to be particularly upset last night, and he was working at SOSC today.”
    “I—” Tori only got the one word out when Erin sprang off the sofa with a cry, seized a heavy book off the table and flung it through the window.
    “Leave me alone!” She screamed to the sound of shattering glass. In spite of the fact that she was barefoot, she rushed toward the window over a carpet sprayed with glass fragments.
    Richard flung out an arm to stop her and leapt to the window himself. He threw up the sash, knocking more glass out of the hole, and leaned far out, looking every direction. In a moment he turned back to the room with a finger to his lips. The three women in the room froze as Richard walked silently to the door, opened it quietly and went out.
    Elizabeth closed her eyes as the memory flooded back of watching Richard chase an intruder over a dark balcony on a stormy night, going off into the wet blackness to face she knew not what. That had been before she realized she loved him. Now it was a beautiful summer’s evening. But the dread was worse as her heart refused to beat and her lungs refused to breathe. Now she knew how much she loved him. Now she knew what was really at stake for her in that chase.
    Beside her Erin sobbed, “Someone was looking in that window at me.” She shivered. “It’s too creepy. I can’t believe the nerve.”
    Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief as Richard re-entered the room. He held a large grey-striped cat in his arms. “Thompkins,” Tori said. A small cut over his right ear oozed blood.
    “I think we’d better clean this up with a little hydrogen peroxide, and maybe some Neosporin or something,” Richard said.
    Tori moved to the medicine cabinet.
    “You mean that was my peeping tom?” Erin gasped.
    “I’m afraid so.” Richard grinned at her. “You must have seen this fellow’s luxurious tail and thought it was someone’s hair.”
    Erin turned away. “Oh, I feel so foolish. And all this mess, too. What will Mrs. Martin say?” When she turned back from the broken window, however, her face showed no relief. “But it is true—just like the tampered pills—I am being followed. I know it. I’ve felt it for weeks.”
    “Why didn’t you mention this before?” Elizabeth asked.
    “I told Tori. But I told her not to tell. Everyone thinks I’m just paranoid because of the flats falling on me and stuff.”
    “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.” The door slammed behind a newcomer in black slacks and a black and white striped Burberry knit shirt.
    “Dirk! How long have you been out there?” Erin’s voice was accusatory.
    “About three seconds. Didn’t hear my little red Jag drive up, huh? That baby purrs like a kitten.”
    Just then Tori came back in to doctor Thompkins. “Oh, ‘purrs like a kitten,’ appropriate metaphor, huh?”
    Dirk looked at the broken window. “What happened