Barbara Silkstone - Wendy Darlin 01 - Wendy and the Lost Boys by Barbara Silkstone Read Free Book Online

jumped at my legs as I stepped over her and ran to the bed.
    Roger was one step behind me. “That’s not an oxygen tent…there’s no supply,” he said. “Don’t touch anything.” He grabbed my hand as I was about to pull the tent from her face.
    Marni’s body was withered, her beautiful raven hair had fallen out, her eyebrows were gone, and her eyes were dead orbs.
    Hook stood in the doorway looking like the worthless lump of shit he was.
    “Take her to a hospital,” I screamed at him.
    “And get nabbed? Hell, no. I’m not going to some prison where you have to protect your ass and piss on your own feet.” He left the room.
    Marni moved her hand on the bed, motioning me to come closer. Roger pulled me back. “Here put this mask on and don’t touch her,” he whispered. A box of disposable face masks rested on the dresser. “This isn’t any tropical disease. I think it’s radiation poisoning, probably polonium.”
    I squinted my eyes trying to focus on him. Who was he to tell me this? What the hell was polonium? Stepping back to the doorway, I felt light-headed and dropped to the floor. Roger and Kit sat down beside me.
    Roger held my hands as he spoke softly. “The Russian spy murdered a few years ago… that’s the stuff they used. It only takes a small amount. She has all the symptoms. There’s nothing that can be done for her. Hook’s right. It’s too late.”
    Kit helped me to my feet. I staggered to Marni’s bedside. Slipping the mask over my face, I leaned close to the tent. Marni struggled for each word. “Please be there for Hook. Promise me. Take care of him.”
    And so I promised. The mother of all promises.
    Tinkerbelle whimpered to be lifted. Pushing on the tent, the puppy tried to lick Marni’s face as if willing her to live. I pulled Tink back before she ripped the tent. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. I thought of Marni’s mother, before she got breast cancer, bringing her little girl into the office. Marni dragging her glittery-gold princess Barbie.
    Two days later, her last day, I donned protective surgical gloves, picked up the edge of the tent and pressed a wet cloth to her parched lips. Marni whispered, “Remember, you promised.”
    I swore again to care for Hook. I wondered about the statute of limitations on promises made to dying daughters of friends. Marni slowly drifted from this life on a morphine cloud. It was as if her body had turned to dust even while her heart kept beating.
    “I can hear the dolphin crying,” she said, and then she said no more.
    ***
    We buried her at sea. It was a stormy day when the crewmen slipped her withered body, wrapped in a white sheet, into the vast black, roiling ocean as we stood at her side. I recited Psalm 23 from memory. When I got to I will fear no evil , I lost control and couldn’t continue.
    Hook never shed a tear. Where was his heart that he could stroll through life feeling nothing?
    Jaxbee and I walked around like zombies.
    The splash of Marni’s corpse entering the water would haunt me forever. More angry than sad, I dreaded the day I’d have to talk to her mother. I wasn’t close to Marni, and her conning herself into love to get into Hook’s wealth had really put me off, but she didn’t deserve this.
    That sonofabitch Hook let her die to save his own skin. I had to find out who killed her – for Marni, her mother, and me.

Chapter Ten
    The Wall Street pirate spent the rest of Marni’s funeral day on the bridge with Jaxbee and Dale. It was a perfect time for me to snoop in his suite. I took tweezers and a kitchen knife. Not knowing how to jimmy a bolt, I planned to use the learn-as-you-go method. As it turned out, the door to his suite wasn’t locked. I guess Hook figured no one would have the audacity to go into his room.
    If poison had killed Marni and if Hook were the murderer, I figured he might be stupid enough to keep the empty vial in his bathroom. My hands shook as I opened his vanity drawers and