Cut to the Corpse by Lucy Lawrence Read Free Book Online Page B

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    Tara was sound asleep with her mouth hanging open and her skin a pasty shade of gray. Brenna gently shook her, but she was nonresponsive. She wondered if she should douse her with ice water, but she didn’t want to wake Tara’s companion and have to bear witness to that.
    She shook Tara again and hissed, “Tara, wake up!”
    The bedclothes slid off of her shoulder, and Brenna stepped back with a gasp. Clutched in Tara’s right hand was a long, lethal-looking serrated kitchen knife, and it was covered in blood.

Chapter 4

    “Wha . . . huh?” Tara mumbled. Her eyes cracked open a little and then she shifted as if she were going to roll over on the knife.
    “Tara, wake up!” Brenna yelled. She lunged forward and grabbed Tara’s shoulder to keep her from stabbing herself.
    “Brenna?” Tara blinked at her. “Oh, no, did I oversleep? I’m sorry.”
    Brenna ran her eyes over the young woman, looking for any signs of injury. Tara was wearing a thin pale blue nightdress. It had several blood smears on it, but she couldn’t find any gashes or open wounds on Tara. So where had the blood come from? Brenna glanced over Tara at the body beside her.
    “Tara, what happened last night?” she asked.
    Tara looked down at her hands and saw the knife she still held. She jumped and dropped it. She ran her hands over her gown and saw the brown stains, then she looked up at Brenna with confused eyes.
    “What is this?” she asked.
    “Blood,” Brenna said.
    “Whose?”
    “His?” Brenna guessed, pointing behind Tara to the body beyond.
    Tara whipped her head around, saw the man in her bed, let out an ear-piercing shriek, and leapt out of the bed.
    “Oh, my God, who is that?”
    “You don’t know?” Brenna asked.
    “No, I . . . wait, why did I have a knife in my hand?” she asked.
    Her blue eyes were huge, the pupils tiny, and she was so pale, she looked as if all of the blood had been drained out of her. She swayed on her feet and Brenna was afraid she’d faint. She put an arm around her and led her to a chair in the corner.
    “I’m going to see if I can rouse him,” Brenna said. “Wait here.”
    She circled the bed to the other side. The man was lying with his face buried in the pillows. His dark hair covered the side of his face, and all she could see was his bare shoulder peeking out above the fluffy purple covers.
    “Ahem, excuse me, sir,” she said. She reached forward and prodded his shoulder with the heel of her hand.
    He didn’t respond and he felt unnaturally stiff. Brenna stared at the covers; they weren’t moving, as in he wasn’t breathing. Panic hit her like a fist in the chest.
    She prodded his shoulder again. No response. She felt Tara walk up behind her.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    “I don’t think he’s breathing,” Brenna said. “I’m going to try and turn him over.”
    She hunkered down beside the bed, and using both hands pushed his shoulder up and over. It was like trying to lift a car. With a grunt, she gave him a shove and he flopped over.
    It was then that she saw the wounds on his forearms and the huge, gaping hole in his chest. It was Clue Parker, and he was dead.
    Tara let out another earsplitting scream, and Brenna turned and pulled the girl into her arms. She was shaking and gasping and Brenna feared she was beginning to hyperventilate. She half carried, half dragged Tara into the kitchen, where she pushed her onto a stool while she foraged for a paper bag.
    Finding one in the third drawer, she shook it open and held it out to Tara. “Breathe into this.”
    Tara did as she was told while Brenna reached for the phone and called 9-1-1. She could imagine what Chief Barker was going to say when he arrived to find she had discovered another body.
     
    The chief was not happy to see her. He had Brenna and Tara stay in the small living room while he went to the bedroom to check on Clue. When he came back his face was set in grim lines.
    The medical examiner was on the