Frozen Stiff by Mary Logue Read Free Book Online Page A

else.”
    “No. I don’t care who hears this. I want to see my father and I want to know what happened to him. Figures you’d be the one to find him since you were probably responsible for what happened.” Danielle leaned in close to Sherri and spat her words in her face. “What did you do to him?”
    Much as she wanted to hear more of what Danielle had to say, Claire stood and put a restraining hand on the young woman’s shoulder. “Calm down. You can’t see your father right now, but he’s in good hands.”
    “Well, you’re who I should be talking to anyway. This woman,” Danielle pointed at Sherri, “stood to gain a lot by my father’s death. You’re a cop. I’m guessing she had something to do with my dad getting hurt or almost killed.”
    “I don’t need to listen to this.” Sherri stood up and left the room.
    The two older women leaned forward, continuing to listen intently to the conversation.
    “No need to be accusing anyone of anything. We don’t know what happened yet.” Claire then insisted, “Sit down and I’ll tell you what’s going on.”
    Danielle plunked down next to Claire and set her plump pink leather purse in her lap as if it was a fat cat that needed to be petted. Danielle’s lips curled back and she said quietly, “I can make a pretty good guess.”
    “Don’t you want to know how your father is?”
    For a moment, Danielle turned into a little girl, her lips quivered and her eyes filled with tears. “Is he okay? Did he really almost freeze to death? How could that happen? Is he going to be okay?”
    “So far so good. The doctors have to take it very slowly in warming him up. So we won’t know for a while.”
    Danielle looked at Claire. “You mean, he still could die?”
    “There’s a chance, but I think he’s in pretty good hands.”
    The young woman hung her head, her hair cascading down over her face. “I can’t believe this could happen to him. I’m sure he didn’t lock himself out of the house, he doesn’t do things like that.”
    “Why would you think Sherri would do anything to your father?” Claire asked in a low voice.
    Danielle lifted her head, flicked back her hair, and sniffed back her tears. “Stupid cow. They’re getting a divorce. He was dumping her without a cent. If he were to die before the divorce, she probably thinks she would get everything.”
    4:10 pm
    Curt sank into the bean bag next to Andy’s and grabbed the controls. They were going for the record. What a way to start the new year!
    Curt loved the way Andy had his room set up so he didn’t even have to get out of bed to play. He had everything he needed within reach: all his games and the controllers sat on a long bench at the foot of the bed. He had blinds that stayed permanently down on his windows so that it was nice and dark and you could see the screen better. The low light of the game revealed walls covered with posters of old bands—Nirvana, Def Leppard, the Doors. He even had a lava lamp that burbled away in the corner.
    Andy didn’t turn his head to talk to Curt. He just gave a nod and said, “I got it, man. I told you I would.”
    “What?”
    “You know, that other version of GTA.”
    Curt always had to remind himself that GTA wasn’t a grocery store chain, it was the best video game in the world, Grand Theft Auto. “Remind me.”
    “I told you about it—that Hot Coffee version, where they left in the sex scenes. I managed to score a copy in the cities this morning. You ready to crack it?”
    “I guess.” Curt didn’t want to admit he felt a little weird watching sex scenes with other guys. He would probably feel weird watching sex scenes period, but maybe if he was by himself he could get into them more.
    After playing the game for a while, he found that the sex scenes didn’t bother him that much. They were just a part of the whole intensity of the action. He felt himself sinking into the game, after a few false moves, getting himself killed in stupid ways, he