Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain Read Free Book Online

couldn’t see the bedrooms. She assumed there were at least two—one for him, one or two for the kids. There didn’t appear to be overhead lights, just floor lamps
and desk lamps, all of which were on. A couple of standing fans were furiously redistributing the apartment’s warm air.
    She took a step closer to the window. It was twilight and the city was all sorts of shades of ash. It was an impressive view. She could see Mount St. Helens. There was nothing Portlanders liked
more than old-growth wood and a mountain view. This whole part of town had smelled funny since the flood, but still, he’d done all right for himself.
    “This is nice,” she said.
    “Don’t sound so surprised,” Archie said from behind her.
    She remembered then that she was mad at him.
    “Did you listen to my voice mail?” she asked, turning around to face him.
    “My phone’s broken,” Archie said, glancing at the pieces on the floor.
    Susan noticed his hand then. He’d had it in his pocket when he’d answered the door. It was wrapped in a few feet of toilet paper, but bright crimson spots of blood were soaking
through the Charmin over his knuckles.
    She looked at the broken phone. So maybe hers hadn’t been the most notable call he’d gotten today.
    “Do you have a first-aid kit?” she asked.
    “I’m fine,” he said.
    “You’re bleeding,” Susan said. He had kids; he had to have a first-aid kit. Where would he keep it? “Bathroom?” she asked.
    Archie nodded.
    Susan walked to a hall she could see on the other side of the living room and found the bathroom. She opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a canvas bag with the words FIRST-AID KIT stamped on the side. It still had the price tag on it. Susan set it on the side of the sink and looked in the mirror. Her skin glistened with sweat and her eye makeup was smeared under her eyes.
Why didn’t men ever mention that? You could spend four hours with a guy and have makeup all over your face, and he wouldn’t say a word. Then, when you confronted him, he’d deny
having noticed it. How could you look at a face for four hours without noticing that kind of thing? Men were infuriating sometimes.
    She tore a piece of toilet paper off the roll, folded it, got it wet under the faucet, and cleaned the liquid liner off her cheeks the best she could, which wasn’t saying much. Now she
looked like she’d been crying. She tossed the toilet paper in the toilet, flushed it, and checked back in the mirror.
    Not just a mirror. A medicine cabinet.
    Don’t snoop , she told herself.
    It’s none of your business.
    The last time she’d looked in one of Archie Sheridan’s medicine cabinets it had been full of painkillers.
    But that was before he’d almost killed himself and ended up rehabbing on the psych ward.
    A tiny peek.
    That’s all.
    A smidgen of a look.
    Susan kept the water running to stifle the sound, and she opened the cabinet.
    She held her breath. The three glass shelves were stocked with amber pill bottles of every size. She glanced at the bathroom door. She didn’t have the time to go through all of them. She
would have to be fast. She started twisting the bottles around, looking for labels, scanning names, looking for medicines she recognized. What was all this stuff?
    The door to the bathroom opened. It was her fault. She hadn’t locked it. Why would she have locked it? She was just looking for the first-aid kit.
    Archie stood in the doorway looking at her.
    His medicine cabinet was wide open. Susan had her arm extended, her fingers on one of his pill bottles.
    “I’m looking for an Advil,” she said.
    “That’s Prilosec,” Archie said. “For my stomach. I’m off the pain meds.” He scratched the back of his neck and gave her a tired look. “But if I
wasn’t, I wouldn’t keep them in there.”
    Susan slid her hand away from the pill bottle and closed the medicine cabinet. Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror, her face scarlet. Her