Murder on a Hot Tin Roof

Murder on a Hot Tin Roof by Amanda Matetsky Read Free Book Online

Book: Murder on a Hot Tin Roof by Amanda Matetsky Read Free Book Online
Authors: Amanda Matetsky
all the way down the hall and was now entering Gray’s living room with such ease and abandonment you’d have thought it was her own. She turned the corner to her left and disappeared from my view. “Where are you hiding, Sweetpants?” she warbled. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

    Still no response.

    Feeling certain that Gray wasn’t at home, and that I wouldn’t be disturbing him in any way, I finally ventured into the apartment and began slinking through the shadows toward the sunny room at the end of the corridor. I was about halfway there when Abby started screaming.

Chapter 4

    I HURTLED TO THE END OF THE ENTRANCE hall and rocketed into the living room. What was happening? Where was Abby? Was she hurt? Had somebody attacked her? Was she unconscious? She wasn’t screaming anymore.

    She was crying, however, and although I couldn’t see her anywhere in the large bright room, I had only to follow the sounds of her sobbing to figure out where she was. I found her down on her knees behind the couch, hugging her arms tightly across her breast like a distraught mental patient strapped in a straitjacket. She was kneeling in an enormous pool of blood.

    At first I thought it was her own blood, but—praise be to every deity who ever rented space in Heaven!—it wasn’t. It was the blood of Gray Gordon, whose dead and naked body was lying just four feet away—splayed out like a poor sacrificed lamb—in the middle of the wide passage between the back of the couch and a wall of windows. His throat had been slit and there were numerous stab wounds in his chest. There were many other deep slashes in his limbs, belly, and groin, but I won’t say anything more about that. Believe me, you don’t want to know.

    I didn’t want to look at the butchered mess of bone and flesh before me, but my inquisitive nature overpowered my revulsion. What monster had done this hideous thing? When had the murder taken place? How long had Gray been lying here like this? Judging from the thick coagulation of his blood, and the dry opaqueness of his gaping eyes, and the sickeningly rancid stench that permeated every breath I took, it had been a few hours at least.

    Fighting back my own tears, and a violent urge to throw up, I dropped down to my knees next to Abby and threw my arms around her. Still sobbing and gasping for air, she turned and wrapped her arms around me. Then we held on to each other for dear life, rocking to and fro in a steady, continuous rhythm, like two orthodox Jews in prayer.

    After a few anguished and mournful minutes of kneeling, hugging, rocking, and praying, I grabbed hold of the back of the couch and pulled myself to my feet. Then I helped Abby stand up. Our knees, shins, and shoes were covered with blood. Abby’s hands were coated, too, until she wiped them—over and over and over again—on the cotton contours of her powder blue capris. Struck dumb by the carnage, she didn’t utter a word.

    “I think you’d better sit down,” I said, putting my arm around her shoulders and gently guiding her around the couch. Then I steered her across the floor to a chair on the opposite side of the room, where the body would be out of her sight. “Will you be okay here for a couple of seconds?” I asked, helping her lower herself into the dark green club chair. “I need to go next door and call the police. I don’t want to put my fingerprints on Gray’s phone. You stay right here, okay? Don’t move. Don’t get up and walk around. And don’t touch anything.”

    She stared straight ahead and mumbled something I couldn’t understand. But then she nodded in my direction, so I figured she wasn’t in a total daze.

    “Just sit tight,” I reiterated, using the calmest and firmest voice I could conjure up. “I’ll be right back.”

    Careening out into the hall, I lurched over to the door marked 2A and started knocking as hard as I could. “Help! Help!” I bellowed. “There’s been a murder! Please

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