Pam by Jacqueline Druga Read Free Book Online

started to close the door. “Leave now or I’m calling the police.”
    “Just …” I held up my hand. “Answer the question.”
    She exhaled. “I did. It’s over.”
    And I believed we got our resolution . I wanted to leave, but Pam wasn’t done. My mild mannered friend who rarely swore sounded off kilter , like a mad woman.
    “You fucking whore. Are you carrying his baby ? ”
    “Pam!” I yelled.
    “ Yes, but it’s done ! H e wants nothing to do with the child or me . Yet.” She slammed the door.
    Pam reached for it, but I stopped her , and then she broke down and cried.
    “It’s happening again. How can he do this to me, time and time again?” she sobbed.
    “I know. I’m sorry I brought you here.”
    “I needed to know the truth.”
    I took her in my arms. “Let’s back to the hotel, talk about this , and just get old - fashioned drunk while we figure out what we’re gonna do.”
    She could barely speak, only nodded , and we walked off.
    We did drink that night. In fact, I drank a lot. We debate d on going to the concert ; after all , we bought tickets, but we had drunk too much.
    I passed out.
    When I woke, Pam was out , s ound asleep with an empty bottle of whiskey at her side. We were only a few minutes from Marion’s house ; I thought, maybe , that I could talk to her alone . See what her intentions were , what she was going to do about Richie’s baby.
    I didn’t wake Pam . I left a note that I was going for coffee and drove over to Marion’s apartment.
    It was still early , and the auto body shop wasn’t open yet. Hers was the only apartment and as I reached to knock, her door opened all the way.
    At that second I knew something was wrong.
    I stepped in, quietly calling out her name, but barely did when this weird stench hit me. It smelled like an old dog pound .
    Two steps into the house I saw the blood. A pool of it by the entrance to the kitchen .
    “No.” I thought. “ No ,” And I hurried toward the puddle.
    The kitchen was small , and Marion’s body took up the entire length of the floor. She was surrounded by a deep pool of drying blood. Like Sharon Tate , a rope , or rather phone cord, was wrapped around her neck, her body half-undressed. S he lay on her side and was covered in so much blood that I couldn’t tell how she died. Stabbed? Shot? I handled that until I stepped closer.
    Her stomach faced the wooden kitchen cabinets. Her pregnant stomach looked like nothing more than a gutted de e r. The umbilical cord stretched out of the open wound to the fetus that was attached by a knife to the kitchen cabinet . Pinned there like a memo.
    My stomach churned and mouth filled with saliva. Immediately, my mouth filled with vomit laced with my previous night’ s drinking.
    It splattered f rom my mouth through my finger tips , and I turned to the left, saw the bathroom , raced in and vomited in the commode.
    The whole time I heaved over that toilet bowl, it wasn’t the sight of Marion ’s body, it was the baby . The tiny baby no bigger than eight inches, impaled and adhered to the white kitchen cabinet. The knife wasn’t huge, but compared to the size of the unborn baby it was monstrous.
    That child probably got one breath of life.
    It was sickening , and it took a while for my stomach to settle. Once it did, I used my foot to flush and walked back to the kitchen.
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered to Marion’s dead body. “I’m sorry.” I raced for the door.
    Another one of my demons. Another reason bad karma followed me.
    The subject of Marion came up once , and that was when Pam said, “Marion is in Hartford. I’m gonna not think about her anymore.”
    I don’t know for sure if Pam killed Marion, I don’t know. I didn’t ask and she didn’t tell. But I was just as guilty as the person who did it. Because I said nothing about what I had seen and found. Scared that it was my friend’s doing, and that perhaps we’d both be in trouble. I quickly left the apartment, and maki