SEE HER DIE by Debra Webb Read Free Book Online

clothes on, insisting he was running late.” She clenched her jaw to slow the emotions mounting all over again. “He was so apologetic. But I knew he was lying.”
    “What’d you do?”
    “I stormed into the apartment, straight to the bedroom. The sheets were tousled.” Her gaze locked with Gloria’s. “He’d called and pleaded with me to meet him for dinner, then kept me waiting an entire hour while he had a romp in the sack with someone else.”
    Gloria closed her eyes, shuddered visibly. “Bastard,” she hissed. “I’m glad he’s dead.”
    Elizabeth scrubbed her hands over her face. “We argued. I told him never to call me again. And then I demanded the video.” She made a sound, something along the lines of a laugh, but pathetically lacking in humor. “He just laughed at me. He...” She chewed her lower lip to stem the tears threatening. “He was going to use it to blackmail me. He told me I’d get it when he was through with me.” She shrugged, still scarcely believing her own stupidity. “I couldn’t believe it.”
    Gloria’s breathing had grown as rapid and shallow as Elizabeth’s. “Tell me exactly what you did then.”
    “I slapped him and he... he tried to...” She frowned, trying to remember the exact sequence of events. “He grabbed my arm and I fought to get away. Then I ran out.”
    “Okay,” Gloria said, visibly grappling for her own composure. “You listen to me, Elizabeth. You do exactly as I say. Do you hear me?”
    She nodded.
    Gloria released a shaky breath. “You stick to your original story. He didn’t show, you went home. Don’t tell the cops anything else. This is a high-profile case. They’ll want to solve it as soon as possible. Pinning the rap on you would be the fastest route.” She reached across the table and placed a reassuring hand over Elizabeth’s. “What about the video?”
    God, she could just die. “That’s the worst part. He wouldn’t give it to me... and the cops found it. That FBI agent, MacBride, told me he’d viewed it.”
    “Damn.”
    “My sentiments exactly.” Elizabeth stared down at their hands. What a mess. She might as well face it. She was in serious trouble.
    “Look.” Gloria drew Elizabeth’s gaze back to hers. “You didn’t kill him. They can’t prove you did. Having sex with a man doesn’t make you guilty of murder.”
    Elizabeth managed a shaky smile. Her friend was right. Regardless of how it looked, she was innocent. “True,” she agreed. She studied Gloria for a long moment trying to see what it was that nagged at her. She supposed her friend was just afraid for her... or angry that Ned had once again hurt her. “I really didn’t kill him, you know.”
    Gloria squeezed her hand. “I know you didn’t. The cops are just looking for an easy out. If they had any real evidence, they’d arrest you.”
    Been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt, Elizabeth thought grimly. “He brought up Billy and the drug charge.” Gloria knew the whole sordid story about Billy, the brother-in-law from hell, and the time Elizabeth had claimed her sister’s drug stash to save her from a beating. Elizabeth had never even tried drugs, but she had a possession charge on her record because she’d gone the distance for her only sibling. The other incident had been ruled self-defense. Peg was pregnant with her third child and her stupid husband had come home in a drunken rage and started beating her. Expecting to go into labor at any time, Elizabeth had spent the night at her sister’s since Billy was rarely around. Something had snapped inside her that night as she’d witnessed him beating her very pregnant sister. He’d come after her and Elizabeth had stopped him with the only weapon in the house, a butcher knife. She hadn’t killed him but she’d wanted to…she would have done anything to make him stop.
    “Well,” Gloria said, dragging Elizabeth from the past, “that still doesn’t make you a murderer.”
    Elizabeth