Page 19 of So Deadly
Please let me be wrong.God, please let me be wrong.
“Okay, Tommy,” she called, voice starting to waver.“I’m coming in.If you’re indecent, I’m going to be seriously pissed off.”
No answer.
Linda fumbled with the key.It took three tries, but she finally managed to push it into the lock and turn it.She pushed open the door, and it swung open with a soft creak.The smell hit her, rich, sweet, pungent, fungal.She gasped and staggered backwards, head literally swimming.For a moment, she genuinely expected to pass out and grasped weakly at the rail behind her.
She breathed through her mouth but imagined (she really hoped it was her imagination) that she could taste the smell, so she closed it and endured the assault on her olfactory nerves.
The smell had drifted up to twenty, and Bobby Martin stepped outside, muttering curses.“What in God’s name is going…” He paused when he saw Linda.“Linda, what the hell is going on?What on Earth is thatsmell?”
Linda swallowed.She couldn’t find a way to answer Bobby.She walked into the house, head swimming, though she wasn’t sure anymore if it was the smell or the knowledge, still simmering beneath the surface, ofexactlywhat that smell was.
The living room was a mess.Styrofoam packing peanuts were scattered across the floor.A service animal vest sat halfway out of a box that she assumed contained more of the same.The television was off, and a liberal coat of dust decorated the screen.The couch was an ancient cloth model, torn, scuffed, stained, and unappealing.A computer screen on the opposite side of the room was also off though a red light blinked at the bottom indicating the machine was still receiving power.
A foot stuck out from behind the couch, and Linda’s knees knocked together twice, a sharprap-rapthat had the twin effect of snapping her to alertness and assuring her that this wasn’t a dream.She was really looking at Thomas Webb’s foot, and if it smelled this bad, and he hadn’t answered when she knocked, then he was dead.
“Oh, Christ,” she muttered, grabbing the back of the couch for support.
She’d never seen a dead body before, not in person.She’d watched that YouTube video that got those kids in trouble years ago, but that was the closest she’d ever come to actually seeing a dead body.
“Linda?”Bobby called from a comfortable distance outside.“You okay in there?”
“Fine,” Linda lied.
Just get this over with.It’s going to be unpleasant, but you’ll get through it.
She stepped forward, three stiff, long strides.
She looked down.
She realized with shocking calm that this was going to be far beyond unpleasant, and she was unlikely to ever get through it.
Then she gave into the horror.
In the end, Bobby Martin called the police, about a minute after half-dragging a shrieking, incoherent Linda from the apartment.His own voice was barely intelligible as he explained to the officer that his downstairs neighbor had been torn to shreds by something and then left to literally rot.
CHAPTER TEN
“I don’t think it’s the neighbors,” Faith said.
“No?”Jessica asked.
The two of them were finished with their initial examination of the scene and on their way to a hotel in Boston.A search of Margaret Hayes’s computer had verified that she had faked her dog’s certification as a service animal by printing a fake certificate online.They hadn’t determined where she got the fake vest, but it was a pretty sure bet that was an online order too.Faith had Googled “fake service vests” and found no fewer than eleven websites that would ship for free anywhere in the contiguous United States.
So now they had to figure out who hated that—or for any reason hated Margaret—enough to turn her into julienned person.
“No.The neighbors all disliked her, but I got the impression it was annoyance, not actual hate.Even the mother whose kid was almost attacked didn’t seem to hate her.They just wanted to ignore her as much as possible.”
“Okay, but you’ve only interviewed two of the neighbors,” Jessica pointed out.“It’s way too soon to rule them out.”
“Fair enough,” Faith allowed.
They pulled into the parking lot of a high-rise hotel that proudly offered DOUBLE ROOMS EXCELLENT VIEW.Faith didn’t really care about the view, but the hotel looked clean and comfortable without being posh or fancy.Posh and fancy were not words that described Faith.
“I think there’s a more serious incident somewhere in Hayes’s past,” Jessica said, parking the car and stepping outside.“This reads like revenge.I think we need to cross check her name with complaints, specifically complaints related to her dog or dogs in general.”
“Good idea,” Faith said.“I also want to know what the murder weapon was.”
