Page 81 of The Man Next Door
“Let’s look at the bone first, shall we?” Martin suggested. “Where is it?”
“In my refrigerator,” Louise said. Eeew.
“Ready for soup,” cracked Alec James and Louise glared at him.
They trooped over to her house. Darling wanted to welcome everyone, trying first to jump on Alec James, but he walked right into the poor dog, forcing him down to all fours and making him veer away. What kind of man mowed over a dog! The kind with no heart and no conscience.
They all gathered around the kitchen table, waiting for Gilda to produce the bone. “Lay down some newspaper first,” Louise instructed her. The bone was a gruesome sight and seeing that token of death made Louise shudder. Or maybe it was the fact that she was standing so close to a murderer.
Alec James took one look at it after Gilda put it on display and laughed again. “So that’s the human I buried?”
“There’s no flesh on it,” Louise admitted, “but that’s because something gnawed it off.”Please don’t let it have been Darling.
“Lou, that’s a deer bone,” Martin said mildly.
“A deer bone!” Louise exclaimed. “Where would Darling get a deer bone?”
“I’m guessing the foothills. I was walking a trail just last week and saw a cougar. It probably took down this deer,” Martin said. “You can be glad it didn’t get Darling.”
“You can’t know for sure this isn’t human,” Gilda insisted.
“I can,” said Alec James. “I’ve done my share of hunting. It’s easy to mistake a deer bone for a human one though,” he added. Trying to be magnanimous or trying to fool them?
“So you say,” said Gilda.
“So we both say,” Martin said, and frowned at her.
“Who do you think I murdered and buried in my front yard, anyway?” Alec James demanded.
“You had a woman living with you and we heard the fights,” Louise said. “And now all that yelling and screaming have mysteriously stopped and she’s gone.” She hadn’t wanted to do this without police present, but he’d forced her hand.
“Lou, I think you should dial it down,” Martin cautioned. “This is a serious accusation.”
“I know what I heard,” she said.
“Yeah, but you don’t know the half of what you heard,” snapped Alec James.
“I’m calling the cops,” Gilda said, and stepped away, pulling her cell phone out of her sweater pocket.
Alec James glared at Louise. “Yes, I had someone there and thank God she’s gone. But I didn’t kill the woman. I’m too busy running my business to kill anyone. And I sure as hell don’t have the energy to cut somebody up in pieces and buryher in my yard. Good God, that’s sick. Why would you jump to such a crazy conclusion? You don’t even know me.”
“I heard the screams. We know you were being violent, and both my daughter and I heard her say you’re a monster,” Louise said as Gilda shared their address with the police.
Alec James let out a hiss. “Yeah, well, she says a lot of things. But I have never hit a woman in my life.”
So he said.
Gilda had ended the call and jumped back into the conversation. “Then where is she now?” she demanded.
“Staying with someone who’s almost as nutty as she is. And who the devil are you?”
“This is Gilda, my caregiver,” Louise said stiffly. “Physical care,” she added in case he thought she had a bunch of dead brain cells rattling around in her skull. “And I saw you getting rid of that woman’s things late at night.”Mr. Thorwald the Second.
He threw up his hands. “Unbelievable!”
“I’m sorry,” Martin said to him. “She’s writing a mystery.”
“Martin!” Louise protested. Whose side was he on?
