Bound Read Free Page A

chore she couldn’t accomplish.
     
    The tool in his hand was a metal OBGYN-type speculum with the ends shaved down to points like knife-tips. Mr. Walsh turned the sharpened ends toward Kramer’s chest and pushed it forward with all his strength.
     
    Between his grip and the ropes on her wrists, she had little wiggle room, but it was enough to arch her back and spin her chest away. One of the pointed ends of the speculum entered between two rib bones and punctured her right lung, which caused immediate stress in her breathing ability.
     
    A gun went off somewhere in the basement.
     
    Mr. Walsh’s hand came away from her mouth and nose. Breathing was even more difficult than before. It seemed like the one bulb in the basement went out for Kramer.
     
     
     
    #
     
    Kramer regained consciousness as she was being loaded onto a stretcher. An officer was standing over her.
     
    “What happened?” she managed to ask.
     
    “We got ‘em, thanks to you. You’re going to make. You’ll be okay.”
     
    “Got who?” she asked, feeling slightly out of it. “You mean, Mr. Walsh?”
     
    Bruce nodded. “You didn’t show for dinner. The great Kramer would never stand me up. I figured you’d come to the Walsh house, so I thought I’d do a drive-by tonight. I found your car parked a block down. The engine was cold when I touched the hood. It set off my internal radar. When I came to the door, Mrs. Walsh was acting weird. Then I heard someone screaming from the basement. I asked to check it out but Mrs. Walsh said no. I called for backup and explained that I had probable cause and entered the house anyway. I cuffed Mrs. Walsh and then got startled and fired my weapon by mistake. I found you in the basement.”
     
    A paramedic stepped forward and tried to push Bruce away. “Sir, we have to get her to the hospital.”
     
    Kramer lifted her good hand and touched Bruce’s arm. He turned back.
     
    She tried to speak, but nothing came out.
     
    “What? What are you trying to tell me?” Bruce asked.
     
    “The…” she waited, breathed in, cringed with the pain, and said, “wall.”
     
    “The wall? Is that what you’re saying?”
     
    Kramer nodded.
     
    “What about the wall? Is there something in the wall?”
     
    Kramer nodded.
     
    Bruce went to ask something again and then stopped, stared down the street, then looked back at her.
     
    “Is Kelly in the wall?”
     
    Kramer nodded.
     
    “Okay. Thank you.” He looked at the paramedic. “Take her away and bring her back in one piece. Nothing happens to this one, you hear?”
     
    Kramer was lifted into the back of the waiting ambulance, where Kelly sat beside her all the way to the hospital, smiling and mouthing the words, ‘ Thank you’.
     

The Numbers Game - A Preview
     
    An excerpt from The Numbers Game.
     
     
    I never thought I’d be up on first degree murder charges. The proof is in the numbers. I know this. But they don’t.
     
    I’m a vacuum cleaner salesman. I used to sell shoes, but now I sell Kirby’s. I run door to door and try to sell my G8 Kirby upright vacuums. The killing has nothing to do with me, but one of the people I had just done a presentation for was murdered minutes after I left their house. I’m innocent.
     
    This is my story. Call it a diary. I won’t lock it. Besides, I don’t have a lock or anything metal in my prison cell. They don’t allow those things. So I will write my tale and let everyone know what I do and how I do it so they can see that I’m not a murderer. I can’t afford a lawyer from the money I make selling vacuums, but I’ve got legal aid, although that’s worth nothing. Maybe the Judge will read this.
     
    It’s lights out so I’ll write in the dim glow I get from across the corridor. It’s a short story so I’ll be brief but there’s two things you need to know up front.
     
    I only got caught because I had Mrs. Gavin’s shoes in my apartment, and someone saw my car in front of her home and