Darkness before the Dawn Read Free Page A

be welcomed with open arms, and then you act insulted when you’re told to get out. I’ll tell you again, Brian. Out of here!”
    “You always were a cold bitch,” he said.
    Of course, I might have to cut him up in small pieces to get him into the freezer
, she thought, and then she mentally slapped herself. Such wistful fantasies were a waste of time. “Get out!”
    “I’m not leaving until my ex-wife tells me to. Even if you can’t fix something as simple as a refrigerator door, I’m not so poor a specimen. You know I’ve always been good at fixing things, Kate.” And he reached for the chair.
    For a moment Maggie thought Kate might faint. Her brown eyes blinked and her face blanched, but then she suddenly stiffened. “Get your goddamn hands off my chair!” she roared. “Get out of my kitchen, get out of my apartment, and get out of my life! You walked out on me when Chrissie was two weeks old and remarried by the time she was three months. You’ve severed any rights you had to our life. Get out, and do it fast, or in another moment I’ll start screaming!”
    Maggie knew the origin of the ragged edge of hysteria in Kate’s voice. Brian was mystified but totally convinced. He slammed the glass of water down onto the kitchen table and stormed from the room. His elegant back radiated rage and disapproval. They heard the door slam all the way back into the kitchen.
    Maggie met Kate’s eyes.
    “I
would
have screamed,” Kate confessed in a whisper. “And I don’t know if I would have stopped.”
    “I was busy fantasizing about putting the bastard in the freezer,” Maggie confessed.
    Kate stared at her in shock. And then a reluctant, nervous giggle escaped her. “He would have deserved it more than poor Francis.”
    “Poor Francis? I thought you threatened to kill him a few hours ago.”
    “A figure of speech.” Kate dismissed it. “Caleb had gotten me riled up over something, and Francis took the brunt of it. Francis and I have always gotten along beautifully. But I wouldn’t have minded if it were Caleb in my bathtub. He’s been driving me crazy.” She took a deep, calming breath. “However, I suppose we’re lucky it
was
Francis. Caleb’s about a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier. I don’t think he’d fit in the refrigerator.”
    “Thank heaven for small favors,” Maggie said faintly. “So who’s Caleb and why is he driving you crazy?”
    “Caleb McAllister is in charge of finances at the studio,” she said with a certain evasiveness. “I’m production, and Francis was creativity. Caleb had been hassling me about some discrepancies in one of Francis’s budgets. So I confronted Francis, and he was damnably vague. He was covering something up, I know he was. But when I tried to find out what it was, he just gave me that snooty little look of his.” She shook her head ruefully. “I can’t even remember which movie caused all the fuss. Probably one of his pseudo-Star Wars epics.”
    “I think you’d better try to remember,” Maggie said. “We’re going to have to figure out who killed Francis and who brought him here, and we’re going to have to do it soon.”
    Kate stared at her. “Did you mean to put it in that order? You said ‘killed Francis’ and then ‘brought him here.’ Wasn’t he killed in my bathtub?”
    “I don’t think so. I think he was killed someplace else and moved here. He didn’t bleed much, but there wasn’t a trace of blood in the tub. And his limbs were—”
    “Maggie,” Kate said in a dangerous voice, “I don’t have anything left to throw up. I’ll take your word for it.”
    “And I don’t think we have any alternative,” Maggie continued.
    “Alternative to what?”
    “We’re going to have to move him back.”
    “Oh, God,” Kate moaned.
    “Well, we can’t leave him in the fridge,” Maggie said with great practicality. “That door really is broken, and sooner or later Francis is going to make an unwelcome reappearance. At best,