Deathly Christmas Read Free Page A

it isn’t…. Betty gasped a moment later. It’s a person. Is it Jennifer? No, it can’t be…..Yes it is. What’s she doing lying on the floor? Has she fainted?
    Betty knocked gently on the glass, but Jennifer didn’t move. She then tapped a little louder, but she didn’t want to shatter the glass. When Jennifer still didn’t stir, Betty became concerned. She tried to get her phone out of her bag, but she was trembling and she dropped everything.
    Picking up her bag, she began to cry. Betty was surprised at herself. She very rarely wept, but after the recent murders, she had become edgy and nervous.
    Betty stood there for a few minutes, not knowing what to do and then looked inside again. Jennifer still wasn’t moving, so even if she wasn’t dead, she was most probably badly hurt.
    Finally, managing to get her phone out, she realized she didn’t know who to ring. Barely speaking a word of Greek, it would be too difficult to ring the police. Anyway, she wasn’t sure if Jennifer was dead, so she could end up looking foolish if her friend had just fallen. If she rang Don, he wouldn’t be able to get to Jennifer’s house because of his twisted ankle, and anyway he didn’t speak much Greek either. Perhaps she should see if the French windows were open, but she was terrified. What if Jennifer was dead? Betty was petrified of being so close to a corpse, but she had no choice. She stood there for a moment and then, taking a deep breath, tried the French windows. She didn’t know how she felt when they opened, but nevertheless she went in, albeit nervously.
    Betty slowly walked over to Jennifer, but when she reached her, she wasn’t able to look down. She started sobbing again and a sick feeling overwhelmed her, but finally she knew she couldn’t put it off any longer. Betty glanced down at the woman who was supposed to be her new best friend and David’s next love.
    Jennifer’s face had a horrifically contorted expression on it and Betty realized straight away that she was well and truly dead. She knew she was going to be sick and she dashed into the bathroom as quickly as she could.
    Coming out a few minutes later, she sat on a chair as far away from Jennifer as possible. She didn’t know what to do, but then she thought of ringing David.
    He’ll take charge and sort this out, I know he will….Oh no, he’s with Eve having Christmas lunch at Pete and Annie’s. Still, that would ruin her Christmas, she smiled wickedly. No, she then thought, I mustn’t think like this now, not with Jennifer barely cold.
    Betty then thought of calling Pete, but as he and David were together she might as well ring David after all. They could decide between them who would come over. Both David and Pete spoke Greek quite well so either could ring the police.
    Although Betty was still trembling, she managed to calm down enough to make the phone call. In the end she knew she couldn’t take advantage of this terrible situation so she rang Pete, not wanting to make it look too obvious that she was trying to take David away from Eve on Christmas Day.
    Betty came straight to the point on the phone, not wanting to show that she was upset. She never liked to appear weak. 
    “I’m sorry to bother you, Pete. I’m at Jennifer’s and she’s dead.”
    She didn’t think it worth giving a description of what the body looked like. He would see Jennifer soon enough. She hoped he would be there within minutes as she didn’t want to be there any longer than she had to be. It wasn’t much fun being alone with a corpse, especially one as awful looking as Jennifer’s.
    Pete also didn’t mince his words, despite being shocked by the news, and told her to stay put and that he’d be there shortly. Meanwhile, Betty rang Don to tell him the bad news. He was worried about her being there on her own and told her to come home and get him. However, Betty didn’t want her Christmas dinner to be ruined and insisted that he stayed at home and looked