Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) Read Free Page A

became so engrossed in the story that all worries and concerns disappeared but, tonight, she couldn’t concentrate. She read a few sentences and then had to read them again because her mind had wandered. Annoyed, she stuck her bookmarker in the book and closed her eyes.
    What time will David be home tonight? she wondered. Lately, it wasn’t unusual for him to come home in the wee hours of the morning. She always pretended to be asleep but, as she lay there, eyes closed tightly, trying to breathe normally, she could hear him, bumping into the furniture, knocking things over and muttering profanities. She knew that he was drinking a lot and she’d begun to worry that he was having an affair. They hadn’t had sex in a long time. The only times he acted as if he wanted her were when he was drunk or when he knew they couldn’t. Like tonight before dinner, she thought.
    I wish things could go back to the way they used to be. We used to talk for hours and he always made me laugh. Now, those times are few and far between. What happened to the David I used to know? she wondered. She set the book on her nightstand and reached up to turn out the lamp.
    She heard a noise in the hallway. Is one of the kids up? she wondered. She sat still, cocking her head toward the door. A few seconds passed. She grabbed her bathrobe from the bottom of the bed. The voice of the newscaster on the radio popped into her head. “Another woman was found strangled … .”
    She shivered as she quickly donned her robe. As she headed for the hallway, a terrible thought occurred to her. Oh, my God! Did I remember to lock the back door?

Chapter 4
    Tuesday, October 28th
     
    ANN HADN’T SLEPT WELL . The noise that frightened her the night before turned out to be nothing, but it got her adrenalin pumping; she’d tossed and turned for hours. Today, she was especially glad that she’d arranged to have Nancy, a sixth-grader who lived two houses away, walk the kids to and from school every day.
    She began her morning routine. She went through the apartment, straightening up. She picked up the toys that Davey had left scattered all around, carried them into his bedroom and tossed them in the toy box. Then, she made the kids’ beds and washed the breakfast dishes. She wanted to vacuum but knew that would have to wait. As he often did, David had gone back to bed as soon as the kids were out the door. There was no way she wan t ed to be blamed for waking him before he was ready to get up. That would give him another reason to start an argument and they had more than their share of those already.
    She decided to check the mail . As she walked through the living room, she heard the loud clanking sound of Olivia Berger’s electric wheelchair lift. Please don’t let that wake David, she silently prayed. She opened the door and stepped into the hallway, expecting to see her elderly landlady sitting in her wheelchair, but the hallway was empty.
    Oh well, Liv must have gone back upstairs already, she thought. She picked up her stack of mail from the table that stood directly under the mail slot in the wall and leafed through the usual bills and advertisements. “Not more of these,” she muttered, glancing at the two oversized postcards with colored photos of smiling candidates attempting to sway voters their way in the upcoming election.
    She smiled when she saw the postcard showing a collage of some of the historic homes in Beaufort, South Carolina. She flipped it over to read the message from her sister. “Ann, I won’t stop trying to tempt you until, one of these days, you and the kids come down to visit me. Love, Marnie.”
    Then she saw it: a white envelope with her name and address typed on it. As usual, it had no stamp and no return address. She opened the flap of the envelope and pulled out the sheet of white paper. She sighed. Another love poem from Lawrence, she thought. She quickly unfolded the paper and read the short poem.
     
    “I see in your