On Call: An Original Short Story Read Free Page B

she wanted to have. It’s like…like there’s a piece missing.”
    “Lou thought nobody knew he was involved with her. He alluded to the same sort of discomfort you just did.”
    “Victoria kept me in the loop about Annabelle and Lou, but I figured if he wanted to talk about it, he’d talk about it. Now I feel like an ass.”
    “Don’t worry. It made sense you’d think he might be involved. But he told me that unless he has your blessing, he won’t take the chief resident job.”
    “Now, that sounds like Lou. I’ll get in touch with him as soon as I can.”
    “That’s fine, Paul, but we’ve got bigger problems.”
    “Like I’m going to jail for dealing drugs.”
    “And the person who is probably responsible is dead.”
    “What do we do?”
    “We’ve got to find out who killed Annabelle, because right now, you’re a prime suspect there, too.”
    A dark look crossed Paul’s face. “I’ve been thinking about something, something I’m not even sure I should say. That’s why I came over this morning after our big blowup. I had to tell somebody.”
    “Go on.”
    “It’s Victoria. We’ve been fighting about Annabelle on and off for weeks now. She said she knew Annabelle wanted me. She also said she’s never met a man who could resist her.”
    “Lord knows I’m no expert, but I do believe trust is the cornerstone of a healthy relationship.”
    “When Annabelle started hitting on me, Victoria suspected immediately, even though I never said anything to her about it. She went kind of crazy. Gabe, she was checking my cell phone almost daily to see if Annabelle had called or, I guess, if I had called her.”
    “Annabelle was calling you?”
    “All the time since Kincaid announced I was going to be chief resident,” Paul said. “I had to keep deleting my call history to hide it from Victoria, but that only made her more suspicious. She was insane about the woman. There is so much good about Victoria, but this jealousy thing was getting to be like the elephant in the living room. When the diary surfaced, it was the final nail in our relationship coffin. I didn’t know Victoria could get so angry. Honestly, Gabe, I was a little bit scared she might try to hurt me.”
    “Have you been wondering if Victoria could be responsible for Annabelle’s murder?”
    “I don’t know. At the moment, I don’t know anything. Maybe you can get a sense of what I’ve been up against, and whether it’s possible that…”
    Paul’s voice drifted away.
    “You want me to speak with Victoria and see if I think she could be a murderer? That’s what you’re asking me?”
    Paul nodded. “It sounds so crazy to say.”
    “Well, given what’s happened, crazy has become the new normal. I’ll talk to her and let you know what I think.”

    Victoria and her now deceased roommate lived in the Adams Morgan section of town, in an immaculate two bedroom that could have been an ad for Crate & Barrel.
    “It’s not going to help,” Victoria said.
    She placed a silver tray on the coffee table and poured me a cup of Golden Mojito White from an extensive collection of exotic teas, claiming that it would make me a tea drinker forever.
    I took a sip and hated it, but managed a grin and a thank-you. “Delicious,” I said. “Anyway, what’s not going to help?”
    “Your being here. Paul sent you, didn’t he?”
    “It’s that obvious, huh?”
    “Why else would you call and come here like this?”
    Victoria was a slender, pretty woman with shoulder-length chestnut hair and a pert freckled face that could easily have graced the cover of Connecticut magazine. She didn’t at all strike me as the murderous type, but as with relationships, I wouldn’t exactly label me an expert on the subject.
    “It’s true, Paul sent me,” I said. “He wants you to know that he never slept with Annabelle.”
    “Oh, and you believe him?” The venom in her voice hit me like cobra’s spit.
    “How about you, Gabe? Have you bunked down with