The Man Who Wasn't All There by David Handler (book recommendations website TXT) 📕

‘We’re going to pretend we didn’t hear you say that,’ I responded. ‘Mind you, when I was standing there on Michael’s front porch, it did occur to me that the scent she’d picked up was the Deet that Donna Willis was wearing when we paid a call on her. Donna practically drowns herself in it when she goes into the woods. She’s had Lyme disease twice and is afraid of getting it again. Plus she has serious anger-management issues and detested Austin. Only, Donna had no reason to kill Michael. In fact, she even liked the guy.’

‘They’d met?’

‘Corresponded. She thought he was very nice. A gentleman.’

‘He was a mean bastard,’ Annabeth said coldly.

‘OK, so you were standing there in the mean bastard’s doorway wearing your sexy low-cut dress with your coat unbuttoned, smelling as if you were in the mood for romance. What happened next?’

‘He ushered me inside and helped me off with my coat. My knife was in my coat pocket. Since we didn’t actually have anything to talk about, I didn’t bother to waste any time. Slit his throat from ear to ear right there in the entry hall. Once I’d severed his carotid artery he was gone very fast.’

‘Where are they?’

‘Where are what, dear?’

‘The fingernail scratches. The M.E. said he found skin and blood under Michael’s nails.’

She glanced down at her chest. ‘He did claw at me a bit, but it was more of a reflex than anything else. He didn’t actually put up a fight. He was exactly like Austin in that regard. He didn’t want to be alive either. After he fell to his knees and flopped over on to his back on the hallway floor I grabbed a handkerchief from my coat pocket and wiped the blood off of the knife and my hands. I stepped my way carefully back out the door, making sure I left no bloody footprints, then I used a clean second handkerchief to open and close it. Before I got in the car I took off my bloody coat and dress and changed into the old sweater and jeans I’d brought with me. Then I wadded up the coat, dress and handkerchiefs and wrapped them in a newspaper.’

‘What did you do with them?’

‘A mile or so down the hill from Michael’s place I pulled off on to the shoulder of the road and got out. There’s a very deep ravine in the woods there. I hurled them down there. The leaves are falling so fast now that I’m certain they’re already covered over. No one will ever find them.’

‘Fielding’s spook will, if Fielding asks him to search for them.’ I tugged at my ear. ‘But I’m guessing he won’t. No, I feel certain that Fielding and the governor will keep their mouths shut. These are ruthless men. Politics isn’t bean bag.’

‘Politics isn’t what?’

‘The governor will pridefully collect Michael’s billions on behalf of the state and Michael’s dreams for public education and health care will come true. Should you attempt to implicate him in any way, shape or form the governor will simply shrug and say he has no idea what you’re talking about. Who do you think the state police will believe – a woman who has just savagely murdered Connecticut’s two wealthiest citizens, or the esteemed governor of the state?’

Annabeth didn’t respond. Just stared into the fire in taut silence.

‘Were there many cars out on the road at that time of night?’

She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. ‘I didn’t encounter a single car on my way home. When I got there the kids were fast asleep. All was quiet and peaceful. I took a long, hot shower, climbed into bed and lay there, feeling the most profound sense of accomplishment. I’d done what I had to do to protect my family. If I’d refused Michael’s proposal he would have destroyed me for killing Austin. Made sure that I was locked away for life and that my kids were taken away from me. There was no way I could allow that to happen. If I’d accepted his proposal – well, it was utterly inconceivable that I’d accept his proposal. He’d left me with no choice, really.’ She held my hand to her soft cheek for a moment before she kissed it and said, ‘But now I have to decide what to do with you, dear. You present me with a much different dilemma. I’m madly in love with you, yet you know everything there is to know. Can pick up the phone today, tomorrow or two years from now and tell the police that I confessed to murdering the Talmadge brothers. I’m so incredibly torn. I truly can’t decide whether to kill you or get naked with you.’

‘I vote for getting naked. We’d have a huge amount of fun and I’d end up alive afterward. I can offer you flannel sheets, a wood-burning fireplace and an unparalleled view of Whalebone Cove out of the master suite’s French doors, not that I’m trying to sound like a realtor.’

Annabeth gazed at me, her eyes glittering. She was not only beautiful but incredibly desirable at that moment. I can’t explain why. She’d just shared the details of how she’d killed two people. Was talking out loud about killing a third person – me. Yet I wanted her more at that moment than I’d wanted any woman other than Merilee in a long time. ‘They’re not panty hose,’ she informed me. ‘My stockings, that is to say.’

‘And you’re telling me this because …?’

‘In case your tongue might be feeling adventuresome, which it is. I’ve aroused you. Would you like to know how I can tell?’

‘Desperately.’

‘Because I’m aroused, too. In fact, I’ve never been so aroused in my entire life.’ She turned sideways on the sofa and raised her wool skirt, the better to show me that her black stockings were indeed thigh highs. Then she lay back, opened her legs wide and raised her heels up off of the sofa.

‘Just