But Not For Lust by BJ Bourg (comprehension books .txt) 📕

was threatening to choke off my air supply and I was breathing harder than I should’ve been.

I lurched to a skidding stop when I took in the scene behind the house. Gasping for air, I stared in shock.

“What the hell happened, Sue?”

Susan stood there holding an automatic 12-gauge shotgun in her hands. The muzzle was angled downward and aiming at the back door of the residence. There were two holes in the lower portion of the door. Three of the four glass panes at the top portion of the door were blown out.

“What happened?” I asked again, confused. Susan had been armed with a pistol, not a shotgun.

“In one second, I was standing to the right of the back door waiting for you to knock,” Susan said, apparently still trying to comprehend what had just taken place, “and in the next second, the barrel of this shotgun was shoved through the window and Betty started blasting off shots. If the sound of the breaking glass hadn’t alerted me in that split second, she would’ve gotten me for sure. Somehow, she knew exactly where I was standing.”

“Is she down?” I asked, listening intently for any sound from inside that would indicate Betty was still mobile.

Susan nodded without hesitation. “I dipped low, grabbed the shotgun by the barrel, and jerked it away from her. I flipped it around and fired two blasts through the door. After that, I heard a soft thump hit the floor. She hasn’t moved since and she didn’t make a sound.”

I nodded and pulled a flashlight from my back pocket. As Susan retrieved her dropped pistol from the ground and returned it to her holster, I moved carefully toward the door. I twisted the knob and pushed it open. It moved a few inches, but stopped when it made contact with something soft. I stepped closer and forced it open. When I peered around the edge of the door, I saw the lifeless body of Betty Watts lying there.

I lifted the light and scanned the kitchen and adjoining living room. All was quiet and empty. I slipped inside and held the door for Susan to join me. Once we were inside, I flipped on a light and squatted beside Betty’s body. The woman was clad in the same dress jeans and loose blouse she’d worn earlier. However, the blouse was now covered in blood that gushed from two one-dollar-sized holes in her belly. Her inexpressive eyes were wide. Her mouth was also open wide, but she wasn’t breathing.

Removing a latex glove from my back pocket, I pressed my index and middle fingers to her neck. There was no pulse. I began administering CPR while Susan called for an ambulance. She then dropped down to help me.

Susan and I must’ve taken turns working on her for ten minutes before the ambulance arrived and two medics took over. We stood aside and I glanced around the room. On the far wall of the kitchen, I noticed two splintered bullet holes that marked the continuation of the trajectory the shotgun slugs had taken. I moved closer to examine the holes, and then checked the opposite side of the wall. I found that the bullets had punched right through. There was a hallway wall opposite the kitchen wall, and it was here that the 1 oz. slugs had come to rest. I shivered at the thought of one of those slugs hitting my wife.

“Clint,” Susan called from the kitchen. “Come check this out.”

I rejoined her and she showed me the screen of Betty’s cell phone. I cursed under my breath.

“This is how she knew I was back there,” she said. “She almost got me.”

On the phone screen, every detail of the back yard was displayed in a grayish hue. I stepped around the medics and passed through the back door. I scanned the rear wall of the house with my light. Up in one corner, hardly noticeable even with my light shining directly on it, there was a tiny surveillance camera fastened to the soffit. I shut off my light and the camera became completely invisible.

Whoever installed the camera had definitely intended for it to go unnoticed. I couldn’t help but wonder if Dillon had put it there to keep his wife honest. Since she knew about its presence, he probably hoped it would deter her from engaging in illicit activities, which was why she had been forced to meet men at her sister’s house.

I shrugged at the thought as I considered another option. He could’ve simply wanted to keep his wife safe. Whatever the case, Betty had used it in an attempt to ambush Susan. I thought back to Amy and what had happened to her, and shivered again. I said a silent prayer of thanks and walked to the doorway.

The medics continued to work on Betty as they loaded her onto a gurney and began wheeling her through the house. Susan followed and helped them get her into the back of the ambulance, but I remained behind and headed for the bathroom. I wanted to determine if Nikia had been telling the truth.

“Well, well,” Susan said a minute later when she walked up behind me. “That’s how I looked when I was pregnant.”

I only grunted. I was on my knees and had my arms wrapped around the toilet bowl, searching for the hole that Nikia had described. As I moved my hand along the wall, my fingers brushed up against the baseboard and it moved. I grabbed it with the tips of my fingers and pulled it loose. When I ran my fingers along the wall behind it, I felt a hole. Inside that hole, I found the hide-away phone.

“Got it!” I untangled myself from the toilet and rested on my haunches as I fumbled with the phone. It was a cheap device and easy to work. Within seconds,