Dead Sure?: A Paranormal Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

one hideous looking monster, what a set of teeth.
    Unexpectedly, Bill’s loud yelling from the downstairs hall distracted Charles from further inspection of the medallion. “Charles, get your ass down here, now!”
    What the hell does that idiot want? I need to rifle through the rest of these drawers and get all of the spoils. On second thought, perhaps I should leave the rest for another day, a day without a partner or a boss that knows my whereabouts and expects a cut. “Shut the hell up Bill!  I’m on my way!” Yelling and forcing me to yell back a response, what a great way to be sneaky and not draw further attention. That guy is such a “genius”.
    Charles quickly stuffed the strange medallion into the right hand pocket of his suit coat along with a bunch of the other jewelry he had been busily collecting. Quickly he headed down the stairs. I don’t want Bill to see my private stash, he thought glancing back longingly --don’t go anywhere, babies, I’ll be back real soon.
    As he came out into the downstairs hall Bill was standing there with some kind of stupid look on his face. Perhaps he is trying to think again. That’s just too much for him, Charles thought smiling inwardly. “Okay, so what’s so all fired important?”
    “I found a safe, and the boss said you’re good at opening them,” replied Bill, having a hard time with being complimentary.
    “I’m not just good at it. I am great at it. Show me the safe, I’ll have it open in no time.”
    Charles was beaming with pride as he sauntered down the hall with Bill. He was an excellent safe cracker and always loved to show off his skill to an audience, any audience, even Bill.
    “Did you find anything good up there?” asked Bill curiously, eyeing up the black leather bag Charles always carried with him on heists.
    “A little bit of jewelry,” he replied, trying to sound nonchalant. Earlier, so as not to raise Bill’s suspicions, he had placed a few of the smaller, cheaper pieces of jewelry into the bag. He knew Bill would be asking and so would the boss. He wasn’t in the habit of skimming off the top, but this was just too great a chance to pass up. “Take a look at it if you want while I get the safe open.”
    They entered the last bedroom on the right and Bill pointed across the room to the spot where the picture had been hanging. A rather large wall safe was now revealed. It was bigger than most of the ones Charles had previously seen. He judged the dimensions of the door to be somewhere around three feet wide by two feet tall. The door was recessed into the wall just enough to have allowed the large picture to lay flat without revealing what was behind it. Charles assessed by the dust-free well worn handle and dial, it has been used recently. For all his earlier trepidation about this heist, things were surely going great now. Charles reached into his inside suit pocket and pulled out what appeared to Bill to be a thin rubber tube with a cylinder the size of a spool of thread fastened to one side. The other side had a small thimble sized “thing” fastened to it. Charles put the thimble sized end into his right ear and the other end he held up against the safe door.
    “Back up and give me some room to work,” he grumbled to Bill. This was going to be trickier than he thought. To do this kind of work you had to listen carefully, and the rain that had subsided for awhile was beginning to pelt the windows hard again. He started to turn the dial and work his magic when thunder boomed and forced him into starting over.
    Bill had moved out of the way and then some. He was on the other side of the bedroom rifling through Charles’s bag. This stuff isn’t too bad. It’s a lot better than what I found so far. I can’t wait to get my hands on some cash for it. Perhaps the pearl necklace might get me something else. Glancing up from the bag, Bill looked across the room with a ruthless look that would have worried Charles had he seen it. His