Martin Misunderstood Read Online Free PDF Page B

the
office, saying, 'Shit, Marty, gimme the spray.
Something dead just crawled outta my—' He
stopped when he saw Martin's guests. 'What are
the cops doing here?'
    Martin opened his bottom desk drawer and
fetched the OdorOutter (one of Southern's most
popular sellers). 'They're here about my car,'
Martin told him. 'Be sure to tell Ben Sabatini that
when you see him next.'
    Daryl shook the spray can and headed back
into the bathroom. The office was so quiet they
could hear the spraying and subsequent
coughing. Martin held his breath (Southern had
settled a civil suit out of court with a customer
who claimed that OdorOutter ate away the
lining of her esophagus) and smiled at An.
    Daryl came back out of the toilet, waving his
hand in the air to fight the fumes. His voice
cracked when he spoke. 'Damn, sorry about that,
folks.' He coughed a few times, then a few more.
Then even more. Martin shot an apologetic look
to An as he plucked some tissues out of the
Kleenex box on his desk and handed them to
Daryl.
    'Jesus!' Daryl choked. He cleared his throat a
few times, spit in the tissue, then handed it back
to Martin. 'Thanks, man.' He wiped his mouth
with the back of his hands and addressed the
detective. 'Are y'all here about all that blood on
his car?'
    Suddenly, the OdorOutter wasn't the only
thing sucking breathable air from the room.
    An asked, 'What blood on the car?'
    Daryl nodded toward Martin. 'This morning.
He had blood all over his hands, too. I thought
maybe he hit a deer or something, but there was
hair on the bumper – like, hair from somebody's
head.' He shrugged. 'Then Darla saw him outside
by the Dumpster beating the ever-loving Jesus
out of his briefcase.' He glanced back at Martin.
'You oughtta talk to somebody about that
temper of yours, man.' With that, he left the
office.
    Martin felt his mouth moving, but no words
would come out.
    Benedict reached underneath the back of his
jacket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. 'Martin
Reed, I am arresting you for the murder of
Sandra Burke.'
    'Sandy?' he asked, craning his neck to look up
the stairs even as Benedict slung him around like
a sack of Meyer lemons. Was that why she hadn't
come downstairs to talk about Dancing With the Stars ? 'You don't understand!' Martin tried.
'Why would I hurt Sandy? Why would I hurt
anyone?'
    'Mr Reed,' An began, 'why don't you clear this
up right now and tell us where you were last
night?'
    Martin gulped, his face reddening again. This
was awful, just awful. Hadn't this very thing
happened in John Grisham's The Innocent Man – some poor shlub in the wrong place at the right
time?
    'Mr Reed?'
    Grisham was a lawyer. He knew how these
things worked. In his head, Martin consulted the
legal advice contained in his many books. The Client . The Broker . The Appeal . 'I believe,'
Martin began, 'I have the right to remain silent.'
    Wherein We Learn That There is More to Anther
Than Meets the Eye, or An Another Thing
    An stared at Martin Reed through the observation
mirror. He sat alone in the interview room, his
pudgy face squeezed into a ball of fear. The
wisps of hair covering his round head reminded
her of Charlie Brown. He kept clenching his
fists on the table in front of him as if Lucy had
yet again tricked him into trying to kick the
ball. It was the same kind of clenching he'd
been doing when they'd walked into his office –
or at least what Martin seemed to think was his
office. To An's eye, it looked like a break room
that had two desks and was stacked almost
wall-to-wall with boxed payables and receivables
from the last fifteen years. If anyone
found it odd that the accounting department
was basically an adjunct to the toilets, no one
was commenting.
    Bruce opened the door and came into the
room. 'Nothing in his house.'
    An had assumed the search of the Reed home
would yield little evidence.
    'His mother's terrified, says he's been acting
strange lately. Might be hitting the bottle again.'
    'Again?'
    'She says he doesn't like to