The May Day Murders Read Online Free PDF Page A

her seem years younger. When Ann was
introduced to Karen on her first day at the agency, the two hit it
off immediately and had become best friends from then
on.
    Bill Warner was Karen’s
boyfriend—mid-fifties, balding, and worshipped the very ground
Karen walked on. They had been dating for over five years and Ann
often wondered why they didn’t simply get married after all this
time. Karen’s explanation was that she’d “already made that mistake
once,” and insisted that she was quite content with their
relationship the way it was. Ann had the feeling, however, that
Bill wasn’t in total agreement with Karen, and would gladly marry
her at the drop of a hat.
    Ann stared blankly at the kitchen table
as her thoughts shifted to Marsha. She felt a tear come to her eye
as the stark reality of her death hit home once again. Already she
missed her lifelong friend, and she knew that life would never be
the same without Marsha Bradley in it. Before moving to Columbus,
Marsha had been her confidante and sounding board during the
divorce, always there to comfort and support her. Marsha had in
fact been one of the few reasons she had been hesitant to move out
of Smithtown after the divorce. Perhaps had she not moved away,
Marsha might still be alive today …
    Ann held her head in her hands and shut
her eyes. She suddenly felt very alone, living in a strange new
city in unfamiliar surroundings. Had she done the right thing?
Would she have been better off forgiving Sam for what he’d done and
staying with him, instead of stirring everything up as she had? The
after-effects of the divorce had so far been anything but
auspicious. Nobody was happy. Not Sam, not herself, and certainly
not Amy.
    And now, Marsha Bradley was
dead.
    Was somebody trying to tell her that
she’d made a mistake?
    The sound of the squeaky hot water
faucet coming from the bathroom reminded her that Amy was going out
tonight and that she’d be left alone in the house for the rest of
the evening. She had never really gotten used to not having Sam
around since the divorce—especially at night—and she had been even
more apprehensive about it since moving to Columbus. Even though
Woodcrest was supposedly a “safe neighborhood” as suburban
neighborhoods go, it didn’t make Ann feel any more secure. The
porch light suddenly crossed her mind and she wondered how the bulb
could have gotten unscrewed so far. Could the wind have done it?
she wondered. Certainly not! Maybe it had been loose all this time,
barely making contact, and had just happened to back itself out far
enough to go out while she and Amy were gone. Yes, she decided,
that’s probably what had happened.
    Just then, Ann heard a rustling noise
outside, coming from the back yard. She stood up and ran over to
the window and peered out. The yard was pitch dark and she recalled
that the floodlight mounted on the roof had never worked right
since they’d moved in. Ann had attempted to replace the bulb
herself but it was too high up for her to reach, so she had called
the landlord and asked him to do it for her. Mr. Ogilvy had come
over the next day with his ladder and a new bulb, and having
finished replacing the old one, had informed her that there was a
short in the wiring and that he had gone ahead and repaired it.
Since then the light had worked sporadically, going off and on
randomly, as if it had a mind of its own. Ann hadn’t yet taken the
time to call Mr. Ogilvy back to tell him that it still wasn’t
working right.
    She would call him first thing in the
morning, she decided.
    Ann’s eyes adjusted somewhat to the
darkness as she looked around the yard as far as she could see from
her vantage point. Finally, a couple of moments later, she felt
assured that there weren’t any intruders outside. Probably a
raccoon or opossum, she thought to herself.
    Ann realized that her heart was racing
now and she looked down at her hands to find that they were
trembling. She smiled wryly, telling