Under Abnormal Conditions Read Online Free PDF Page B

asked.
    “Yes sir, a robbery. I need to ask you a few
questions. Are you up to it?”
    I knew I couldn’t say no even though I felt
like my head was about to explode. I felt like I had been run over
by a three hundred pound linebacker. “Yeah, go ahead,” I
answered.
    “You received a bomb threat earlier this
evening. Is that correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “What time was that?”
    “I think it was around seven or eight
o’clock.” Just as I answered Phil quietly walked into the
office.
    “How soon afterwards did you call the
police?”
    “Immediately, I -”
    “He should have called me,” Phil
interrupted.
    “Look, I did what I thought was right!” I
shouted.
    “No! You didn’t think. You never do. You make
guesses. If you had followed procedure, none of this would have
happened!” he yelled back. He seemed to be overly emotional over
the loss of a little cash.
    Typical.
    “Mr. Reighton, can I have a word with you
outside?” the officer asked. “Mr. Drake, just wait right here and
I’ll be back directly,” he said as he escorted Phil out of the
office.
    I watched them from the small office window.
I had never seen Phil so irate. I had seen him lose his temper, but
that was different. He was visibly shaken, crying, yelling and
almost inconsolable. The officer grabbed his arm and tried to
finish talking to him, but Phil jerked away and continued to yell
as he pointed in my general direction.
    The door to the cash office opened and out
came a slender white man with a pencil thin mustache and glasses.
He was taking off what looked like doctor’s gloves. I assumed he
was looking for fingerprints. I wouldn’t have even noticed him
except that he walked over and started talking to Officer
Green.
    The officer said something else to Phil and
walked into the office with the slender man. Phil glanced my way
and walked into the break room. They probably thought I had
something to do with it, and with my financial situation I couldn’t
have blamed them.
    After a few minutes, a tall black man in a
suit came out of the cash office with Green and the other officer
behind. My attention quickly shifted to what followed them. There
were two paramedics carrying a stretcher from upstairs. I couldn’t
see the identity of the covered body, and I couldn’t imagine who it
was. I was sure I had been the only one in the club. Maybe they had
caught the guy who tried to rob us. Relieved, I sat back down into
Phil’s chair.
    Not more than a few minutes had passed when
the large man walked into the office.
    “Mr. Drake, I’m Detective Williams. Can I ask
you a few questions?” Williams was the same gentleman I had seen a
few minutes ago. He was a powerfully built black man who looked
like he should have been sacking a quarterback instead of
questioning me.
    “Yes, go ahead.”
    “How well did you know Sherry Allen,” he
asked.
    “I know her pretty well . . .is this about
the robbery?”
    “Not exactly-”
    “Not exactly? Wasn’t that the robber being
carried out on the stretcher?” I interrupted.
    “Sherry Allen was found dead in her
office.”
     
     

Chapter 6
     
     
    “Dead . . . She was the one being carried
out?” Stunned, I didn’t know what else to say. The room fell so
silent I could hear my own heartbeat.
    At first I wanted to call him a liar, but
thought better of that impulse. She couldn’t have been dead. It
seemed like I had just seen her.
    “What time did you see her last?” he
quizzed.
    “It must have been around six thirty or seven
o’clock when I called all the employees to the front of the
club.”
    “And you saw her at that time?”
    “Yes,” I paused replaying the events I could
remember, despite the pain in my head. “But I don’t remember seeing
her leave.”
    “Didn’t you find it strange she didn’t
leave?” he asked as if I had something to hide.
    “I would have, but with so much going on, I
just didn’t notice.” The fact was, I just didn’t care. I spend most
of my time at