“We were right around the corner, saw you beating away and thought we’d stop by and say hi,” I say.
“I literally just left you, I know exactly where you were.”
And that’s when I hear a crashing noise. I can’t quite tell if it was Sophia or someone else, but Patel doesn’t waste a moment. She’s deemed beating on the door enough and announces that she’s coming in. The door appears to have been broken because when Patel pushes on it, the door swings right open.
“This is the police!”
“She should have let me shout that. I’ve always wanted to shout it,” I complain.
Sophia slides into view, hair a mess but a big smile on her face. “Oh… D-Detective. Did something happen?” she asks as her eyes flick to me.
The simple look she gives me tells me that something did indeed happen. Her eyes snap onto mine and get wide in an “Oh, Sandman, the man I wish would frequentmydreams, I have a situation” way.
I cock my head with a very clear “You have it wrong, Jackson’s the only man anyone should ever wish to visit their dreams.”
She tosses in a bit of anger in a “There’s a fucking situation happening and you’re more worried about who does or doesn’t find your husband sexy” way.
And then her head kind of does some strange twitching thing that makes me uncertain whether she’s been bitten by a bug or is having a small seizure until it hits me that she is most definitely hiding a dead body.
I pat Jackson’s shoulder. “I need to take a piss,” I announce with so much vigor that I think I startle Patel.
Then I scoot off into the kitchen.
Really, when Sophia and I were having our dance when we first met, she did a fantastic job of showing me where everything is, but she sure didn’t show me where the dead body was going to be.
Nah. I find the body spread out in the doorway between the kitchen and the hallway, as in ultra-dead bloody half in the kitchen, not-as-bloody half in the hallway.
Either way I move the body, I have the risk of running into Patel.
Do I really even want to do a solid for Sophia? I should prop this fucker up at the kitchen table and invite Patel in for a glass of wine.
But I am a kind and gentle soul… or maybe I’m just nosy and rush headfirst into things… like this situation where if Patel steps three feet to the left, she’s going to see the body where it lies, but if I drag it three feet to the right and she leans that way, it’ll be all over.
I’m not sure locking Patel up in a basement Henry-style would fix this one.
I slide a rug under the body so I don’t streak blood everywhere I go before grabbing the man’s legs. I start to drag him into the hallway thesecondbefore I see Patel’s arm. Quickly, I shove the body back into the kitchen.
“I really would love to have a look around. I know I heard something,” Patel says. “I want to keep you safe, Sophia.”
“I think what you heard was me exercising. I sure get into my exercises and that’s why I didn’t hear you at the door. Jackson, you know how it is,” Sophia says.
“Uh… sure do,” Jackson agrees, sounding like he sure doesn’t.
“Sophia, your door is broken. I heard something. Are you hiding something? Is there someone here threatening you?”
“Absolutely not! Of course not! It’s the first day that Cam went back to school. I’ve been nervous, so nervous, really. You said the door’s broken? I wonder how that happened. I’ll ask my husband as soon as he gets home. Thank you, though.”
“May I look around? I just really want to make sure you and your family are safe,” Patel says because she’s the nosiest woman alive. And then there’s Sophia, well aware that if she saysnoshe looks suspicious. But if she saysyes,and I haven’t dealt with this dead man yet, she’s committed murder.
Well, it’s not like she believes I’ve already moved a dead body and have cleaned up thebloodspilled all over. There’s no fucking way she’d agree to let Patel traipse around with this mess. She’d be an absolute fool to think that I’ve whisked away a dead body in a limited amount of time with an even more limited amount of resources. I mean… I know I don’t actuallytrustSophia, but she can’t possibly be that foolish.
“Yeah, of course you can walk around,” Sophia says.
FOURTEEN
LELAND
Excuse me…
