Jenna Takes the Fall by A. R. Taylor

Author:A. R. Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2020-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

In death, Vincent looked puzzled, shocked was it? The shock that life had stopped right that instant? Maybe he had seen it coming, in the midst of his own ecstasy. Soon the EMTs would be here, and she started to cry again. That would be a nice touch and a true one too as the grave import of what she now did came upon her. She struggled to get herself beneath him.

She heard footsteps and increased her sobbing. Into the front office burst a gaggle of males, and suddenly she felt ashamed of her exposed, unkempt body. Maybe she should try to get up, but no, her instructions had been clear. She lay there still weeping, and these were true tears. Four paramedics, intent on resuscitation, release, information, but restrained somehow, now intruded on the man and the woman in their idyll. From behind, one of them clutched her arms and slid her slowly up and out from beneath the dead man. Jenna gasped and clung to him. “It was horrible, horrible. His mouth just opened, and then he stopped breathing.”

“It’s fine, we’re here now. We’ll see what we can do.” She straightened her blouse, as he hung onto her while the others ministered to the fallen titan. Even they were in awe, and she could see that from the careful way they cut his clothes and rolled him over. Jenna still had her hand to her mouth to keep from screaming.

A man who appeared to be in charge said, “Would you be a part of the immediate family?”

“No, a friend.”

“Ah.” The man paused at the significance of her words. “Please make a report to Morris here.”

Jenna relayed a story of their having a private meeting in another part of the building, then going up to his office for a drink. She didn’t get much beyond the drink before the man called Morris gave her a warning. “As soon as the press finds out your name—and they will—you need to be prepared.”

“Yes.” She knew this already, but what could she tell anyone? That for money she had replaced her friend underneath the body of a dead man so that his august, prejudiced family would avoid scandal around the man’s affair with a black woman? The family demanded this new story that would name Jenna as the guilty, horrible woman at the heart of the matter.

The ride to the hospital in the ambulance, more than anything, gave her the first moments of her altered future, the instant crossing she had made into another world. She sat on a jump seat beside the prone man on a stretcher, calculating how soon the doctors would realize he had died hours before, rather than just minutes. Watching the paramedics work with oxygen and IVs and violent chest-thumping made her hyper-conscious of her task, to feign hysteria. It was all such a terrible lie, and yet her own heart pounded, and she kept wringing her hands in despair, because she was in despair.

Jenna followed the

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