Look What You Made Me Do by Elaine Murphy

Author:Elaine Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: None
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2021-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

I stand next to Becca and survey the gory scene in my bathroom. The white of the tub is stained with bright-red blood, dark at the edges where it’s dried and congealed, carving itself into the porcelain like the outline of a map. The tiled walls, faded yellow with age, are now mottled with pink, the aftermath of someone taking buckets of blood and hurling them into the shower, letting the rancid mess drip down the walls and pool in the basin below. There’s approximately an inch of blood, red and black and clotting, with small, unidentifiable globs floating on the top. The smell is horrific.

They put the tub’s plug in, whoever did this. Footloose, most likely. But possibly Becca, my brain whispers. It’s the kind of thing she would do. And guiltily, reluctantly, I think of Graham, who knew I’d be at the funeral and was unhappy with my decision to go. This seems a step too far for someone so kind and even-keeled, but right now no one is innocent, and no one is safe.

Becca takes it all in, hands on hips. With her hair in a ponytail and a bright-green T-shirt with a teddy bear on the front, she looks like neither a serial killer nor a person who might know how to capture one.

“It’s only in the tub,” she says finally, her brows tugged together in contemplation. I’m still on the fence about her guilt, but so far she’s done a fairly convincing job of appearing innocent and unaware. I’d woken her from a nap when I called, shrieking about a bloodbath, and when she’d finally dragged herself off the couch and driven over, she’d given me credit for my literal interpretation of things. Unlike me, she hadn’t screamed until nearly fainting, dropped a baseball bat on her foot, and gagged hysterically as she limped downstairs for her phone.

I’d waited in the living room until Becca arrived, yanking the curtains closed in case he was out there, enjoying the show. Then I paced, a nervous, trembling mess with a throbbing toe, jumping a mile when the furnace kicked in with a low growl and heat squeaked out the ancient vents.

“It’s only in the tub,” Becca repeats now, stepping into the room and plucking my toothbrush from the cup on the sink. She crouches and dips it into the bloody bath, snagging the plug and straightening as the gory mess swirls down the drain. It only takes a minute, the old pipes groaning as they swallow the mess, but the porcelain, its finish long since worn off, is porous, and even with the blood gone, it’s just as red empty as it was full.

“So?” I say finally, unable to look away.

Becca tosses my toothbrush into the sink, the bloody bristles leaving red scratches down the side of the basin. “So,” she says, “if you chopped up a body in the tub, naturally, that’s where the blood would be. Splashing blood all over the room would have been overkill.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.