Murder at the Mansfield by CB Laurence

Author:CB Laurence [Laurence, CB]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

The nightmare started as it always did, the Georgia air thick and heavy, the sound of cheering and laughing…

Held back by townsfolk, he can’t breathe. Poke walks past, and says, “Wake up, Beau!” Suddenly, Rose is on the platform. Smoke and flames rise around her. She calls to him. “Wake up, Beau! Wake up!”

Beau bolted upright. Thick black smoke filled his small apartment and ferocious orange flames devoured the office stairs door. Choking and sputtering, he dropped to the floor. The intense heat coming from the office below stabbed at his hands and knees as he scrambled outside.

Wanda!

He dashed to her apartment, and with one powerful kick, the jamb splintered and the door sprung open. “Wanda!”

Barely visible through the smoke, she huddled in the far corner by her bed, holding Mrs. Glenn tight to her chest. “Come to me!”

He dropped to all fours and crawled along the wall to reach her. As he passed the stairwell door, he saw the furious blaze on the other side. If the fire reached her storeroom full of dyes and chemicals, the explosion would kill them both.

“Come to me, honey!”

Her eyes wide with fear she yelled, “I can’t! Beau!”

The door burst into flames and she screamed. He leapt to his feet and shielded his face from the severe heat and ran to her. The air itself seemed to be on fire, searing his lungs. “We have to go!” He pulled her to standing and dragged her behind him.

Thick, acrid smoke and ash flooded the room. He could no longer see the way out, only able to follow the wall and hope he hadn’t been turned around. He felt dizzy and weak, like he could lose consciousness at any moment.

The fire raged on the far side of the living room, wild and deafening. Orange and yellow flames danced on the ceiling and burned through the floor. They passed the stairwell door, and he sensed the exit was close. They stood above the storeroom now. He yanked on her to move faster.

Almost there. He could see the doorway to the outside, smoke rushing out in a giant plume. He straightened and propelled Wanda forward.

The cat jumped from her arms and ran back toward the bedroom. She yelled, “Mrs. Glenn!” and wrested from his grip.

“Wanda! No!”

She scampered back into the smoke. She held Mrs. Glenn and had only a few feet left to go when a great fireball exploded through the floor, trapping her on the other side and throwing Beau outside onto the landing.

Beau scrambled to the door in time to hear Wanda scream and watch her fall into the shop below.

“Nooo!”

He stumbled down the cement stairs then staggered, wheezing and gasping, to the front of the building. A fireman caught him before he fell to the ground. “There’s a woman in there! In the beauty parlor!”

The fireman’s expression told him what he couldn’t face.

With a last gulp of air, his world went black.

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