SHIVER SWEET by Elliston H

Author:Elliston, H [Elliston, H]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-08-09T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

CHRISTA

I stared at the boarded kitchen window, remembering the good times John and I had shared over the years; our beautiful wedding day with Sarah as a bridesmaid, soaking up the sun in Spain, buying this house and getting excited about restoring it to its former glory. Oh, my... I sighed. Our marriage hadn’t all been bad, and John had been an excellent step-dad to Sarah. Christ. And now he was dead. That was the last thing I’d expected when the police knocked on my door.

“You okay?” Nicola asked, rinsing her hands at the sink.

“It seems silly now, Nicola,” I mumbled. “But, at first, I thought the cops had come around to...” Oh, shit. Thank goodness I stopped myself. What a disrespectful thought at a time like this.

“To what?” Nicola asked, turning to face me. “Christa?”

“Forget it. This is far worse. How could anyone do such a thing?” John’s murder was so hard to process. I didn’t want him in my life anymore, as a husband, and if I’d caught up with him yesterday I’d possibly have throttled him, but it still hurt so very much and left me feeling empty. “And the deadline... well, this explains why he never contacted me.”

“There are some nasty people in the world.”

“Nasty doesn’t even begin to describe it.” Wanting to swap my brain for one which didn’t teem with depressing thoughts, I scraped a chair across the kitchen tiles and stepped on it. “I’ve been meaning to clean these cupboards for weeks. They’re filthy.”

“Christa, now is not the time for cleaning.” Her voice lowered to a mumble. “I just wanna curl up and sleep.”

“It’s therapeutic. I need to take my mind off things.” Oh, I couldn’t bear to think about what horrors John must have gone through for a moment longer, and I had to stay strong for Sarah. I opened the corner cupboard first and removed all the tinned food, slamming them down on the worktop in pairs. A packet of peanuts sat at the back. I ripped the plastic packaging open and tossed a few nuts in my mouth. I crunched down and a wooden saltiness exploded across my tongue. But really, I could have used a sugar boost. I offered them to Nicola. “Have you eaten today?”

She shook her head. “Kinda lost my appetite.”

Once the shelf was empty, I squirted anti-bacterial spray inside the entire cupboard and scrubbed vigorously with a cloth. Anxiety buzzed through my entire body. “It’s filthy. We live like pigs.”

“It’s not that bad,” Nicola said with a sigh. “You’re just stressed. Please come down.”

I opened the next cupboard, emptied its contents onto the crowded worktop, scrubbed the interior then moved onto the third. By now, my right arm ached in protest, but the muscle burn actually felt good. “Sarah’s devastated. My parents are totally shocked. Here’s me worrying about John telling Sarah about her real dad, and all the time he was... was dead.”

Nicola, who was checking the sell by dates on the tinned food, looked up at me.

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