Before You Leap by Houghton Keith

Author:Houghton, Keith [Houghton, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781503938168
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2016-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

H alf an hour later, I was in my car, waiting at a red light at the intersection with the beach road, having spent the preceding time combing the backyard again looking for the chef’s knife, without success.

I had no evidence that the body at the boatyard was Murdoch’s. But the more my search proved fruitless, the more I began to imagine the worse: somehow, during my lost time, Murdoch had ended up dead and in the river, taking my kitchen knife and my fingerprints with him.

And I had no memory of it.

I looked at the drivers filling up their tanks at the 7-Eleven on the corner, my palms slicked with sweat despite the frigid air-conditioning.

Everywhere in sight, the world looked normal, the way it should, with no hint that something very bad had happened nearby. People were going about their everyday business, most of whom would be oblivious to the top local news story unfolding in their own backyard.

Turn right and the boat club was less than thirty seconds down the road. I’d driven by it countless times on my way to the beach, and sailed past it on the river, following the channel as it curled south into Little Hickory Bay. I knew the slipway where they’d found the body; I’d used it. I imagined turning right instead of left, passing the small marina after a quarter mile, and looking over the hive of activity. Sheriff’s cruisers with roof lights flashing, forensics technicians cataloguing the scene, detectives taking notes, Carlos and the TV news crew topping up their footage and beaming updates back to the studio for Gretchen’s eloquent dissection. And in the middle of all the hubbub, at the focus of all the commotion, a medical examiner’s assistant would be standing by, a black body bag at the ready.

By default, death is attractive, and not just to worms. It can’t be seen, but it has a pull. Death has gravity. We call it morbid fascination. It’s the one mystery that no one can solve, and that’s what makes for compulsive viewing.

The red changed to green, and I pulled out onto the beach road, going slow, turning in the direction of my office, away from the scene of the crime. As the car straightened out, I glanced in the rearview mirror, thinking I might see the spectral lights of EMS vehicles in the distance, but I saw no sign.

Did I kill Murdoch?

The thought was unthinkable.

And yet there was a hole in my timeline that I couldn’t account for. A hole that had ended with me draped across the pool chair, muddied and exhausted.

A car horn sounded, and a silver sedan accelerated past. I caught a glimpse of someone giving me the finger as the car sped away.

I wasn’t aware of it, but I had been driving at half the speed limit, causing impatient rush-hour drivers to honk and yell: “Learn to drive, buddy!” “Get off the damn road!” “Move over, Grandpa!”

Even laid-back Florida has its fair share of fast-lane lunatics.

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