Danger Child: A gripping domestic thriller by Julia Derek

Author:Julia Derek [Derek, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adrenaline Books
Published: 2019-03-23T22:00:00+00:00

“A twenty-something Caucasian woman was found brutally murdered among a pile of trash bags on a street in downtown Manhattan yesterday morning,” a news anchor reports on the TV in our living room. I’m watering the big plant in the corner, my back against the wide screen. “Her body was naked and covered with whiplashes, her fingers were cut off along with her ears and breasts, and her face was severely mutilated. The medical examiner says she was raped as well, and that the cause of death was strangulation. Because her face is so destroyed, the police have yet to identify the woman.”

I zone out then, disgusted by what I’m hearing. It sounded like this poor soul was horribly tortured before her rapist finally killed her. What makes someone do something so cruel to another person? I shake my head. There are too many evil people in this world. I thank my lucky stars that Gabe survived his ordeal in the end. I don’t think I would ever have gotten over it if he was found in a similar condition. This wretched woman must have welcomed death when it finally arrived. I remember then that the boys from the Duque sex ring whose bodies were found weren’t in that bad a shape. All three had died from a bullet to the back of the head, killed execution style.

My thoughts move on to the package of cigarettes I found in Gabe’s coat this morning. It’s the same brand that Christine, a woman who attended my book club two days ago, smokes. Half of the pack’s contents was missing, which suggests someone had smoked all those cigarettes. I haven’t been able to smell smoke on Gabe, though, so I’m questioning him being the smoker. When he is done with his session with Alisa, I’ll ask him why he had those cigarettes in his pocket. They shouldn’t be much longer now.

I could have asked him this morning, when I first found them, but for some reason I’ve been putting it off. That has to stop. I cannot shy away from confronting him about anything. I’m not supposed to treat him with kid gloves forever.

Putting away the watering can, I walk into the kitchen to have a banana. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast and that was many hours ago. Even though I’m not really hungry, I have to force myself to eat something or I’ll eventually have low blood sugar. Sitting down on a kitchen chair, I have a bite of the banana. It seems to grow larger and larger in my mouth as I chew it. I keep eating it, though, until all of it has disappeared.

Nadja, the current agent staying with us, enters the kitchen then. She has an exotic look, half Jamaican and half Serbian, I think she told me. Her mane of dark brown hair glitters in the sunshine that hits it. She winces at the sight of me.

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Landis,” she says and gives a close-lipped smile, freezing.

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