The Savage Heart by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN
Published: 1997-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

THE FIRST THING SHE DID the next morning was to go by Nan’s apartment house on the pretext of handing out leaflets about the women’s emancipation meeting. This also gave her a reason for invading the privacy of Nan’s neighbors.

Women were at home at the first two apartments she visited on Nan’s floor. The third was occupied by a rather irritable man, who stopped her at the doorway. But his wife, a homely yet welcoming soul with a nice smile, invited her in.

“Don’t mind Humphrey, dear,” she said, waving her husband away. “He’s resting after an infarction of the heart, and just mad to get back to work at his job. He’s a harness maker, you see. It isn’t arduous work, but his doctor won’t hear of his returning to it so soon. Poor Humphrey hates sitting around.”

“I think most men do,” Tess replied with a smile. She handed the woman a leaflet, explained what the goals of the group were, and then casually, oh so casually, mentioned that a member of the group lived in the building.

“You mean Mrs. Collier, just down the hall, don’t you, dear?” the woman said, shaking her gray head sadly. “Such a nice child, and her husband such a scoundrel! We could hear him raging at her in their little apartment about her ‘women’s group.’ Once I had my Humphrey go and bang on the door to make him stop. Her body was cut and bruised so often that I wondered how she could bear to live with him. The scoundrel seemed to try to avoid hitting her on the face, where people would see the evidence of his cruelty—though on one or two occasions he did bruise her face. And then that last night—!” She shivered. “When I think that I heard him cry out and didn’t even ask Humphrey to go and see why. They didn’t find him until morning. If he had been found sooner, perhaps he should still be alive.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “The policeman said I heard his death cry. I shall never forget it. He called out her name. Just her name, and then, barely two minutes later, that terrible cry!”

“What name?” she asked gently.

“Why, his wife’s! He said, ‘Nan!’ and the next thing I knew—” She leaned forward. “They said she did it with a pair of scissors!”

“Did you see her?” Tess asked urgently.

“No. I heard footsteps on the stairs and then, seconds later, the outside door open. She didn’t even stop to close it, you know. No, I didn’t get so much as a glimpse of her, but someone else did, and they’re sure it was a woman who did it. Poor Mr. Collier. He wasn’t a good man, but it’s a wicked thing to kill another human being. A wicked thing!”

Demoralized, Tess got to her feet. “Thank you very much.”

“Why, for what?” the woman asked with a puzzled air.

Simultaneously there was a hard knock at the door, and Humphrey went to answer it.

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