Читать книгу Guilt By Silence - Taylor Smith - Страница 2

When the black, hairy thing fell out of the envelope and landed on her outstretched hand, Mariah screamed and leapt back, dropping both the envelope and the creature. Nothing happened after a few seconds, and she slipped around the walls to the broom closet, her eyes never leaving the manila envelope. Pulling out the broom, she raised it to waist level, bringing it down hard, over and over. Then, cautiously, she used the handle to slide the envelope off the remains of what lay underneath. She expected a sticky mess, but the paper slid easily away from the black, hairy whorl.

It wasn’t a tarantula. It wasn’t a spider at all. It was hair—a few curls of familiar black hair flecked with gray. It was David’s hair, she was certain. She picked up the envelope to examine it more carefully. Inside were several stiff sheets of paper, which she withdrew. They were 8½-by-11-inch photographs of a man and a woman, naked, on a bed, in various positions of lovemaking. It was her husband, David, and Elsa.

Mariah fought down nausea, pushing away the pain and anger. Why had she been sent the envelope? Why now? It was a game of terror they were playing with her, teasing, threatening. But who? And what did they want her to do? Or not do, she suddenly thought. What are the rules here? How do I know how to play along if I don’t know the rules or the object of the game?

“Sharp characterization and a tightly focused time frame…give this intrigue a spellbinding tone of immediacy.”

—Publishers Weekly on The Best of Enemies