Free 1 Odds and Ends by Audrey Claire Page A

quickly as she could and ran shouting into the apartment while waving the plunger in the air.
    On some level of comprehension, she realized she heard feet on the stairs down the hall. Also, waving her arm was a sure method to wear herself out. Long before she reached Jimmy, Margot puffed out of breath. Her arms came down, and by some miracle, the rubber end of the plunger popped Jimmy on the head as he ran.
    “Ouch! Are you nuts, lady?” He turned toward her, hands outstretched, and she toppled backward. Her feet hit against something hard, and she started to tumble. Jimmy grabbed for her wrist and captured it. “Look out.”
    Margot screamed. Odds landed on Jimmy’s head and swiped with his paw. Jimmy yelped. He grabbed at Odds but missed.
    “Leave Odds alone, and let me go, you murderer,” Margot shouted, more to startle him into doing what she asked than anything else. She had better sense than to provoke a killer. Well, in hindsight, after she had hit him with a plunger. That could be labeled as inciting him.
    “Freeze,” said a deep voice from the doorway.
    Jimmy stopped fighting to get Odds off his head, and he released Margot. She scrambled away as quickly as her trembling legs would take her. When she saw that it was Peter standing in the entrance, she headed for him.
    “Odds, come away before he hurts you,” she called over her shoulder.
    The silly cat darted from Jimmy’s hair, leaving behind a thin stream of blood on his forehead. Margot weakened even more at the sight, and several pairs of hands held her up. She looked around to find more of the neighbors crowded in the hall, trying to see into the apartment.
    “What’s going on here, Jimmy?” Peter demanded.
    Before Jimmy could answer, Margot pointed to the thing on the floor. “He’s got a body there. He killed someone else.”
    Several women screamed in alarm.
    “Quiet,” Peter ordered. “All of you go back to your apartments. This is police business.”
    No one moved.
    “We have a right to know what’s happening in our building,” Nancy said primly if a bit shakily. “If he’s killed another of our friends—”
    “I didn’t kill nobody,” Jimmy growled.
    “Well, what’s that?” Greg, who had just joined the crowd, demanded. Margot had no more fight in her to say a word. She hung to consciousness by sheer will—and wanting to know what happened.
    “It’s a body bag.” Debra screamed, and the noise level rocketed high again.
    Margot tensed when Peter reached for his gun.
    “Wait, please,” Jimmy pleaded with his hands up in surrender. “It’s not a body. Yeah, it’s a bag people usually use to put bodies in, but that’s not what’s in there. I promise.”
    “Open it,” Peter snapped.
    Jimmy hopped to obey the command, and the zipper stuck on the track. He gave it a good jerk, and something shifted inside the black vinyl pouch. A wave of horror-filled gasps passed over the crowd.
    “Hang on. Almost got it,” Jimmy said. Margot hoped he didn’t get it. She put her hands up to her eyes intending to block out any unsavory views, but she couldn’t help peeking through her fingers.
    The zipper popped and whirred along the track, and then the bag opened. What spilled from within wasn’t remains. Rather it was… “Spaghetti?”
    “Not just any spaghetti,” Nancy butted in. “I recognize that brand. They sell it down at the dollar store.”
    “And those cookies,” Greg added, “and the pancakes.”
    Margot took in the strange sight of a body bag full of what looked like cheap items. All of the packaging was one or at the most two colors. A few boxes were crushed, and someone had taped a bag of cookies closed. A hole had reopened, and a cookie fell out. Odds went to investigate.
    “Odds, leave that alone,” she said. “It’s creepy to eat from a body bag.”
    Peter removed his hand from his gun and walked over to stoop beside the bag. He picked up a box of spaghetti, studied it, and then tossed it aside before