Free The May Day Murders by Scott Wittenburg Page A

good idea of what you must be
going through. My life hasn’t been the same since I lost Marie… it’s been a very difficult adjustment to make.”
    Ann felt a wave of pity. “I’m sorry
too, Jerry. I might as well be honest with you—I was the one who
wanted the divorce– but it hasn’t made it any easier to ‘adjust,’
as you put it.”
    He suddenly glanced at his watch.
“Listen, Ann. I’m running late for an appointment and I know you
must go back inside, but I would be delighted if you’d reconsider
my offer.”
    Before Ann could object, he reached
into his breast pocket, pulled out a business card and handed it to
her.
    “ If you should change your
mind, or simply want to chat sometime, just give me a call, okay?
No catch, no strings.”
    Ann stared at the card for a moment,
then took it from his proffered hand. “I’ll think about it, Jerry.
But I can’t make any promises.”
    He smiled broadly and said, “I
understand, Ann. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll only feel regret
that we never had the chance to get to know each other. You’re a
lovely woman, as well as kind.”
    His flattery made Ann melt a little.
“Thank you, Jerry. I’ll think about it—I promise. I’d better go
back inside now.”
    “ Nice meeting you, Ann. Good
day,” he said and stepped into his BMW.
    “ Goodbye,” Ann said, then
turned and walked away.
    When Ann returned, the checkout girl
had already bagged her groceries and was standing patiently by the
register.
    “ Did you catch him?” she
asked.
    Ann nodded. “He was very grateful. How
much do I owe you?”
    “ Sixty-seven forty-two,” the
checkout girl replied.
    Ann quickly wrote out a check for the
amount, feeling the eyes glaring at her from behind. She handed the
check over and showed the girl her driver’s license.
    “ Thanks,” she said as she
cleared the register and gave Ann her receipt.
    “ Thank you.”
    Back in her car, Ann took Jerry’s
business card from her purse and studied it. He was a real estate
broker, apparently working independently, and the card listed a
Dublin address with a local phone number. She wondered if she’d
made a mistake in accepting it, then decided that she hadn’t; the
ball was in her court, after all. She stuck the card back into her
purse and started up the engine.
    When she got home, she could hear the
television coming from the family room as she carried the grocery
bags into the kitchen. After setting them down on the table, she
decided to go in and see if Amy wanted any breakfast.
    “ Good morning, sleepy head,”
she said as she entered the family room. Amy was sitting on the
sofa watching cartoons.
    “’ Morning, Mom,” she
mumbled, not taking her eyes off the tube.
    “ Have you eaten
yet?”
    “ No. I’m not
hungry.”
    “ You need to start eating,
young lady. Let me fix you a bowl of cereal,” Ann
insisted.
    “ I’ll eat later, Mom. Let me
wake up first, okay?” she whined.
    “ All right—but don’t forget.
Any calls while I was gone?”
    “ Karen called. I told her
you’d call her back.”
    “ Speaking of calls, who was
it that called in the middle of the night?” Ann asked, suddenly
recalling the phone ringing at three a.m.
    Amy glanced over at her. “I don’t
know.”
    “ Don’t lie to me, Amy. I
know damn sure it wasn’t for me!”
    “ Really, Mom—I don’t know
who it was. Some crank caller.”
    Ann immediately sensed there was more
to this. “What do you mean? Did they say anything?”
    “ He sure did—it was some
pervert!” she replied with a scowl.
    Ann winced. “What did he say,
Amy?”
    Amy’s eyes returned to the television.
After some hesitation, she said, “He just breathed really hard at
first—you know. Then he said something …”
    Ann felt her pulse quicken. She strode
over so she could face her daughter. “Tell me what he said,
Amy.”
    Amy was silent for a moment, and then
she looked directly into her mother’s eyes. “He said, ‘I want to
fuck