2nd MBTA excerpt

Excerpt from Murder by the Acre

       Although DeMatt Real Estate and Auction closed at six, light still shone through the windows. Mrs. Roberta DeMatt had gone home, but found her house too quiet and too empty after the events of the day. As she always did when she was upset, she went down to her the office and tried to make a dent in the ever-present pile of paperwork on her desk.
      Alex used to say that the paperwork bred at night, she remembered. She resolutely turned from that memory. Her husband had been dead for five years, but thinking of him could still bring a sorrow crushing down on her. He wouldn’t want that, she thought. Alex would want me to go on with my life.
      And she had tried hard to do that, attending every civic club she could fit in her schedule, teaching a Sunday school class of teenagers, working to make DeMatt Real Estate the number one real estate in Ryton. And we’re close, Alex, she thought. I wish you were here to see it all. It’s not worth it without you. None of it is.
      She closed her eyes, but the tears came anyway. It was going to be a lonely night. She gave fleeting consideration to calling a couple of friends, but she knew they were getting tired of her sorrow after five years.
      And who can blame them, she thought. I know I’m tired of it. Everyone told her that she just needed time, but how much time was enough, she wondered. When do I get to stop hurting? When does my life go on? When do I get to be happy again?
      Wearily, she laid her head down on her desk. She knew she should go home and get some rest. It had been such a terrible day. Poor Danny Nelson. And the horrible way she had acted to Lisa and Bernard. She had called the library to apologize to Bernard, but the girl who answered told her that Bernard would not be back until tomorrow. I’ve probably lost that sale, she thought. I’ll send them both a letter of apology first thing in the morning. And call them, too. Maybe they’ll understand.
      She had been on edge for days. Ever since she found those papers. She grimaced. What was she going to do? She knew what she should do, but so many families would be affected. And they would blame the one who brought the whole thing down. Could she live with ignoring the whole matter? She had already pulled her listings, but was that enough? And when it all fell apart -- as it eventually would -- wouldn't that indicate that she had known?
      Oh, how she wished she had never gone there. Why did this have to fall on her? She longed for Alex. He would have known what to do. He had always known the wisest thing to do.
      Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Her heart pounded painfully as she realized someone was in her office. Someone was standing at the door. She didn’t want to move; if she didn’t look, maybe no one would be there.
      Slowly she raised her head. She registered the barrel of a shotgun, and she thought fleetingly of her precious husband before the thunder roared.

Copyright 2007 Stephen B. Bagley. All rights reserved.

See the previous Murder by the Acre excerpt here.