by Simon Largo
Chapter Seven
W. 11th St.
June 8th: 8.05 p.m.
The evening heat was still hitting the high eighties. Ethel shuffled around her house and made her mind up to check on Bert. He still had her plate.
She rode the stair-lift up into the top of the house. The journey was as slow and laborious as always. She noticed the stairwells were dark, Bert had forgotten to put the corridor lights on. Damn him!
Eventually the moving stair-lift ground to a halt and she got off the padded seat rather gingerly, slowly using her cane to walk to Bert’s front door. She knocked once softly with the end of her cane. Nothing.
Ethel used her master key to open the door and entered.
* * *
Inside Bert’s compact apartment, the place was thick with the heat of the evening. No air-conditioning on in here. She padded along a short narrow hallway, calling out for her lodger.
“Bert? Are you there?” No reply came.
Finally she walked in on Bert sitting in his living room, on a high back armchair. The TV was on, sound blaring away.
“There you are, Bert. No wonder you couldn’t hear me. I’ll turn the TV down.”
Ethel spotted the TV remote perched on top of the television itself. She grabbed it and muted the sound, turning to face Bert, who just looked at her stubbornly.
The plate Ethel had come to retrieve was on his lap, the sandwiches long gone. Devoured. Just crumbs left.
“I’m glad you ate the sandwiches. I went to a lot of trouble to make them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make a call.”
Ethel walked a few paces to an antique side table where the landline telephone was situated, and lifted the receiver, dialing a number from a piece of crumpled paper she produced from her apron pocket.
She listened carefully and waited for the call to be connected.
“Hello, is that the 6th Precinct? My name is Ethel White. I want to talk to you about the murder of my cat this morning . . .”
The desk sergeant at the other end of the line remembered the old woman.
“Ma’am. I remember you. I thought we agreed . . .”
“But I found the murderer and I’ve punished him.”
“Really?”
“Yes. He hated George, you see. And that other man I met in the park yesterday.”
“Look, I don’t have time for this. Please do yourself a favor and . . .”
“So you don’t want to hear my confession or arrest me?”
“No. I think we’ll be better off if we keep this off the record. Good-night, ma’am.”
The desk sergeant hung up.
Ethel placed the receiver down and turned to face Bert. She looked at him and spoke softly, almost a whisper, “You hear that, Bert? They don’t believe me. The police are simply not interested . . . anyway, I better be going. Sorry to have disturbed you.”
She picked up the plate off of Bert’s lap. His eyes didn’t flicker. They just stared at his landlady. There was no love lost between them. They hated each other deep down.
Ethel let herself out. The front door clicked shut.
Bert wasn’t feeling himself tonight. In fact he wasn’t feeling anything at all. He was quite dead, in fact.
Dead cold.
About the Author
Simon Largo is the pen name of a new exciting crime thriller author. In the late 1990s, he wrote half a dozen full length feature film scripts covering different genres, from blockbuster thrillers to romantic comedies, and he got noticed and signed by an agent, and waited for overnight success in Hollywood. And waited. And waited some more. Success eluded him at that time, but he never gave up his dream.
So, as an avid reader, and influenced by crime thriller authors like Lee Child, James Patterson, Rachel Abbott and Jo Nesbo, he honed his creative writing skills and decided to pursue writing his first novel, “The Storm Slayer”, Simon’s full length debut novel featuring Detective Mason Trent, a New York homicide cop. Dead Cold is an e-short to accompany The Storm Slayer. The next full-length Mason Trent thriller, book #2 in the series, is due for launch in the summer of 2015.
Simon spends his spare time reading, watching movies, and following the West Ham soccer team. He is divorced with a grown-up daughter and lives in Kent. His favorite vacation hotspot is Florida, USA where he has family connections.
If you would like to contact Simon drop him an email at: [email protected]
You can also find him on Twitter at: @SimonLargoBooks
And Facebook at: www.facebook.com/simon.largoAuthor
Visit the website at: www.simonlargo.com