AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to jinx my plan by talking about it.”
She suddenly looked worried. “Jackie, I’m your friend but you’ll have to give me some time to think about this.”
“How much time, Pam?”
“At least a week.”
It was far too long, but what could I do?
In the meantime, I turned my thoughts to the possible motive of Sarah Jane Welburn Rizzelli. What would make a woman kill her own sister? Paul said that it was either money or a man.
I was coming out of the drugstore one afternoon, mulling over ways to find out more about Sarah Jane, when I heard someone call my name. When I turned around, a blast of liquid hit me in the face and then a fierce blow landed in my stomach. I fell to the ground, holding my face, with my eyes squeezed tight shut, and screaming.
I heard voices above me:
“Lady, are you all right?”
“Somebody call the police!”
“I saw who did it. It was a female and she ran around the corner.”
“Don’t move, an ambulance is on the way!”
By the time paramedics arrived, the pain in my stomach had subsided and I realized that the liquid was not acid . . . only lukewarm coffee. I jumped in a cab to get away from the crowd that had gathered.
29
ANNABELLE ON THE DOWN LOW
It was hard to tell who was angrier. Both Keith and Paul were huffing and puffing so hard, they looked like blowfish.
I was lying on the sofa, hoping that the attack on me wouldn’t make the papers. It might give my poor mama a heart attack.
“Jackie, did the woman’s voice sound familiar?”
“I think so, but I’m really not sure.”
“That’s very important,” Keith asserted. “We need to know whether it was just some nut who recognized you from all the media coverage and threw the coffee at you on impulse, or is there a woman following you around?”
Paul pounded his fist into his palm. “This woman threw coffee in her face and punched her in the stomach. Instead of a fist, it could just as easily have been a knife. What are you going to do to keep her safe, Keith?”
“She can stay in this house and not go out that door for any reason or I can have one of my men take her everywhere she wants to go. The choice is hers.”
Paul calmed down. “I like the second idea.”
“No,” I protested. “That isn’t going to work for me.”
“Jackie, you could have been killed today,” said Paul.
“I don’t care. Being followed around all the time would be worse than death. But there is something else at stake here. If this was a random act, it only drives home what I’ve been saying about the need to clear my name. Otherwise, I’ll have to watch my back for the rest of my life.”
Keith shook his head. “Jackie, we’ve been through this before. I have my suspicions about what happened to Annabelle and why, but as of right now, there is still no way for me to prove it.”
“You’re right. I just needed to hear you say that one more time.”
Keith didn’t pick up on the warning. Someday he would learn that I had taken matters into my own hands, but he wouldn’t be able to say that I did not give him a chance.
