Wilmington, NC 05 - Murder On The ICW

the counter. That's the last thing I remember."
    So her attacker had dragged her into the bedroom after he had knocked her unconscious. Mickey's body was already there, he was already dead when Melanie surprised the killer. Or had he lain in wait for her in the dark house? Waited so he could put the knife in her hand and try to make it look like Melanie had killed not once but twice? Perhaps he had intended to strike Melanie on the temple, to knock her out and make it look like a self-inflicted wound. Maybe she had turned her head as he struck.
    "The kitchen light was off when I got there. He turned it off. I'm taking you to my house tomorrow." I told Melanie. "We've got to stick together, take care of each other. There is a killer out there and he's set on pinning the blame on you."
    "Oh, I just want to go home to my dear little house on the cove," Melanie cried.
    "You can't, Melanie," I said fiercely. "You can't go back there. It's a . . . “Mess was what I wanted to say. I settled for, "crime scene. The police will probably be back again tomorrow. Look, Mel, when they are finished, I'm going to have the carpeting stripped out. I don't want you to see it."
    "That bad?" she asked in disbelief. "Can't we have it shampooed?"
    "Melanie, you don't want it. We decorated that house together seven years ago. Remember how much fun we had. Now it's time to redecorate."
    She had no idea how bad it was. We'd have to repaint because there were blood splatters on the wall.
    I tried to get her mind on to something pleasant. "You know you've got hard wood floors under that carpeting and hard wood floors are in vogue again. Let's strip them and bleach them. Repaint. Recover the furniture. Redo everything."
    "Okay," she said drowsily. Then her eyes fluttered open. "You didn't get to tell me your news. Remember, we were going to celebrate something tonight."
    How sweet she was to think of me at a time like this. "Jon and I are going to get married when I'm free. Nick filed for a divorce, Melanie. He is really through with me."
    "That scoundrel," she hissed. "Oh, I can't keep my eyes open another second." But they snapped open again. "Spunky! Is he with you?"
    "Oh my gosh , Spunky! No," I said, realizing guiltily that in all the excitement I'd forgotten all about him. "I didn't see him. He must have been hiding."
    "Well, you’ve got to go back there and find him, Ashley! My poor baby. He'll be scared out of his wits with police all over the house. Why, he might have even run outside."
    Tears slid down her cheeks.
    I jumped up. "I'm going right now," I said, and nearly ran from the room. If he was outside, he'd be terrified.

20

    "There is no way you are going back to that house alone," Jon declared. "I'm driving you."
    "I'm going too," Cam said. "It'll be better than sitting around here. Melanie's asleep. I'll be back in the morning, hopefully with good news that we've found Spunky. She's crazy about that cat."
    "Surely the police will have left by now," I said. "I don't want to have an encounter with them."
    At one in the morning the medical center parking lot was quiet as we made our way to Jon's black Escalade. Soon we were flying down Seventeenth Street to Shipyard Boulevard, then on to Holly Tree Road and Greenville Loop. We turned right off of Greenville Loop Road onto Old Military Road and were soon rolling into Melanie's driveway.
    The house was lit up like an ocean liner, every light in the house blazing. Yellow crime scene tape had been strung along the fence and among the trees, across the garage door, and looped over the porch rail. But no cops!
    "Hallelujah!" I told Jon. "The cops are gone."
    I got Melanie's house key out of my purse, we lifted the tape and slipped under it, and I let us in the front door. "Careful where you step," I warned, recalling how I'd stepped into a pool of blood. We entered cautiously and looked around.
    "Good lord, this is a disaster," Cam said. "Ashley, we cannot let Melanie see her house in this condition. We've got to keep her away."
    "We will. And just as soon as the cops give me the okay, I'll have Willie Hudson strip out the carpeting and paint those blood-splattered walls. We'll crate up her furniture and put it in storage. Redo everything. Make it look different."
    Already I was moving to the hall closet for Spunky's cat carrier. "Guys, start searching. Pretend you're a cat. Where would you hide?"
    "I'll take the bedroom wing, Cam," Jon said, " you take the dining room and living