"Gardner, Renee - What Are Friends For" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Renee)

Hours later as pellets of rain beat against Sabrina's windows, the phone rang. Faith's lush contralto voice greeted her. "What's up? Sorry I wasn't around for you, but I was at the gym." She spent hours every week toning her body at a popular singles gym.

"Pick me up in five minutes. We'll go back and get rid of your fingerprints," was Faith's calm response after Sabrina described her affair with Amos Beller and this evening's awful course of events.

A short time later, shrouded in long black raincoats, the two friends snuck back into Amos's office. While Sabrina hovered nervously beside her, Faith searched for a pulse in Amos's wrist. "He's dead," she announced calmly. "Wait in there while I get rid of your prints," Sabrina felt herself being pushed into the examining room.

During what seemed like an endless wait, Sabrina paced back and forth in the small room, determined not to think about what Faith might be doing. When Faith finally did appear in the doorway, a smile flickered on her face. "Done," she said. "And if we put him in the dumpster that's out back, he won't be missed until after he's due back from Barbados. And by then he'll be buried in a land fill."

"You're wonderful." Sabrina's deep sigh expressed gratitude for her friend's many kindnesses that stretched all the way back to their childhood when Faith automatically made extra copies of her homework in case Sabrina didn't do hers and covered for her when she stayed out beyond curfew.

Instead of acknowledging Sabrina's thanks, Faith grabbed a rubber sheet and surgical tape from a shelf. "Let's use these to bag him up. Give me a hand."

Sabrina wordlessly obeyed her friend's instructions to spread the sheet on the floor. As they attempted to swing his body onto it, a loud clunk shattered the tense silence. The women stared at each other.

"What was that?" Faith demanded.

"His gun." Sabrina nodded toward the small revolver pointed ominously toward her. "It fell from his leg holster. He always wore it. He was afraid of being robbed."

"Well, put it back."

Sabrina's hand trembled badly as she retrieved the weapon and tried to replace it in its holder without touching Amos's body. She had nearly succeeded when her hand grazed his leg. "I'm going to be sick," she whispered, fighting back a wave of nausea.

"You poor thing." Faith sympathized. "Get some water."

Sabrina stumbled through the dark office suite to the patients' lavatory and splashed her face with water until the nausea subsided. Upon her return to Amos's office, she saw a large flat mummy-like package in the middle of the floor. It lacked a tell-tale projecting bump. "What did you do with the letter opener?" she asked.

"I put it in his pocket."

Sabrina's eyes grew wide with horror as she visualized her friend wrenching the bloody murder weapon out of Amos's chest. "You touched him?"

"Of course," Faith said casually. Now let's get going. I'll take his shoulders. You get the other end." Sabrina lifted her end without protest.

The women cast eerie shadows on the bare walls as they carried their heavy package through the corridor. "Coast is clear," Faith announced after cautiously opening the back door.

"How are we going to get him into that?" Sabrina warily eyed the waist-high dumpster.

"Stand aside. I'll do it and cover his body with trash." So saying, Faith hoisted the heinous package into the trash hauler as easily as if she was lifting a baby.

"How can I ever thank you?" Sabrina gushed as she pulled her car up in front of Faith's apartment building.

"Not to worry." Faith blew her a kiss and ducked under the doorman's umbrella.

* * *

Two sleeping pills washed down with another large scotch sent Sabrina into a deep sleep that lasted until Simon's hungry meows woke her the next morning. "It's way past your breakfast time, you patient little darling." Sabrina affectionately rubbed the cat's velvet soft ears as she carried him on her shoulder into her tiny kitchen. While he lapped up his chicken and beef pat meal, she returned to the bedroom where she carefully searched everything she wore the previous day for incriminating blood stains. Though all appeared spotless, she felt something was amiss. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself as though to ward off a chill as she mentally visualized how she looked when she stood in front of the mirror.

"Oh, no. Oh, no," she shouted. At the sound of her terrified voice, Simon bolted through the kitchen into her home office, flung all sixteen pounds of himself onto Sabrina's desk, then sprinted to the top shelf of the bookcase, settled on his hunches and reproachfully stared down at her.

"My stole!" Sabrina wailed. The gorgeous silver gray mohair stole she had draped on her shoulders; the stole that Faith gave her last Christmas; the stole with the label 'Loomed Especially For Sabrina Conrad' was gone!