DEADLY AFFAIR – BOOK TWO
Todd Hollow Series
By
Collette Thomas
Prologue
Martin Manheim smiled when he saw Danny Reilly coming through the doorway. He glanced up at the wall clock. “You’re right on time,” he said, a hint of surprise evident in his tone.
Danny nodded, but did not return the smile.
Martin handed him a piece of paper. Danny read the words in fancy bold print.
“My first instructor gave me this.”
Embalming is the process of chemically treating a dead human body to reduce the presence and growth of microorganisms, to retard organic decomposition, and to restore an acceptable physical appearance.
Danny stared at Martin and realized he was in the prep room for that one purpose; to become initiated into a process that he would not be allowed to perform just yet, not until he finished the necessary education. Martin had been doing this for over twenty years–chemically treating the dead for grieving families.
Unlike what he was feeling when he got up that morning, he no longer felt the urge to bolt from the room. Nor did he want to disappoint Martin, who had become more or less a mentor turning the once part-time summer job into something more than just earning extra money over the summer months. It was beginning to look more like a door to his future.
Danny looked at the hydraulic porcelain preparation table and at the numerous instruments in various sizes and shapes and modifications.
What took place here did not prolong life in the sense an operating room promised.
“I can tell there’s a lot going on inside that mind of yours,” Martin said. “One thing that we all get drummed into us, is that this body, this cadaver, this once beloved soul of those who now bereave its loss, is the guest of honor at his last function they share together. And the most important thing we do for the family is provide them a perfect body for that one last visit.”
Danny’s mind whirled with thoughts that struggled to comprehend Martin’s words.
“Now with that all said and done, let’s get started.” He glanced Danny’s way, and asked, “Did you have breakfast?”
Danny shook his head, swallowed hard as he approached the table.
“Good. Don’t worry, after awhile, if you stay with this long enough, it won’t be a problem and you’ll be glad you went ahead and ate that grand slam special they serve at the Waffle Emporium on Wednesdays.”
Danny still said nothing, but looked on as Martin started to do his thing, all the while thinking that he was damn glad he hadn’t eaten anything, and wondered if what Martin said was going to be true.
At the moment, he didn’t believe it and felt if he stayed with this long enough, he’d never enjoy any meal at the Waffle Emporium again.
CHAPTER ONE
Meghan Doyle took quick deliberate strides out of the Todd Hollow Superior Court House. Detective Jon Walker followed behind. Neither said a word to each other upon hearing the judge’s pronouncement of a mistrial.
Meghan squinted into the bright sunlight against a clear blue sky that marked another rainless day, a reminder that it hadn’t rained for weeks in the area.
The fair weather did nothing to relieve her of her building angst or the disbelief that justice had failed the small town where Matthew Manheim and his cohorts once wreaked havoc.
The jury had felt there was not enough reasonable doubt, plus things had gone wrong for the prosecution to warrant this mistrial.
Three short words—“a hung jury”—filled her head.
“How fucking often does that happen?” she asked aloud.
Jon did not respond, as if sensing the question was a rhetorical one and that she wasn‘t looking for answers.
“Was that jury blind? Were they deaf? Did they not understand any of the evidence presented?” she rambled on. “Were they all out to lunch? Now I know how Marcia Clarke felt when they came back with that non-guilty verdict for Simpson. Damn.” She remembered following that infamous case back in the mid-nineties and like everyone else was shocked, feeling that the evidence had proven otherwise.
The verdict had acquitted the man of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson.
If the glove doesn’t fit, then we must acquit!
As if Cochran, part of the defense’s ‘dream team’ had come back from the dead, the now infamous phrase incessantly echoed inside her brain.
Mistrials, especially in these cases, were rare and seldom happened in cases where the D.A. reassured it would go their way.
No one anticipated Judge Gerald Mahoney’s declaration of this mistrial based on a deadlocked jury of twelve people who were unable to come to a unanimous decision that could keep Matthew Manheim behind bars.
Matthew Manheim, once again a free man, was free to finish what he long ago promised.
He killed her grandfather.
He killed her husband.
He tried killing her.
No one could make her think differently.
Could he succeed in finishing what he started?
She couldn’t rationalize what happened in that court room. Matthew Manheim started the deadly game, a game she could still end up losing.
End of Chapter One
Deadly Affair is part of the Todd Hollow Series and is available at Damnation Books.
