Ten

Chapter Four

Chapter Four – Over my dead body

"Did that just really happen?" Kelly found herself asking out loud to no one in particular. Her question was not answered because almost immediately the table erupted into fits of anger and panic.

Next to her, Carl grabbed a steak knife from next to his plate and held it out towards the others, "Alright, I'm going to fucking kill this guy! Now where is he? Tell me now!"

"Calm the hell down!" commanded Robert, "And put down that knife!"

"Why don't you shut your mouth?" replied Carl, "This guy was right about one thing, I am a killer. I have fucking killed people so don't give me a reason to waste your sorry ass."

Kelly wasn't sure whether that last statement made her like Carl more or less.

Robert drew his nine millimeter pistol out and walked in closer, pointing it right at Carl's face, "Then I guess I have plenty of reason to pull this trigger."

Carl dropped the knife and held up his hands, "Okay, fine, I dropped it."

"We need to find this guy!" exclaimed Gabe, "Not kill each other!"

"He's going to kill us if we don't kill him first!" added Madeline.

"I'm going to bash this guy's fucking head in!" bragged Dominic.

They were suddenly interrupted by the intercom static again. The disembodied robotic voice once again came over the intercom and said, "Will someone please look into Isabel in the kitchen? I fear she is not well."

Then the intercom feedback screeched again and then fell silent.

Bibi stood and looked at the kitchen swing-door and then to Robert and the others. She pointed and Robert took his aim off of Carl and headed back over to the kitchen door. He ordered, "Everyone out of the way!"

He then kicked the door open and burst into the kitchen with his gun drawn. Curious, Kelly got up and followed along with the others to the kitchen door. When she was finally able to see over some of the others, she saw Robert and Bibi standing over a body lying on the floor in the corner of the kitchen by the stove.

"Nobody touch anything," ordered Robert, acting as the officer on the scene.

Kelly walked into the kitchen and nearly slipped on the floor in her high heels. She took them off and held them in one of her hands. Carl and Gabe were both standing near her, with steak knives in their hands. As she came a little closer she could see Isabel lying dead on her stomach with a clump of vomit trailing out of her mouth onto the tile. Her eyes and mouth were wide open and motionless.

"Is she dead?" asked Chloe.

Robert nodded as he continued to examine the body.

"What do you think happened to her?" Bibi asked Robert, looking down, "I don't see any wounds on the body."

"Poison," he replied, touching a broken glass on the floor, "I don't think it could be anything else."

"Poison?" asked Chloe, "That would mean?"

"The food!" cried Kelly, followed by a dozen or so "Oh my God's."

Kelly bolted out of the kitchen a little crazily in no real direction in particular and shouting to the others that were still in the dining room, "The food is poisoned! We've got to throw it up!"

Immediately, she and Dominic and Enrico began sticking their fingers into their mouths in an attempt to induce vomiting. Enrico was immediately successful, hurling his stomach's contents into a potted plant in the corner of the dining room. Dominic was less successful, getting up only a few chunks of vomit.