Anatomy of a Nightmare by M J Marlow (best ebook reader android TXT) 📖

know when to let go.”
“Neil, your son…” Lily froze as she walked into the room with her son in her arms so his father could kiss him goodnight. She saw Gordon jump her husband. They struggled for the gun as she ran to get to a phone. “911,” she sobbed as she heard the first gunshot. “Please help. Mayor Ambrose and Gordon Randall are fighting. There’s a gun.” She heard a second shot and then the sounds of someone coming out of the office. She turned to see Ambrose standing there with his shoulder bleeding. “Neil!,” she whimpered as he leaned back against the wall and moaned in pain. “Please send an ambulance,” she cried into the phone. “My husband has been shot!”
She dropped the phone and went to him as his knees buckled and he slid down the wall, moaning. She put the baby in the bassinette they kept in the corner of the dining room and helped Ambrose to a chair so she could get the first aid kit. She couldn’t tell if the bullet was still in his shoulder so she just settled for cleaning and bandaging the wound. Ambrose hid his triumph as he saw that he had her under his control now. He had managed to hide the tapes so no one would see what the fight had been about. There was a knock on the door as she finished strapping down the pad over the bullet wound.
“That will be the police,” he said as he sat back. “Let them in, Lily.”
Lily went to the door and nearly gasped as she saw that the responding officers were Murphy and her brother. She let them in and she met Edward’s eyes. His held a question but she could only shrug. She had not seen what had happened in the study.
“What happened, Mayor?” Murphy asked as he refused a drink. He saw Lily go sit on the arm of Ambrose’s chair on the side he was not wounded and take his hand.
“He stormed into our house and claimed he had proof that I was abusing my wife,” Ambrose answered them honestly. “He pulled the gun on me and I was trying to make him let go when he shot me. Then he turned the gun on himself.” He looked at Lily sitting there pale and quiet and he was worried. “Can’t you let her go to bed? This is a shock for her.”
“Is that what happened, Lily?” Murphy asked her. He watched as Lily looked at her husband. He could see the pain in her eyes and noted her eyes glancing down at her hand. He looked and she was bleeding from where Ambrose was digging his nails into her hand. “Lily?”
“I was just bringing our son down to Neil when I heard them fighting. Gordon attacked Neil as I ran for the phone. That was when I heard the first shot,” Lily told him. “While I was calling 911, I heard the second shot and Neil stumbled out bleeding.” She could see he was hoping for more. “I didn’t see what happened, Murphy, so I can’t confirm or deny what Neil told you.” She saw Neil go pale. “He needs to be in the hospital. You can stay here and wait for the CSI people, but he needs that shoulder seen to.”
“Go ahead, Lily,” Murphy nodded. “I’ll call this in.” He looked at Edward who was looking at his sister as if he did not know her. She wasn’t lying, he wanted to scream at the idiot; any one with eyes could see that. “Randall!” Edward jumped. “Secure the scene.”
“Esme?” Lily called the first person she could think of. “Neil has been shot. I need someone to watch my son while I take my husband to the hospital. Thank you, Esme.”
Two hours later, Lily was dozing in the chair next to Ambrose’s bed when Gregory walked in. He had a very grim expression on his face and a warrant. Lily looked at him in confusion as he cuffed Ambrose’s good wrist to the railing of the bed and read him his rights. Then he helped Lily from the chair and took her out into the hallway.
“What’s going on, Gregory?” she asked him as he remained quiet. “Why are you arresting my husband?”
“Your husband is a blackmailer, Lily,” he finally told her. “When the CSIs were going through his Study, they found his cache of tapes. A lot of very important people were set up to be caught in compromising situations.” He took her by the arms and looked her in the eyes. “Why didn’t you call the police when he raped you, Lily?”
“He owns the police!” Lily choked. “They would never have believed my word over his.” She sank down in a chair. “He’s going to prison, isn’t he?”
“For the rest of his natural life,” Gregory nodded. He raised her eyes to his. “You’re going to be a free woman…”
“No, I won’t,” Lily sobbed and looked away from him. “He’ll find some way to mess that up for me.”
“Mrs. Ambrose?” the doctor interrupted them as they fell silent. She looked up at him and nodded. “I hate to tell you this on top of everything else that has happened tonight…”
“Just tell me,” Lily broke in.
“We ran some tests for your husband a few days ago and the results are all in.” She nodded. “He has cancer of the pancreas. He has about two years to live.” Lily burst into tears and buried her head in her hands. “I’m sorry.”
Lily nodded and got to her feet. She went into the hospital room with the doctor and the other agent came out to wait with Gregory. They heard Ambrose’s cry of protest and denial. Lily and the doctor walked out and she went to Gregory. He was holding her when they heard the window in the room break. Gregory and the other man ran in and Ambrose was lying on the bed with a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. Gregory saw a man in dark sunglasses and a dark overcoat covering dark clothing get into his car and drive away. The license plate was covered.
“Assassinated?” Edward choked when Gregory made the call after he had called the authorities. “How is Lily doing?”
“She is like a statue, Edward,” Gregory said as he looked over to where Lily was sitting in a chair staring off into the distance. “She hasn’t talked, or cried, or moved since I brought her to your house.” He had a thought. “Have Esme bring the baby and its things here. Maybe she’ll perk up if she has him with her.” He hung up and went to crouch down in front of Lily. “Come on out, Lily. You don’t need to hide anymore and your baby needs you.”
“Baby?” Lily looked confused for a moment and then she burst into tears. “He doesn’t have a father any more, Gregory. He can’t ever know why!” She looked at him. “Please promise me you won’t tell him why.”
“I will do whatever you want, Lily,” Gregory nodded. She threw herself into his arms and he sat down and pulled her into his lap. He stroke her hair as she sobbed until she was asleep. He kissed her hair and laid her down on the couch. “You can always count on me,” he said softly as he covered her with the afghan and crouched down to stroke her cheek. “Always!”

Three months passed and Gregory and Esme went to visit Lily. She had stayed in seclusion from the night Gordon had been murdered to avoid the press and their questions. She and her son had moved back in with her brother and sold Ambrose’s house. Edward let them in and his grim face told them Lily had another hard night. The nightmares were still haunting her every night but she refused to take the sedatives the doctor had prescribed. She came out of the kitchen and smiled at them briefly as they sat down.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked them and they refused. “Edward?”
“No thanks, Lily,” her brother replied. “Come on and sit down. You’ve been on your feet all morning.”
“I promised the principal at the school I’d help with the bake sale,” Lily protested.
“You don’t have to do all the baking, Lily,” Edward chided her. He saw her bite her lip. “I’m sorry, sprout. I know it makes you feel better to be doing something for someone, but you are going to have a breakdown if you don’t rest.”
“I see him when I shut my eyes,” Lily whimpered as she sat down on the couch. She smiled as he put the afghan over her lap. “Could you get me some aspirin? My head is killing me.”
Edward got her a different kind of pill and a glass of water and she took it without looking at the pill. She did not realize he had tricked her until she started to feel weak. Then she looked at him in shock and he made her lie down on the couch. He covered her with the afghan and stroked her hair.
“I’m sorry, sprout,” he said softly, “but you are going to be ill if you don’t start getting some sleep.”
“You tricked me,” Lily whimpered as she felt the sedative kick in. “No fair.”
“All’s fair when someone you care about is making herself ill,” Edward replied as her eyelids began to flutter. “I’ll be right here with Gregory and Esme, Lily. No one is going to hurt you while we’re around.” He waited for her to sleep and then turned to the two. “So?”
“The hit man was a professional and all attempts to track him lead nowhere,” Gregory nodded. “It’s a good thing Ambrose died when he did because I would be sorely tempted to send him to hell myself after seeing those tapes.”
“You’d have had to get in line,” Edward said tightly. He rubbed his sister’s back as she slept next to him. “She was under the mistaken idea that marrying him would keep me safe. The Randalls have a very strong protective streak.”
“She’s a very special young woman,” Gregory nodded. “Do you think she’s ready to get out and socialize? The wedding is in a few days.”
“You can ask,” Edward said as he looked at his sister, “but in her frame of mind she might be a handicap instead of an asset.” He thought it over. “Ask her, Gregory. She needs to be away from this place and all the bad memories.” He heard his nephew squealing and grimaced. “Of course, that will mean I have to deal with the monster on my own.”
“We’ll leave you to it then,” Gregory smiled.
“You are a merciless man, Gregory,” Edward shook his head and went down the hall like he was going to his own execution.
Gregory and Esme went back to work until Edward called and told them she was awake. They came to dinner and Esme took over in the kitchen. Lily knew they were only trying to help her, but she was put out when no one would let her do anything in her own home. After dinner, they sat around the kitchen table and discussed the wedding.
“Couldn’t Evelyn find someone else?” Lily asked Gregory. “I won’t be very good company for anyone.”
“Getting out of this house,” Esme told her, “might be just what you need, Lily.” She laid her hand on Lily’s and smiled at her. “You would be spending three days in a mansion with servants at your beck and call, Lily. If you can’t get rest there, we’ll have to maroon you on a desert island with Gregory.” She saw Lily blush and knew she had not mistaken the interest