An Act Of Murder Read Online Free Page B

soon as she got off the phone, Phillips ran out of the lobby after her cousin, who was already on his way to the Hrickos’ room. When Parker got outside, he could smell smoke and started following his nose to the fire. As soon as Phillips caught up with him, she pointed him in the direction of room 506. When the pair arrived at the grouping of rooms that included 506, Parker couldn’t quite tell which room was on fire, so he started banging on the front doors of all the rooms. Then he went around to the back of the building, where he could see the smoke in the Hrickos’ room through the sliding glass door.
    First Parker grabbed one side of the door and tried sliding it open. It wouldn’t budge. He noticed a chaise lounge on the deck and turned to ask his cousin if he should throw it through the glass door. Phillips told him to wait until she got a fire extinguisher in case the flames shot out of the room when he broke the glass. While Phillips went around front to get the fire extinguisher, Parker got down on his hands and knees on the rear deck and looked inside to see if there was anyone in the room. All he could see was the faint outline of someone’s feet. Parker jumped up and noticed that the other side of the sliding glass door was open slightly. Smoke was pouring out of the opening. Parker opened the sliding glass door all the way, crawled inside on his hands and knees, and made his way to the person in the room.
    The smoke was so thick Parker could only see about a foot in front of him. When he finally got to Steve’s body, which was lying faceup on the floor in between the room’s two beds, he started beating him on his stomach, trying to wake him up. Steve didn’t wake up, so Parker decided the only way to help him was to get him out of the room. He tried grabbing Steve by his arms, but when he did, his hands just slid off. He couldn’t seem to get a good grip, so he tried dragging Steve out by his feet. Parker got Steve’s body to the edge of the sliding glass door, but couldn’t pull him over the raised threshold. Parker yelled for his cousin, who also grabbed Steve and helped pull his body out onto the deck. Once outside, Parker and Phillips saw that the upper part of Steve’s body was very badly burned. It was obvious to them that Steve was dead.
    As soon as Parker got Steve out onto the deck, he remembered that his fiancée had been right behind him when he was running to the Hrickos’ room. He remembered when he was inside he could hear her yelling to him through the sliding glass doors. He didn’t want her to see Steve’s body, so he grabbed hold of her and tried to rush her around the corner of the villa. When the couple reached the side of the building, they saw Officer Patrick Sally and Officer Stephen Craig, St. Michaels police officers, getting out of their cars.
    â€œAs I arrived and got out of my vehicle, I observed two individuals, later identified as Philip Parker and Elaine Phillips, waving and yelling that there was a man down in the back,” Sally testified later.
    Sally, Craig, and their sergeant raced around the corner to the back of the building. As they approached the back porch, they observed Steve lying there on his back with his left arm sticking straight up in the air. He was wearing a pair of light blue pajama bottoms that were pulled down, exposing his penis, and pulled up high on his shins. He was also wearing what appeared to be a white T-shirt, which had been burned. His chest and head were severely burned. It was obvious to the officers that Steve was dead. Sally checked Steve’s body temperature and found that it was elevated but not hot. His upper torso was stiff, either from the heat of the fire or from rigor mortis. His left arm was sticking straight up in the air and bent slightly backward. Sally attempted to take Steve’s pulse, but felt nothing.
    Officer Sally now went inside room 506 to make sure no one