Letter to Belinda Read Online Free

there somewhere. Let me see them.” He held them up in front of her, but she had to agree, none of them looked like a handcuff key. “Can’t you pick the lock, like you did the door?”
    “I can try, if you’re not in any hurry. Let me look in a few other places first.”
    “Look on the dresser.”
    “I am. But I don’t see anything. Let me try the top drawer.”
    “Use your head, Travis! If you had done something like this, where would you put the key?”
    “Use your head Miranda! This situation is a little out of my league! I’ve never had to hand-cuff Janice to the headboard! And by the way, let me take this opportunity to congratulate you! You have finally done something stupid enough to surpass what you did in following me to Colombia! And furthermore . . .”
    “Oh, shut up and look for the stupid key!”
    “I’m looking, just be patient! And just for the record, you are hardly in any position to be ordering me around. And in the future, if you are tempted to accuse me of doing stupid things, I hope you remember the present situation you find yourself in!”
    “Okay, I admit it! I have finally done something as stupid as you would have done! Satisfied?”
    “Try again!”
    “Okay, this is more stupid than anything you’ve ever done! There! Are you happy now?”
    “Can I get that in writing?”
    “Travis Lee! Just find that key!”
    “I’m looking! Don’t you see me looking?”
    “Look harder!”
    “What’s this on the dresser?”
    “If it’s not the key, then I don’t care!”
    “It’s a letter, addressed only ‘to Belinda’. Who’s Belinda?”
    “Belinda is his wife’s name.”
    “I wonder what the letter says?”
    “Who cares, Travis! If it won’t unlock these handcuffs, I don’t care!”
    “You’re not even curious to see what it says?”
    “NO! Have you tried looking on the bookshelf.”
    He lay the letter down and turned on the overhead light and scanned the shelves, even dumping out the contents of a vase, which contained a hodgepodge of odds and ends, but no key. He ran his hand over the top shelf, which was above his sight, and felt an object in the corner. It was the key. “I found it!”
    “Oh, thank God! Hurry, Travis, I’ve got to go bad!”
    He unlocked one hand, and then the other, and she wasted no time in gathering up the quilt and dashing off to the bathroom. While she was gone, Travis threw a blanket over the dead man after noting that he had gray hair, and actually seemed to be pretty old. He picked up the man’s pants and removed his wallet. Several $100 bills caught his eye. The drivers license said he was Leonard Archibald Rosewood, and had a Vestavia Hills address. That seemed like a familiar name, though he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before. He heard Miranda leave the bathroom and go to the living room, presumably to gather her clothes. He gave her a minute then went to join her. She was dressed and in the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of milk. He sat down at the table with her to talk this out.
    “Do you feel better now?”
    “As well as possible, under the circumstances. Thanks again for coming to help me out! I don’t know who I would have turned to if you hadn’t helped me!”
    “Why didn’t you just call the police?”
    “Are you crazy? This would be all over the newspapers if I called the police!”
    “Well, you’re going to have to call them anyway. I mean, the guy is dead, and that’s something you need to report to the authorities.”
    “So you’re not going to help me dispose of the body?”
    “Dispose of the body! Good Lord, why would you do that? Just call the police, they will call the coroner, and he’ll determine that it was a death by natural causes, and that will be that! He did die of a heart attack, didn’t he?”
    “I guess he did. After he hand-cuffed me to the bed, he clutched his chest and fell into the floor. He never got back up.”
    “You’re just knocking ‘em dead, aren’t you