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cordially.
    “Oh you know, I’m okay I guess.”
    “Would you like a ride home Cora?  It’ll be no trouble.”
    Cora Patterson was grateful for the offer, she really didn’t want use public transport with all her shopping bags.  She accepted Marybeth’s offer without hesitation.
    The two women talked about their kids, property prices, the weather anything but the Elena Hudson tragedy.  Marybeth was glad of the respite, everyone she met just lately wanted to gossip about it.  That loud mouthed, big breasted little minx at the salon was the last straw.  Drowning her wouldn’t have been punishment enough.  She was a born troublemaker.
    Marybeth accepted Cora’s invitation for coffee when they pulled up outside the Patterson house.  She helped carry her bags inside, and they sat in the welcoming kitchen drinking two strong cups of coffee.  Cora could see that Marybeth was a little anxious but she did not push her for information.  However Marybeth confided in her anyway by voicing her concern about her husband.
    “He just hasn’t been the same since he found that girl Cora, he’s lost his appetite, he’s having nightmares, I don’t know what to do, he won’t go out, he won’t see a doctor..........”
    “Well it’s understandable, it must have been quite a shock seeing her like that, but he really ought to go and see the doctor.  It sounds like he has that post traumatic shock syndrome.”
    Marybeth nodded in agreement.  Her coffee had cooled down a little and she took a large sip.  Her fingers were wrapped tightly around the coffee mug.  She appeared to want to say more, but was reluctant to do so.  She was worried about what Cora would think if she told her anything else.  However, she knew that she wasn’t a gossip like most of the people in the neighbourhood.  Marybeth took a deep breath.
    “I think he’s losing his mind.”
    “Losing his mind?” repeated Cora.  “Why, why do you think that?  Post traumatic stress is very common in these situations, I sure that a few sessions with a good therapist will get him back to normal.  It doesn’t surprise me that Eddy has been so badly affected by this because you know as well as I do that he is always beating the drum about all the terrible things that go on in this world, and to actual experience something like this in his own environment was bound to tip him over the edge.”
    Marybeth nodded.  It was good to be able to talk to someone that she could trust about the problem.  She decided to continue.
    “He talks in his sleep and the things that he says are very disturbing.  He says that Elena’s body looked like it had been drained of all its blood and her eyes were wide open , then he starts to scream ‘She’s alive, she’s still alive, I know it she’s still alive.”
    Sitting opposite her friend at her kitchen table Cora Patterson was muted in a horrified silence.
    They didn’t hear that Jay had come and stood outside the kitchen door, eavesdropping on their conversation. 
     
     
    Chapter T wo
     
     
    Amberlee Robinson and her three friends decided to go to the Diner after college today, to discuss the upcoming college dance that was being held in celebration of its opening sixty years ago.  The gossipy group of girls were very excited about the event.  The stories around the demise of Elena Hudson were dying down, and they needed something else to occupy their minds.  Neither one of them had a date for the dance yet, but there was still plenty of time.  Amberlee knew exactly who she wanted to go with, and with Elena well out of the picture a clear path had been created for her to make her move.  She knew that she was not the only member of Jay Patterson’s fan club,  all the girls at college liked him, and so did her regular circle of friends.  However Amberlee, knowing the male ‘species’ as she believed them to be, was convinced that she had the best chance of getting a date with him, because of her obvious