The May Day Murders Read Online Free

few times in the
past. The edge always seemed to be missing in a lot of police
work—that overwhelming drive to leave no stone unturned, that
driving motivation to capture the full picture.
    Sam, however, was motivated beyond
words—certainly more than a handful of Smithtown cops would ever
be. This was a dear friend of his who had been assaulted and robbed
of her life—not to mention his ex-wife’s best friend. Sam had made
a pledge to himself from the very beginning that he wasn’t going to
sit around on his hands while Marsha’s murderer was still at large.
He was going to do what ever was in his power to see that this
bastard was brought to justice.
    Again, Sam tried to imagine himself in
Dave Bradley’s shoes right now. What if it had been Ann instead of
Marsha who had been murdered? he wondered. How would he deal with
it? Could he deal with it?
    He didn’t even want to think about it…
    Sam picked up the phone and dialed
Roger Hagstrom’s number.
     
     

CHAPTER 2
     
     
    It was seven-thirty when Ann Middleton
pulled into her driveway and shut off the engine. It wasn’t until
she reached for the door handle that she noticed the light on the
front porch wasn’t lit, making her wonder if she’d forgotten to
turn it on before she and Amy had left for Smithtown earlier that
morning.
    “ Do your remember if I
turned on the porch light before we left?” she asked, turning to
Amy.
    Amy, still half-asleep from the drive,
replied, “Yes, you did, Mother.”
    “ I wonder why it isn’t on
now.”
    “ Maybe it’s just burned
out,” Amy suggested sleepily.
    “ Maybe …”
    Ann opened the door and got out. Amy
followed suit and walked sluggishly around the car to join her
mother.
    “ I wish they’d fix that damn
streetlight,” Ann groaned as they walked cautiously up the walk in
the darkness. “Watch your step, honey.”
    Ann held onto the porch railing as she
led the way up the four steps leading to the porch of the modest
Cape Cod. She opened the storm door, groped around until she
finally managed to get the key into the lock, and freed the dead
bolt.
    In the dim light afforded by a
nightlight plugged into the wall at the far end of the room Ann
located the switch and turned the living room lights on. She
noticed that the other switch, the one that worked the porch light,
was up, confirming that she had indeed turned it on. She waited
until Amy was inside then stepped back out onto the porch and
reached up to unscrew the bulb in the fixture. Noticing that it was
already practically screwed all the way out of its socket, she
tightened it up instead. It came on.
    “ That’s strange,” Ann
muttered to herself.
    “ What’s that, Mom?” Amy
asked from inside.
    “ This stupid light—it wasn’t
burned out. It was just loose in the socket.”
    Amy peered out through the door. “Maybe
the boogie man did it!” she giggled.
    “ That’s not funny!” Ann
scolded, shooing her back inside.
    “ Just kidding, Mom,” Amy
chuckled, and made a beeline for the stairs leading to the second
floor.
    Ann strode through the living room to
the kitchen, removed her coat and flung it over the back of a
chair. Mandy, their three-year-old calico cat, suddenly emerged
from the laundry room and squinted up at Ann with that unmistakable
look that said it was well past feeding time. Ann reached down and
petted her before going over to the cupboard to get the Meow
Mix.
    Even though they had stopped off at a
Shoney’s near Chillicothe for supper on the way home, Ann realized
that she still felt hungry. Deciding that it was probably due to
the stress and emotions of the day, she went over to the
refrigerator and took out a container of yogurt, got a spoon and
dug in.
    Amy suddenly waltzed into the kitchen.
“I’m going to the movies with Amanda.”
    Ann swallowed a spoonful of yogurt and
stared at her daughter reproachfully. “What have I told you about
asking first, young lady?”
    Amy pouted before replying. “Okay,