“You could at least have let your wife know you were alive,” said Loni. “She really worried about you, right Cilla?”
“He couldn’t, Loni. He was doing what he had to.”
“But when he took you upstairs as Frank,” said Wally, “you didn’t even resist!”
“Oh, I knew then. He stared at me when they came in and, when he got my attention, winked.”
“But the screams,” cried Loni. “We thought he was murdering you!”
“Good acting,” said Hudson. “Even scared me.”
“And the ‘blood’?”
“Picked up a ketchup bottle in Wally’s kitchen when we came in. I knew what they expected Frank to do with Cilla.”
Bob Gold was still bemused. “I can’t get over Andre. I’ve known him for years.” He shook his head. “To think, I had the Nutcracker everyone was looking for right in my house.”
“Cilla and Hudson,” said Wally gruffly, as though forcing it from his throat. “Seems they’re the ones did the nut cracking.”
Cilla raised her eyebrows; Hudson grinned.
###
PETER PINKHAM
Peter Pinkham is the author of The Hidden Mountain (MFDC Press 1998). Killer Mountain is the long-awaited sequel to The Hidden Mountain. Pinkham has written musical comedies, children’s plays and books, and is currently working on a novel O verkill and a book of short stories. He lives with his wife in North Conway, NH.