An Unlikely Suspect
by
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Her fingernails burrowed deep into the flesh of his upper arms. Her sable eyes pooled with the tears of desperation. The young woman suffered through the torture for too long. “Why? Why did you do it?” she screamed, shaking him so violently that his bald head rolled about as if barely attached. Her unabated anguish compelled her to find an answer. She could wait no longer.
With beads of perspiration dripping from his narrow upper lip, the frantic man implored her for mercy and understanding. Reaching out to her he begged, “Please…please forgive me. You have to know that I never meant to hurt you.”
The inadequacy of his words slashed through her body, piercing her very soul, unleashing a fury long buried deep within her core. Her guttural scream quavered malevolently, her actions suddenly turned savagely instinctual. “NO!!!”
With a high-pitched, cracking voice, the distraught woman urgently screeched into the mouthpiece as if the man now approaching her would only be able to hear her that way. “Please help me! Please help me! I, I don’t know what to do. He isn’t moving at all! It’s so awful. His face is so, so...well, it’s purple and blue! I barely recognized him. In all my years I’ve never seen anything this horrible. I tried to help but…”
Lyle was through the front door in an instant yet now found himself riveted to the wide pine planks of the foyer. His attention was immediately drawn toward the living room where garish speckles and splashes of blood were haphazardly strewn about the light beige walls, highly polished hardwood floor and pale-rose area rug. An oversized, cream sofa was also irregularly defaced with the same muted shades of red and mahogany brown. Just to its side were the broken shards of a small, crystal accent lamp and the splintered remains of a cherry, piecrust tea table. Elegantly framed photographs were in a state of disarray, some smashed and lying on the floor, some precariously teetering from their wall hooks. Sprawled at the foot of this rubble was a battered, bloodied heap of a man.
No life remained in that disfigured face nor in that crumpled body. The excessively swollen, hazel-green eyes were motionless, frozen in a pleading stare to something just to Lyle’s right. Following the dead man’s gaze, Lyle now saw the kneeling body of a woman with long, wavy auburn hair dressed in a navy blue pantsuit. She was motionless, with her arms hanging at her sides and her face locked straight ahead toward the bloody scene. She was silent except for the periodic wheezing gasps escaping from her lungs as she struggled for air. From his vantage point Lyle was unable to see the torn fabric of her silk blouse, the sticky reddish-brown blood on her hands nor the swelling and bruising rapidly flaring on her knuckles.
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About the Book
In this intriguing tale of obsession, greed and moral ineptitude, there is just one common denominator: Lauren Shaw. On the surface, she is a caring, bright, successful young executive. But what demons lie in wait?
When the battered, crumpled heap of her father’s lifeless body is found, Lauren is kneeling at his feet, her hands bloodied and swollen, her clothes disheveled and torn. She had the opportunity and the most compelling motive—revenge. But does she possess the ability to inflict such misery? Does that much hate reside in her soul?
From the picturesque landscape of Santa Catalina Island to the pounding surf of the Jersey Shore, from the charming avenues of Haddonfield, New Jersey to the bustling corridors of Philadelphia and the cosmopolitan ambiance of London, this gripping, richly woven and frighteningly plausible mystery has uncommon depth and originality, taking readers on a thought-provoking journey through the battlefields of depression, the entanglements of romance and the complexities of the human condition.
About the Author
Lisa Long Martelli recently left a successful career at a global consulting firm to pursue writing full-time. Her extensive background spans the fields of human resources management, counseling and human services, psychological research and clinical psychology. She is the author of several psycho-social and psycho-physiological research publications, numerous corporate communications, employee handbooks and training manuals.
After graduating with honors from
Lisa was raised in