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My Husband Is Dead,So Who Keeps Calling?
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
On the third day of his business trip, my husband posted a photo of himself locked in a kiss with some gorgeous woman. The caption was shameless: I cheated. It was a rush. I tapped the like button, th...
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第1章
1: 1
On the third day of his business trip, my husband posted a photo of himself locked in a kiss with some gorgeous woman.
The caption was shameless: I cheated. It was a rush.
I tapped the like button, then picked up the phone and called the police. "Hello, I want to report a crime. My husband is dead. He's been dead three days."
The officer confirmed it twice. "So because he posted something online, you think he's dead?"
"I don't think. I know."
1
The two officers exchanged a glance, then looked back at me.
When I wouldn't back down, one of them held out his hand. "Could you show us that post, please?"
I found my phone and told him plainly, "He deleted it."
The station went quiet again.
The lobby was full of grins, and some guy wandered over to enjoy the show.
"Sweetheart, your man just cheated on you, that's all. Did it scramble your brain or something?"
I didn't bother with him. My voice was flat and certain. "My husband is dead. Someone killed him. You need to send people to investigate."
The guy kept going. "You want the cops to catch the other woman for you? Even if your husband's dead, he died in her bed, ha ha. Go on home."
The officer gave me a stern warning too. "Ma'am, tying up public resources without cause carries legal consequences."
No matter what I said, none of them believed me.
"I told you, he's really dead. What you should be doing right now is chasing down a killer!"
"We consider this report a domestic dispute. If you suspect your husband was murdered, ma'am, you need to provide evidence."
I lost my patience. "We've been out of contact for three days. Isn't that enough? Fine. Then I'm reporting a missing person."
"Ma'am, your husband posted online an hour ago. His whereabouts are accounted for. That doesn't qualify as a missing person."
It was obvious they were done talking to me.
All I could think was that every last one of them was a complete idiot.
"Fine. I'll call him. Then you'll believe me, won't you?"
The officers, already turning to leave, turned back to look at me.
I dialed my husband's number.
Three calls. All of them hung up on.
At the same time, my mother-in-law, who'd gotten word, came hurrying into the station.
I dialed again and looked the officer dead in the eye. "See? Missing."
"Try a few more times. He'll pick up."
Everything I'd held down for so long broke loose right then. "How is a dead man supposed to pick up the phone!"
But the next second, the call connected.
Everyone crowded around.
There was a faint rustling on the line.
Then a hoarse voice. "Hello?"
They all let out a breath of relief, every face saying the same thing: See, your husband's alive.
But what I said next made their blood run cold.
"That's not my husband's voice."
I kept talking into the phone. "Who are you? What did you do to my husband!"
The officer took the phone from me, on guard now. "Is this Lester Chavez? This is the city police station."
No surprise, the call went dead.
The officer was silent for a moment, then said it anyway. "Send a unit out."
Before they could move, my mother-in-law rushed to stop them. "Wait! Wait!"
I turned and took her hand. "Mom, I know you're worried about Lester too, but the most important thing right now is finding his body. Everything else, we can sort out later."
Instead, she yanked her hand out of mine.
She jabbed a finger at me and started shouting. "Who's worried? My son isn't dead at all. Bah. Don't you go cursing my son! Officers, I'm sorry for the trouble. My son is fine."
I was stunned.
Aside from me, the person in this world who knew my husband best.
That was his mother.
Could she really not tell that voice wasn't Lester's?
"Mom, that voice just now, that clearly wasn't Lester!"
She rolled her eyes. "You think you know him better than I do? That's my son! Officers, don't listen to her. My son called me not long ago. Don't believe me? Look."
With that, she pulled up her call log.
The entry at the top was labeled "son."
Call duration, three minutes.
Time of call, one hour ago.
How was that possible?
Lester had died three days ago!
第2章
2: 2
2
The officer couldn't decide either, just kept staring at us, grim-faced.
Then he gave us another warning.
"If you want to fight, take it outside. What do you think this place is?"
"I'm telling you one last time. You're tying up public resources, and I have the authority to detain you both."
Before I could get a word out, Lester's mother yanked me out the station doors.
"Mom, will you stop making a scene? Every minute we waste, the killer gets further away."
"Shut your mouth!"
She raised her hand to hit me.
The officer rushed out and caught her wrist.
"Ma'am, whatever's going on, you can't go hitting people."
She jabbed a finger at me, seething. "Officer, arrest her, hurry! Who curses her own man like this? Men go out and chase after some pretty face, it's just for fun. He, he's going to come home in the end!"
Talking to them was like talking to a wall.
"I already told you, it's not that simple. Lester died three days ago! Do you understand that?"
"Where's your proof? It's obvious you're just wishing death on my son!"
I pulled up a recording on my phone.
"Lester said if there ever came a day he cheated, there was only one explanation. That he was dead."
That recording was the vow we made at our wedding.
Either he was dead, or he'd run into some danger he couldn't get out of.
Either way, I had to call the police.
Lester's mother laughed in fury, and the crowd gathered at the station doors laughed too, soaking up the show.
They all thought I'd lost my mind.
"Young lady, listen to me, go on home. Your man will be back in a few days."
"Yeah, there are still people this naive these days. A man's only faithful once he's a picture on the wall. Show me a man who never slips up. That vow doesn't prove a thing."
"I've watched her carry on here all morning. Rigid, mule-headed. No wonder her man cheated."
I gripped my phone, already at the end of my rope.
I grabbed at the officer, pleading. "Please, send someone out, catch the killer. My husband is dead, I know it. If this is a false report, I'll take on every legal consequence there is!"
With my sworn guarantee behind it, the officer finally agreed to act.
The lights came on, and I hurried to climb into the car.
Behind me, Lester's mother pointed and cursed. "You, you're nothing but a curse. Even if my son is dead, it's you who killed him! Dear God!"
I only gave her a flat glance. "Once they catch the one who murdered your son, you'll understand your own foolishness soon enough."
She sat in the front seat, muttering under her breath.
I didn't bother with her anymore. I closed my eyes and leaned against the window, worn out.
I don't know how much time passed before a ringtone played, some soft love song.
Then came Lester's mother's voice, warm and tender. "Hello? Son!"
My eyes snapped open.
第3章
3
I leaned forward toward the front seat and finally made out the contact name on her phone screen: Son.
"Son, how's work these days? You have no idea, that wife of yours is impossible! I can't control her anymore!"
Lester's mother shot me a bitter glare as she said it.
I held my breath, eyes locked on the phone.
At last, the voice on the other end spoke.
"Mom, don't worry about her. I've been doing fine, work's going smooth. Oh, right, Mom, that thing I told you about, did you take care of it yet? When can you wire the money over?"
The car went dead silent.
That voice was exactly the same as the one on the phone back at the police station.
Hoarse. Muffled.
That was not a sound a living man could make.
I snatched the phone away and pressed him. "Who are you! Lester never did anything to you. Why did you kill him!"
Lester's mother rammed her elbow into me and grabbed the phone back.
"What do you think you're doing! I'm talking to my son! Listen to him! My son is perfectly fine. What is all this nonsense you keep spouting?"
"Then ask him. Ask if he even knows who I am! He won't be able to answer!"
The dead voice came through the phone again.
"Honey, can you stop making a scene?"
"What's my name!"
The other end was silent for a long moment. "Nanette."
In that instant, every hair on my body stood on end.
"Mom, that's enough for now. Just wire the money over to me first."
The call ended, and Lester's mother beamed, all wrapped up in the money. I pinned my hand over the phone. "Can't you see he only wants to con money out of you!"
"You are unbelievable! My son asking for money, and that's a scam? Nanette, the things that come out of your mouth. You really should get your head checked!"
The man in the passenger seat turned his head. "Captain, should we bring her in for a psych evaluation?"
"No! Don't! There's nothing wrong with me! My husband is dead. We have to go find him! I'm even more sure now that he's dead! Please, drive faster!"
The car drove all the way to the inn where my husband had stayed on his business trip.
It was a remote mountain village, not even a paved road, just a dirt slope we had to climb.
My husband had told me about this inn before he left.
After he left, we lost all contact.
The moment we walked in, the front desk clerk came to greet us.
She wore a cool, breezy green dress, a big red flower pinned at her chest.
"Hello. We're police officers on a case. Three days ago, did a man named Lester Chavez check in here?"
The clerk looked over the badges and broke into a smile.
"Oh, you mean that pale, baby-faced young man, right? Ooh, full of vim and vigor, that one. Come with me."
My heart was in my throat.
The inn was old and run-down, pink calling cards stuffed under every door gap.
Lester's mother muttered, "When I see my son, I'm going to have him give you a real talking-to!"
The two officers behind me were murmuring too. "Captain, do you actually think this Lester is dead? I'm starting to feel like she just dragged us out here to catch a mistress."
"Real or not, we'll know once we find this Lester."
"So if we do find this Lester, does she have to come back to the station with us? After all this trouble, we'd have to hold her at least seven days, wouldn't we?"
After chatting a bit, the young officer raised his voice and pressed for information.
"Ma'am, have you seen Lester in the last few days?"
The clerk was gnawing on a pear, swaying as she walked ahead. "Huh? Now that you mention it, I really haven't seen him in a few days."
She spun around suddenly. "But before that, he took a girl out with him. The two of them went off somewhere. They should be back soon, right? Here, this is the room."
She handed over the key.
The two young officers went to open the door.
The key had barely turned in the lock when a rotten, sour stench hit us.
Lester's mother fanned the air under her nose. "What's that smell? Why does it reek so bad?"
The clerk tossed the pear core aside. "It's just spicy noodles. That room, they ate spicy noodles every single day. What about it?"
The two officers let out a breath, exchanged a glance, and nodded.
When the door was pushed open, what lay inside stunned every one of them…
第4章
4: 4
4
The whole room was stark white.
The bed was covered over completely with white cloth.
Not a speck of dust anywhere. Spotless past all reason.
The brown floorboards had been scrubbed until they threw back the light.
And yet, against all that neatness, this room was hideous.
The stench drove up into your nose, thick enough that even a trained officer bent double and threw up.
My mother-in-law's voice hit my ear first. “You cursed jinx! See that? My son came out here to work! You just had to say he was dead! If that's not putting a curse on him, then what is it!”
The front-desk clerk made a little sound and pushed past us into the room ahead of the rest.
The officers traded a glance, catching that something was off. “Ma'am, is something wrong here?”
The clerk retched out a mouthful at the doorway, wiped her mouth, and only then came shuffling over. “Everything's wrong! This isn't what our rooms look like at all. Forget it, I can't explain it to you. See for yourselves.”
With that, she pushed open the door beside it.
There was no one inside.
This was a private inn. The curtains, the bedding, all of it was that red-and-pink floral print.
The floor, long left uncared for, had gone over with a layer of caked grime.
“We've never had white sheets. And why does this room stink like that?”
My mother-in-law shot back, “Making a fuss over nothing! My son's a neat freak. So what if he bought some disposable sheets while he was out? Don't believe me? Ask her!”
I walked a circle around the room. The deeper in I went, the stronger the smell.
It was the heavy reek of blood.
But the room was bare, everything in plain sight, and even the one place a person could hide, under the bed, was empty.
I nodded along. “My husband really does have a bad case of that, he's a neat freak. But……I think I've found something.”
I pointed at the dip in the bathroom floor, and the officers all crowded in.
They wore white gloves, and one swiped a hand through the hollow.
The white glove came up crimson.
Blood.
“Seal the scene. Get forensics down here!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Anyone not involved, please step outside and wait. We need to preserve the scene.”
My mother-in-law and I were herded out.
She lost her nerve on the spot.
“This, how is this possible? Didn't you people make a mistake? Nanette! It's all you, you and your jinx of a mouth! Look what you've done! Cursing your own man for no reason, you'll get what's coming to you!”
I didn't answer her.
I was still studying the layout of the inn.
Seeing if I could turn up any thread of a clue.
Behind me she kept up her frantic cursing.
Then she watched them string up the cordon tape, and her nerve broke completely.
“What does one drop of blood prove? Don't you go making a scene here. In the car, didn't you all hear me talking to my son? Ah! Right! I'll call my son right now and make him come straight back!”
“Once he's back, you'll believe me then, won't you?”
She pulled out her phone and fumbled clumsily through the numbers, straining to prove it to us.
She slapped the phone, held it up over her head, muttering, “What a dump. The signal's terrible! Ugh! There!”
The call went through.
An eerie buzzing came from inside the room.
She didn't notice, still fixed on the screen. “Why isn't he picking up?”
The officers and I stood at the doorway, eyes locked on that room.
“Bzzz……”
That muffled ringing was coming from inside the ceiling.