Never Saw It Coming: (An eSpecial from New American Library)

Never Saw It Coming: (An eSpecial from New American Library) by Linwood Barclay Page A

Book: Never Saw It Coming: (An eSpecial from New American Library) by Linwood Barclay Read Free Book Online
Authors: Linwood Barclay
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boys aged fifteen and seventeen who did nothing but fight with one another. Laci confessed once, only half jokingly, that she wished they’d have one final no-holds-barred battle and kill each other.
    Wendell laughed. He said he knew exactly how she felt.
    He always found reasons to stroll through the lighting section.
    Laci often seemed to be passing through the plumbing department.
    It started with friendly teasing, then double entendres. When Laci wandered by, she’d narrow her eyes and say she needed help with her plumbing. When Garfield was over in light fixtures, he’d bump into Laci on purpose and say he wondered if she could help him keep his light switch in the up position.
    All in fun, of course. Totally innocent. After all, they were both, from all indications, happily married. Wendell and Ellie had been together for twenty-one years. Laci and Trevor, an assistant bank manager in Bridgeport, had just celebrated their twenty-third anniversary. They’d caught the train into New York, checked into the Hyatt by Grand Central, and taken in
Priscilla Queen of the Desert
, which Trevor, to his amazement, absolutely loved, even though he was not what you’d call a big fan of the drag queen community. It would have been a perfect getaway, except for when Laci took a beer from the minibar, and Trevor had a fit, telling her they could have gone to the closest grocery store and bought a six-pack for what that one beer was going to cost them. He wasn’t going to mention it when they checked out, see if they figured it out later and charged it to his Visa.
    Which they did.
    One day at work Wendell had been asked to assemble, for display purposes, a vinyl-sided utility shed. He was inside the nearly finished structure, tightening up some bolts to make sure the thing wouldn’t fall down in the wind, when Laci Harmon stepped inside, slid the door shut behind her, and placed his right hand on her left breast.
    “Feel my nipple,” she whispered. “Feel how hard it is.”
    Wendell had been touching the same two nipples for all of those last twenty-one years, although not quite as often as he once did, so feeling an unfamiliar one, even through Laci’s blouse, was an electrifying experience. He thought he’d explode right then, and probably would have if he hadn’t received a call on his employee radio that someone needed help picking out a leaf blower.
    They agreed to rendezvous that night at a Day’s Inn. It was a Thursday, which meant Ellie would be out doing the weekly shopping, and Wendell wouldn’t have to make some excuse about why he was leaving the house. But they’d have to be quick. Ellie was never gone more than two hours.
    Turned out all they really needed was about ninety seconds.
    “You’re just nervous,” Laci told him. “You’ve never done anything like this before.”
    “Have you?” Wendell asked.
    Laci was horrified by the question. “Of course not.” She pointed out that she was not that kind of girl.
    Except now she kind of was.
    They managed to meet once or twice a week. Not always at the Day’s Inn, because it was expensive to have to rent a room every time. Sometimes they did it in Laci’s Honda minivan. One time, they tried it in the backseat of Wendell’s Buick, but he concluded that you’re not quite as limber in your forties as you were in your teens, so they opted for Laci’s van, which had seats that folded right down into the floor.
    Handy.
    The first few times, Wendell felt consumed with guilt. But the more Ellie went on and on about their daughter, the more he told himself that he had been driven to this. It wasn’t his fault. It was survival. It was the only way he could cope.
    Maybe, once the baby was born, and things with Melissa had settled down, he’d end it with Laci.
    That was what he told himself. There were times when he even believed it.
    * * *
    A few minutes after he’d finished talking with the police, the phone rang. He thought maybe it was Detective

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