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| Failure to Acknowledge Excerpt |
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| TO BE RELEASED JANUARY 8, 2007 order early from www.publishamerica.com |
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| A small nagging fear tugged at his stomach. She was so pale and looked almost like Joey in the last day of his life. He had a flashback of the kid who was nothing but skin stretched tightly over bones. He could see Joey lying motionless in his crib with the feeding tube in his stomach. Jessie had told Doris that it was inhumane to keep feeding the boy when he couldn’t taste the food nor get any pleasure from it. She had glared at him and snapped that it helped keep Joey alive. Now a small smile flickered across Jessie’s face showing his crooked, nicotine stained teeth. It was that tube that had aided him with ending the boy’s misery and no one was any the wiser. Every day for over a week he had added washing powder to the formula Doris mixed up to put down the tube. Near the end the mixture was more washing powder than anything else. Fearing that Doris would be able to smell the difference he had volunteered to take over the feeding, explaining since she was so tired he could at least help out by doing that. And too, if this was murder, which he was convinced no one could ever see it as that, he did not want Doris to take any of the blame. He grinned again. Ole Doris had been so grateful, talking about how sweet and thoughtful he was and how she knew all along he really loved Joey. Maybe what he felt for Joey was love. He knew it tore him up inside to listen to the racking wheeze as the kid struggled to breathe. He had felt like crying as he watched the tiny chest shudder with each breath. Helping to bring Joey’s death a few days early and putting an end to his suffering was the only thing Jessie felt he could do. Yeah, maybe he had loved Joey. But it was nowhere near the love he had for Doris. He would do anything in his power to make her happy. He missed the sweet smile she flashed so readily before Joey. If she didn’t like this kid he would get rid of her and steal another one. Maybe he should just kill this one for Boss Man and steal Doris a boy. He glanced down at the tiny girl snuggled against his side. She was sleeping soundly again. It would be so easy to just toss her out the window of the moving truck. She would bounce on the blacktop and her head would explode like a watermelon. He held the steering wheel with his left hand and scooped the sleeping baby in the bend of his right arm. So easy. He thought as the wind ruffled his hair. |
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