by Jason Forbis

Created on: August 26, 2007   Last Updated: August 01, 2009

She stood in the light of a new day, wondering if what had happened last night had really happened.

Rena Talbot had been a fine upstanding member of the local society. She was a member of the Junior League, the PTSO, even the bridge club, where she enjoyed the status of the youngest member.

Now, she looked out over her perfectly manicured lawn, the wonderfully landscaped terrace, and the glistening stillness of the swimming pool, and asked herself if she should actually go and look. Should she go and look to see if the mess she imagined, was there.

She rounded the corner and looked at the bedroom door. Even from here she could see the sheets of her bed jumbled in a pile, and creeping from under that pile, a slowly expanding redness. The congealing mess had surely stained the hardwood floor by now the bedding was ruined she thought. An almost unexpected giggle welled up in her throat over the thought that she was more concerned about the floor and sheets, than the body lying there.

How long would it be before they noticed him missing? Did anyone know that he had even come to her house? Her husband Randolph had been away for over a month. When he got the call to go all he had said was that there was a lot of money at stake and he would return when things were settled. Since then she had learned he was in the arctic circle dealing with some kind of international issue over diamonds. She didn't even know there were diamonds in the arctic, maybe that's where the term "ice" came from she wondered. The distance between her and the arctic circle was no different than the difference that expanded between them when they were in the same room most times. He knew she had affairs, just as she suspected that he did as well. Both were very careful not to be too obvious about it, Randolph didn't want any negative publicity, and Rena just didn't want the trouble that would come from anyone finding out.

But now she was faced with a real dilemma. Last night was very fuzzy. Spiced rum and truffles, lace and the swimming pool, the handsome man, 20 years her junior so willing and available, it was all a jumble in her mind. The stark reality of the situation was clear enough now though. He was dead, in her bedroom, and she could not remember how it had happened. Moreover, she was a bit bothered by the fact that his dead body lying in a pool of blood some 20 feet from her wasn't a shocking or even a little disturbing. She wondered if she was perhaps dreaming all of this. She

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