Read Guilty Until Proven Innocent Online
Authors: Sarah Billington
Guilty Until Proven Innocent (3 page)
I started to notice things. The way the wall-mounted air conditioner hung at an angle, unstable, its vents softened and stuck together. The gleaming white, now soot speckled and faded to a dull grey.
I stepped back to get a better look at the room and my foot struck something solid. My body jerked and crashed onto the carpet. Softer, spongier than it should have been. And damp. I squinted down at myself in the gloom. I, too, was being blackened by the house, taken as one of its own. I wrinkled my nose as I sniffed the carpet in front of it. Mold. The water hoses that were used to save the house had in fact destroyed it, the carpet left flooded and forgotten for the week.
But there was another smell, too. Something sharp. Something I couldn’t quite recognize, but it turned my stomach, put my senses on edge.
I sat up and looked around for what I had tripped on.
And I found it.
Scrambling to my feet I was at the kitchen doorway before I looked again. I wasn’t alone here.
But I was the only one alive.
The body lay on the carpet, half concealed behind the couch. On his back, with his arm sprawled at a right angle, that’s what I’d tripped over. His forearm.
Only now did I hear the buzz of flies, the friction of their wings rubbing together as they perched on the arm, then the stomach, then the nose.
The nose on the face I recognized. Oh God, it was Peter. I took a step closer but that was when I spotted the maggots.
Writhing.
Squirming.
Wriggling.
My stomach heaved and throat tightened. There was movement in my throat and I dashed to the kitchen door out into the backyard. Thankfully it swung open first try, I guess they hadn’t thought to lock it.
I heaved up my dinner into the azalea bush by the back step.
I’d wanted to see a burnt out house, not a dead body. A murdered dead body. No wonder they couldn’t find him.
I stood on the back step, hands on my hips, trying to breathe. Breathe, breathe. Calm down. Calm the fuck down.
I had to do something. I swear there was something specific you have to do times like this.
I blinked, and shook my head. The panic, the fear-induced brain fuzz made thinking and connecting thoughts feel like my head was filled with soup. Peter was dead. And he’d been dead awhile.
What should I – the police! I had to call the Sherriff. Had to let somebody know. My head started to clear. I patted down my pockets, but my cell wasn’t there. Where was it, where was it? Did I leave it at Bodecker’s? No, I never even used it today. It stayed in my right pocket all shift.
I turned my attention to the kitchen door. Maybe it fell out when I tripped?
I took a deep breath. I had to go back in there.
I stiffened as there was a noise inside. A thump. Movement. Was he alive after all? I swung the kitchen door open and charged back inside, straight through the kitchen to the living room. There was a figure in the shadows. It turned to face me, stepped forward under the skylight.
“Dude?”
“Noah – what are you doing here?” I said, my heart thudding with relief against my ribcage. I scanned the carpet again, stepped around the couch. He hadn’t risen. Peter was exactly as he had been. I pulled my gaze away from his open, cloudy eyes, my stomach convulsing in a wave of repulsion. I was going to…I nearly…no. False alarm. “He’s dead,” I said. “Peter’s dead.”
“I know,” Noah said, face grim as he looked down at Peter.
“We have to do something,” I said. “We have to tell the Sherriff.”
Noah stepped carefully over to me and put a hand on my shoulder, rubbing my back gently. “I did. I called it in a second ago. As soon as I got here.”
“Okay,” I said. “Okay. Good.”
“It’s gonna be okay, dude. It’s messed up, but it’s gonna be okay.”
“I knew he didn’t do it,” I said, shaking my head. I took slow, deep breaths again, closing my eyes, trying to ignore the stench as my heart rate slowed, returned at least close to normal. It was okay, the Sherriff would be here any minute. It would be okay. “I knew all along. He couldn’t have.”
“But that means someone else did,” Noah said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. I opened my eyes again and turned my back on the body. Between the molten TV with the cracked screen and the couch, was a wooden toy box. Charred and brittle on the outside, but the lid was open.
“Look at that,” I said, stepping over to the box. “It survived.” The inside of the box was intact, half a dozen toys lightly speckled with soot, but still good. Still whole. I picked up a doll and stroked her brown hair. “I wonder why they didn’t take these?”
“Rita always hated that doll,” Noah said. “And Shana wants a fresh start.”
I turned to face Noah, my forehead furrowed. “I thought you said you didn’t know Shana.” I said. “Dude, what are you even doing here?”
I stopped speaking as Noah raised the hammer, gripped tightly in his hand and-
THE END
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OTHER TITLES BY SARAH BILLINGTON:
SHORT STORIES:
YOUNG ADULT SUPERNATURAL
When fifteen-year-old Alex is caught out in the secluded forest admiring the giant ancient tree set in a moss-covered clearing, she is sure Josh is pulling a prank on her.
Be careful of the witch's curse, he says. The tree has the power to kill you in the most horrible of ways.
Alex didn't believe him.
Maybe she should have.
HORROR/BLACK COMEDY
I, Zombie can't wait to eat the little girl.
The old man looks like he'd be a bit tough and gristly, and the teenage boy keeps waving that bat around, but the little girl, so rosy cheeked, so tender. Her heart beating so fast. He can’t wait to hold it, hot and wet in his hands, then rip it apart with his teeth. But he isn't the only zombie to find them.
He's got a fight on his hands, but with who, was unexpected.
Angela waits, hiding in the dark of a house, her satchel packed and ready, her bloody clothes discarded on the floor. If Luc doesn't arrive soon, she knows they'll find her.
The Runaway is a short story that will keep you guessing.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE LIGHTER?
NOVELS
YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY
When sixteen year old Poppy Douglas writes a song about her ex-boyfriend Cam and ex-friend Nikki, she has no idea that her heartbreak is about to go global.
A local band picks up her song from Youtube and soon she’s along for the ride with her own fanbase as they blow up on the local club scene and hit the international charts. Though it turns out leaving Cam behind isn’t as easy as she had hoped.
Tangled in a web of unfinished homework, ill-considered sexting and a new lead-singer boyfriend, Poppy has a choice to make between the ex that inspired it all and the rock God whose poster lines the inside of half the lockers at school. But as she struggles to keep her emotional dirty laundry private, she learns that the truth can be hard to find when your life is in the headlines.
WHAT READERS SAY:
"A fun, fabulous and swoon-worthy novel that is as perfect as a three-minute pop song. It has an absolutely killer hook that I wish I'd thought of!"
Shirley Marr, author of Fury and Preloved, Black Dog Books
"I absolutely adore this book"
The Life of Fiction
"Fresh and fun and extremely upbeat"
I Love YA Fiction
"If you like fun YA chick lit, this IS your book!”
Dead Trees and Silver Screens
“I was completely blown away by how much I loved this book”
NicoleYALover
Life Was Cool Until You Got Popular
UPPER MIDDLE GRADE CONTEMPORARY
Thirteen year old Kaley’s best friend Jules is an alien clone. That has to be it. Because Jules wouldn’t dress like that or act like that…and she definitely wouldn’t be friends with Meg-a-bitch.
Kaley can't wait to start at her new school with her best friend Jules. Jules was away in Europe all summer (worst summer of Kaley's life!) But it's cool, now school is starting and everything is going to be awesome. However as the school bus pulls up on that first day, Kaley barely recognizes the silky hair and glossy lips as Jules gets off with the cool kids and with their arch-nemesis Meg, the popular girl (God only knows why) who made Kaley and Jules's lives miserable in elementary school. In Europe, Meg had somehow won over Kaley's best friend and Kaley finds herself frozen out.
LIFE WAS COOL UNTIL YOU GOT POPULAR is a first person middle-grade novel told through Kaley’s eyes, chronicling the initial pain and incomprehension of what happened to destroy their friendship. But that doesn't last long. Kaley decides that underneath the bleached blond clone with the personality transplant, Jules is still in there. Somewhere. And she is going to get her best friend back!
SHORT STORIES
YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY
Jordan thought she and Paul were forever. Then she found out about Missy: Paul’s other forever.
Now it’s the night of the sophomore dance. Jordan’s on stage with her band, Paul’s text bombing her and Missy’s in the audience with murder on her mind. Unfortunately, it’s not Paul in Missy’s sights.
NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY
Can a friendship that lasts just an hour be completely perfect?
A year ago, Annie and Bree were best friends, then they graduated high school and it turns out a year is a long time.
When Annie shows up at her best friend's birthday hoping to slip back into the friendship that was, she discovers she's no longer a part of Bree's world and decides to slip out quietly without making a scene.
But a chance encounter on the way out means that sometimes you can find friendship when you least expect it.
The Death & Life of Rocky the Crab
HUMOR
Lisa was supposed to be pet sitting. Looking after a crab is easy, right? Unless you forget to feed it. And then you find it dead minutes before its owner is back in town.
There's something a bit different about this dead crab though.
The Ballerina & My Best Friend
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Everyone expected that one day Amanda and Tom would get married. But tomorrow is his wedding day, and Amanda is not the bride. Short and sweet, The Ballerina & My Best Friend is the perfect story for those that enjoy romance but have limited time to invest in it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Billington is an Australian writer and editor with publications in anthologies and literary journals, articles, interviews and reviews in small newspapers and has won and been highly commended in international competitions for her short stories and screenwriting. She likes to write stories with love, laughs, suspense and zombies. Sometimes all in the same story.
Connect with Sarah online!
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Sarah Billington.com