Ackie didn’t believe it. He pushed me into the sitting-room. “They wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Get a grip on yourself, Nick. Come on an’ have a drink. They wouldn’t kill a kid like that.”
I grabbed him by the arm and swung him round. “I tell you they’ve killed her, the swine. She’s up there on the bed. Look… they killed her here. Look at the blood. Do you see that? That’s hers. That’s from her body. They killed her down here.—They came on her when she was alone and the yellow curs killed her against the wall.”
Ackie took a look at the bloodstains. Then he shook his head. “Take it easy,” he said, “take it easy.”
I seized his coat-front in my fist and shook him. “Don’t say that to me!” I shouted at him. “I tell you she’s up there….”
He hit me across the face with the flat of his hand very hard. I guess I wanted that. It shook me up and it hurt a lot, but it fixed me. I blinked at him and took my hand away. “I’m sorry, Mo,” I said, stepping away from him. “I guess I was excited.”
“Sure,” he said. “Suppose we go up?”
With Ackie, I felt I could do it. We went upstairs quickly. I turned on the light in the bedroom and walked over to the bed.
I heard Ackie say:. “Good God!”
I pulled the sheet down with a steady hand. The floor seemed to rise up under me and I felt Ackie grab at my arm. We both stood staring.
Even in death Blondie looked hard and suspicious. Her glazed eyes were fixed in a terrified stare and the rivid paint on her mouth glistened in the electric light. She was naked, and a small blood-encrusted bullet-hole just above her left breast told me how she had died.