You would expect noise. Shouting. People running. Police sirens. But there was nothing. Not so much as a single fretful decibel. After that initial alarming shriek, only silence. I checked my watch. Five-thirty am. I was on the second lap of my daily jog around the complex, taking advantage of dawn’s cooler temperatures, when I heard the scream. I cut away from the path and ran through a grove of mango trees towards the main gardening shed where I found Keren on her knees, rocking herself back and forth, and mumbling, or moaning, I wasn’t sure which. In front of her, a woman lay slumped against the base of a banyan tree. She was obviously dead, and it looked like she’d lain there all night. Her flesh was ashen, waxy, her mouth open, as if she’d been about to say something but was interrupted. Her lips were fixed in a gruesome rictus, her eyes wide open in a blank, dreadful stare. My own eyes filled instantly with tears. It was the shock. (Killer Novel/Fiction)