Amy E. Lilly's Blog: Book signing at Dahlgren General Library, page 5

Ain’t Mythbehavin’

Please enjoy my first sound recording of a short story I wrote. I’ve been working on developing a podcast, Jazz Age Crime, and today was my first time hooking up my sound equipment. It’s a little rough, but I hope you enjoy my story (and the intro 1920s music!)

Witch One Did It?

I made it to Round 2 of the NYC Midnight Screenwriting Challenge. My assignment? An 8-page mystery with a vandalism and the mayor as one of the characters. This is my interpretation of the challenge.

Disclaimer: Transferring from my script writing software to the blog is horrible on formatting, so apologies!

Witch One Did It?

When Sheriff Dan
Foster receives a call that someone committed vandalism and witchcraft on the
mayor’s property, he must use his investigative skills to solve the crime.

FADE IN:

INT. BEDROOM – MORNING

A man and woman are asleep in a king-sized bed when a cell phone on the nightstand buzzes. The sound rouses DAN FOSTER,
an older man with gray hair and a tanned
face etched with too many lines
for his age. He grabs the phone,
looks at the screen, then
answers it.

DAN

Sheriff Foster here. This better be worth
waking me up on my day off, Deputy, or your
ass will be patrolling the road to the dump for the next month.

Dan listens
to the caller. He sits
up and rubs his hand over the stubble
on his chin and sighs.

DAN (CONT’D)

Witchcraft? Tell the mayor I’ll be there in
fifteen.

Dan sets the phone down. He turns
on the lamp next to him and picks up
the pair of pants
he had dropped on the
floor the night before and pulls them on.

EXT. LARGE FAUX ANTEBELLUM BRICK
HOUSE – LATER

Dan pulls his cruiser up to the house.
MAYOR SHANTWELL, a balding man in his early sixties
with a slight paunch, stands on the steps.
The mayor has a bathrobe tied
tightly around his waist and old, paint-splattered sneakers on
his feet.

JOSIE WHITAKER,
a tall woman wearing jeans
and a Grateful Dead t-shirt,
stands off to the
side with her arms crossed.

Dan steps out of his car and walks over to them.
Mayor Shantwell looks pointedly
at his expensive watch.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(scowls)

About damn time you got here, Dan. I want that woman arrested.

The mayor stabs his finger
towards Josie.

DAN

(sighs)

What did she do this
time? The mayor’s face darkens
with anger.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(sputtering)

What did she do? She not only vandalized my property, but she put a curse on me, too. The Bible says thou shalt not suffer a witch
to live, and it was talking
about her! This town doesn’t need
her or her granola-eating
cronies.

Josie
uncrosses her arms and takes a step towards
the mayor.

JOSIE

Listen, you
pompous little toad! This isn’t the Dark Ages, and no one
did jack shit to you! I want
you to arrest him
for being a stain upon humanity and Mother
Earth!

Dan steps between
Josie and the mayor. He
puts his hands up to stop
them from moving closer to each
other.

DAN

Both of
you calm down. I’m not arresting anyone until I find out what happened.

(turns to Mayor Shantwell)

You tell me what’s going on.

Mayor Shantwell gives Josie a
triumphant look.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

I woke up
around 5:30. I like
to take a morning swim, so
I walked outside to turn
on the pool heater. That’s when I saw the Satanic
mumbo jumbo. She painted a pentagram on my new pool house!
She’s cursed me!

Dan holds up
his hand to stop
Mayor Shantwell from saying
anything else.

DAN

Satanic symbol? Did you actually see Josie paint it? Was anyone
else at home?

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(angry)

That woman and her dilapidated shack are a
menace to this town. She and her
kind need to go.

(MORE)

MAYOR SHANTWELL (CONT’D)

Are you going to take care of this, Dan, or do I need to endorse
another candidate for sheriff come
fall?

JOSIE

My kind?
You mean organic farmers? Beekeepers?
Or women in general? Which is it, Shantwell?

(beat)

I was on
my property feeding my chickens
when you buffaloed your way through, trampled my herbs,
and called me a witch. I’ll
sue you for defamation
of character!

The mayor sputters
again and clenches his
fists, but Dan pulls him aside before he
can do anything else.

DAN

Show me the damage.

Mayor Shantwell
gives one last glare at Josie
before turning and walking
towards his backyard.

EXT. BACKYARD – CONTINUOUS

Dan and the mayor walk to the
huge swimming pool and pool house. Behind the pool house is a line
of oak trees.

Dan looks around
at the extensive landscaping.
Shrubs are precisely trimmed. The lawn is a lush, almost
unnatural, green. There are no weeds
visible to the
naked eye. PHILIP, a young man in
a blue work uniform is
trimming the hedges.
The mayor stops at the
back of the pool house.
There is a crudely sprayed black pentagram
on it. The mayor gives Dan a triumphant
look.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

As you
can see, that woman spray- painted my pool
house with the symbol of Satan.
She did that, too.

The mayor turns and gestures to the row of
trees behind him. Small, white
objects swing from the branches.

MAYOR SHANTWELL (CONT’D)

Witchcraft! What are you going to do about it?

DAN

Now, hold on. Anyone else around who
might have seen anything? Your wife? The gardener?

Dan nods toward
Philip who has been moving closer to the two of them
while they spoke.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(shaking his head)

Wife’s been
out of town for weeks.
She’s visiting some ashram trying to find herself or
some other foolishness. Philip got here right after I discovered the damage. He’s a good
kid. Punctual. I gave him a job when his daddy died last year. I’m telling you it was
Josie Whitaker.

Dan leaves the mayor’s side and
walks over to Philip.

DAN

Hello, Philip. The mayor tells me you got here early this morning. Did
you see anyone or anything?

PHILIP

(stutters)

N-no, sir. I d-didn’t see anything. Miss Whitaker was outside
feeding her chickens.

(leans in and whispers)

But I don’t
think Miss Whitaker d- did
it. She’s a n-nice woman.

EXT. ROW OF OAK TREES – MOMENTS LATER

Beyond the
trees is a woven wire fence that surrounds an old farmhouse with peeling paint. There is
a small field filled with
vegetables and herbs.
Beehives line one side of the field. Chickens with funny tufts of feathers at
their neckline peck along the fence.

Dan walks over to the hanging objects. This close, he sees
they are white eggs with small stick figures
wrapped and hung with twine. Dan
looks closely at each
of them. He walks to
the fence and gazes at the farmhouse. After a moment, he squats
down and grabs a handful of
grass and holds it through
the fence to a hen.
She snatches it from
his hand. Dan puts a few pieces
of grass into his pocket then stands.

Dan returns to the mayor.

DAN

I think I’ve got all I need from here, sir. Can you tell me why
you think Josie is behind this?

MAYOR SHANTWELL

(smirking)

That fence beyond my trees marks my property line as
well as the town limits.

The mayor points to the fence.

MAYOR SHANTWELL (CONT’D)

She’s pissed
off because the council wants
to incorporate her farm and the surrounding properties into the town limits. That will change the
zoning from agricultural
to residential. Great opportunities for new subdivisions with HOAs.

Bigger tax base means growth.

DAN

(nods slowly)

She won’t be
able to have her chickens or
beehives. Don’t you own the land to the
west of her property,
too?

The mayor gestures
for Dan to walk
with him back to the house.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

I do.

(beat)

Dan, you have to have vision as
a leader. Cedar’s Edge might be a small town now, but it could
become a bedroom community for the city.

Bigger and
better. It will
be great. It could mean new patrol cars and officers for
you.

Dan doesn’t
respond to the mayor’s
thinly-veiled hint. Instead, he
looks down at the grass.

DAN

You’ve got a really nice lawn.

The mayor beams with pride.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

It’s the special
fertilizer and weed killer mixture I use. I’d be happy to
mix you up a batch.

DAN

Hmmm. Probably
not good for organic produce or bees.

(beat)

Listen, I sure could use a cup of coffee
while I figure out
my next step.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

Sure. Come on into the house, Dan.

INT. MAYOR SHANTWELL’S KITCHEN –
MOMENTS LATER

The kitchen
is a gleaming testament to a
designer’s dream of modernism from the stainless steel appliances
to the white marble counter tops and black cabinets. It’s spotless.

The mayor opens a cupboard and grabs two black coffee mugs. A state-of-the-art
coffee machine sits on the counter. The
mayor pushes a few buttons,
and moments later, he hands Dan
a mug of hot coffee.

DAN

You have any creamer or milk?

The mayor gestures
towards the refrigerator. Dan opens it and looks around
the nearly empty interior. He pulls out a small carton
of creamer and places it
on the counter, a hint of a smile
on his face. Checking to make
sure the mayor can’t see, he reaches into
his pocket and pulls out the tuft of grass.

DAN (CONT’D)

Oh, hell. I’ve got grass on my pants.
I don’t want to track
it all over your house. Where’s your trash?

MAYOR SHANTWELL

In that
tall cabinet to your
left. The maid comes today, so no worries
about the floor. She’s
paid good money to clean it.

Dan opens the indicated cabinet where he sees
a stainless steel trash can. Popping it open, he
looks in, then he drops
the grass into it.

DAN

I won’t be
pressing charges against Josie.

The mayor slams his cup down on
the counter.

MAYOR SHANTWELL

Josie Whitaker and her farm are a thorn
in my side. If you won’t
do it, I’ll find someone who will.

DAN

You don’t want to do that. You wouldn’t want
the truth about today to come to
the attention of the rest of
the town, would you?

EXT. LARGE FAUX ANTEBELLUM BRICK
HOUSE – LATER

Dan and Josie walk to Dan’s car. Josie turns and
shakes his hand.

JOSIE

For just a moment, I thought I was going to
jail.

DAN

My wife
would make me sleep outside
for a month. She loves that herbal tea
mixture she gets from you.

Helps her insomnia
better than those pills from Doc Calvert.

JOSIE

Sometimes the old ways are more effective
than the new. Tell Anna to come
see me on Saturday at
the farmer’s market for a new batch.

Josie starts
to leave, but she hesitates. She turns back to Dan.

JOSIE (CONT’D)

I don’t get it. How did you know I didn’t do
it? The mayor’s a powerful, wealthy man who
runs the show, and I’m…well, I
know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.

DAN

I never assume
guilt or innocence based upon a person’s income or lifestyle.

(MORE)

DAN (CONT’D)

You’re no
more a witch than I am. I know you love your herbal remedies and organic produce, but that makes you more of a
hippie than a witch.

JOSIE

(nods)

It still
doesn’t explain how you knew it was the mayor.

DAN

(holding up
three fingers) One, he was
fully dressed under his robe and had his watch on despite
saying he swims first thing. Two, I spotted black
paint on his shoes.

Three, the eggs were white.

JOSIE

(smiles)

Ah. My flock of
chickens saves me
from the slammer.

Dan laughs.

DAN

Your Aracauana
chickens only lay blue and green
eggs, not white. His refrigerator contained creamer and a takeout
container of Chinese food.
Nothing else, not even condiments, yet he had an empty egg carton on
top of the trash.

JOSIE

Why frame me?

DAN

Your farm stands
in the way of progress as
far as he’s concerned. He wanted to discredit
you in front of the
town council to push
through his expansion
and rezoning plan.

Dan opens his car door but stops
and turns back to Josie.

DAN (CONT’D)

I guess you can take the lawman from
the farm, but you can’t take the farm from the lawman.

FADE
OUT.

Find Her

To get my writing back on track, I signed up for NYC Midnight’s Screenwriting challenge. Unlike fiction, if the camera can’t see it, you don’t write it. I find it a nice change of pace to participate. As always with NYC Midnight, they provide the genre, etc. This time my draw was ghost story/maternal/mortician.

Find Her

When Nina brings a memorial diamond into the Death Museum, Percy knows she needs to investigate the mysterious happenings that are tied to the jewel.

FADE IN:

EXT. DEATH MUSEUM – DAY

NINA DAVIS stands outside an old Victorian home with faded shutters and paint that is starting to peel. A large black sign with white lettering rests atop the door announcing Death Museum – Open Mon-Sat 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Nina opens her purse and pulls out a black velvet bag. She clutches it tightly before opening the door to the museum. A small bell jangles as the door opens and closes.

INT. DEATH MUSEUM – CONTINUOUS

PERSEPHONE “PERCY” ALLEN, owner and operator of the museum sits behind an antique desk reading Medieval Funeral Practices. She looks up as Nina enters.

PERCY

Good afternoon. Welcome to the one and only Death Museum, home to the commonplace, the bizarre, and the eclectic. We have artifacts related to death and funerals with an occasional nod to Spiritualism thrown in for good measure. Tickets are ten dollars and tours are self- guided. Ticket for one?

Nina looks around furtively. No one else is in the museum.

NINA

Are you Persephone Allen? I need your help.

PERCY

Certainly. We strive for excellent customer service here at the Death-

NINA

Listen, I’m not here about the museum. I need your professional expertise. A friend told me Persephone Allen is the closest thing to an expert on the supernatural and occult in the area. Is that you?

Percy straightens up at the compliment and looks pleased.

PERCY

An expert, huh? Yeah. I know things. Growing up in a funeral home fostered an unhealthy preoccupation with things that might go bump in the night. I go by Percy, by the way, not Persephone. The whole goddess of the underworld moniker tends to scare off prospective boyfriends. And you are?

Nina thrusts the velvet bag at Percy.

NINA

Nina Davis. Here. I picked this up at a flea market. Even though it isn’t exactly my taste, I felt oddly compelled to buy it. Ever since…well, strange things have been happening at my house.

Percy takes the bag from Nina. She opens it and a diamond solitaire necklace in a dramatic white gold setting drops into her hand. She picks up the diamond and holds it up to the light.

PERCY

(Excited)

Hold on. I need to grab something.

Percy opens a drawer and pulls out a jeweler’s loupe. She picks up the necklace and looks at it closely with the loupe.

PERCY (CONT’D)

Hmmm…just what I thought. (Percy removes the loupe and looks at Nina)

The diamond in this necklace is made from cremains.

Nina steps back from the desk, a look of revulsion on her face.

NINA

Are you kidding me? I’ve had a dead person’s ashes hanging from my neck? I think I’m going to be sick!

Nina makes a small gagging noise. Percy, looking amused, nudges the trash can next to her desk closer to Nina.

PERCY

It’s really not a dead person anymore. It’s a manufactured diamond. The difference between memorial diamonds and other manufactured gems is the carbon for this one comes from a loved one’s ashes.

NINA

But why? Why would someone turn their loved one into a necklace? Why not just bury them like a normal person?

Percy chuckles and walks out from behind the desk to stand next to Nina.

PERCY

Why? Personally, I think it’s sweet and smart. You have grandma made into a necklace, then you don’t feel obligated to place flowers at her grave every holiday. No worries about vandals on Halloween, or concerns about the cemetery being relocated for a new strip mall.

NINA

I guess. It seems weird to me, but now that you put it like that, I can see why it might appeal to someone. Can I ask you a question? Why a death museum? It seems an odd choice for a…for a…

PERCY

For a girl? Well, this used to be our funeral home business. We lived upstairs. I went to school to be a mortician and was all set to take over when one of those chain funeral homes opened up a few miles from here. Fancy coffins, fancy hearses, we couldn’t compete. Dad died a few years ago, and mom decided to pack up and move to Florida. Gave the business over to me, and I decided a death museum would be more profitable and fun.

NINA

Interesting lateral career move.

PERCY

Anyway,enough about me. You said strange things have been happening since you bought this necklace?

NINA

(nods)

Doors opening and closing on their own. Whispering. My mother keeps staring at the corner of her bed and carrying on a conversation with someone who isn’t there. She’s only sixty-five and until now, I thought she still had all her faculties even after her stroke. Now, I’m not so sure. It all started the night I brought the necklace home.

PERCY

Are you doing anything this evening? I’d like to bring some equipment with me and observe what’s going on in your home if that’s okay with you? I can come by right after the museum closes.

Nina hesitates.

PERCY (CONT’D)

No charge. I’m dying to see if you have an actual artifact haunting.

(grimaces)

Sorry. No pun intended.

NINA

Okay, but haunted or not, I definitely want to rid myself of this necklace now that I know it’s a dead person.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. NINA’S LIVING ROOM – EVENING

Percy, Nina, and Nina’s mother, GLADYS, sit in the living room. It is filled with chintz-covered chairs and an overstuffed sofa in a hideous pattern of red and green plaid. Victorian-style lamps do little to light the room. Several china statues of English Springer Spaniels dot the room on various small tables. It looks dark and oppressive.

The velvet bag containing the diamond necklace is in the center of a large coffee table that dominates the space between the chairs and sofa.

Percy looks around and spots a stuffed fox with a duck in its mouth. A mounted elk head stares down at the assembled women. Percy shudders. Nina notices and gives a small smile of understanding.

NINA

Thanks for coming. As you can see, my dad was quite the enthusiastic hunter. He would hunt anything as long as it moved.

GLADYS

Yes, Everett loved hunting things. Why I remember back when we were first married, he took me hunting for small prey. Like scared rabbits. It was quite the honeymoon.

Nina rolls her eyes at Percy.

NINA

Daddy was always a romantic. Are you okay to get yourself ready for bed or do you need my help?

Nina touches her mother’s arm.

GLADYS

(slaps Nina’s hand away) Don’t fuss.

Gladys stands up and wobbles a little. Nina leaps to her feet and pulls a walker from the corner. She makes sure her mother has a tight grip on it. Gladys slowly makes her way out of the living room and down the darkened hallway.

PERCY

Your mother doesn’t seem like she’s suffering from dementia, but I’m not a doctor. You say that she talks to someone at night?

NINA

Yes. At 8:42 every evening, everything starts going crazy here in the house.

Nina picks up the velvet bag and pulls the necklace out. She lays it in the center of the table.

PERCY

If it’s okay with you, I want to get my recorder and cameras out and ready to go before the witching hour of 8:42.

Percy pulls out a digital recorder and a video camera from a bag she has at her feet. Percy starts the digital recorder and sets it in the middle of the table by the necklace.

The door on the far side of the living room slowly creaks open. Percy’s eyes widen and she whips the camera up to start recording.

NINA

(checks her watch)

8:42 exactly. If nothing else, our ghost is punctual.

PERCY

Yeah. I hate a haunting that starts late.

Percy leans down to make sure the recorder is on.

PERCY (CONT’D)

Is anyone here with us tonight? (Waits a moment)

Anyone here who wishes to speak to us? Someone who is tied to this necklace?

The door slams shut so hard that one of the china spaniels falls to the ground and shatters.

NINA

(frightened) It’s here.

Percy gives her a wide smile and a thumb’s up. She aims her camera at the closed door and walks towards it.

PERCY

You’ve got my attention. Why are you here?

Air ruffles Percy’s hair. She reaches out to smooth it down, but jerks her hand back.

NINA

What’s wrong?

Nina’s breath comes out in smoky puffs because the temperature has dropped rapidly.

PERCY

(shivers)

Nothing. I just thought I felt someone touching me.

A murmur of voices comes from the hallway. It is clearly two voices. One of them is Gladys’s. The other voice is clearly masculine.

Mama!

NINA

Nina scurries up from her seat and dashes down the hallway towards her mother’s room. Percy is close behind her with the camera in her hand.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE OF GLADYS’S BEDROOM – MOMENTS LATER

Nina grabs the doorknob to open the door. She screams and pulls her hand back. An angry red blister in the shape of the handle is branded on her palm. She bangs on the door.

NINA

Mama! Let me in!

Percy comes up behind her. She puts the camera down.

PERCY

Let me try.

Percy knocks on the door then grabs the doorknob. It doesn’t turn. She slams her shoulder against the door. It crashes open as if it was never closed. Percy tumbles to the ground.

INT. GLADYS’S BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS

Gladys sits in her bed under the covers. She turns and gives Percy a ghastly smile.

GLADYS

Hello, dear. Are you one of Everett’s girls? He does like them young and pretty.

Gladys turns back to look at the end of the bed. Her eyes roll back in her head then turn a milky white.

GLADYS (CONT’D)

Everett, I told you not to bring them to the house.

(MORE)

GLADYS (CONT’D)

Home and play should always be separate. You promised. Think of Nina.

A horrifying man’s laugh echoes loudly across the room. The lights flicker. An unseen hand pushes Percy backwards. She tumbles out of the door into Nina. The door slams shut. Nina and Percy stand up, but despite repeated efforts, they are unable to reopen the door.

PERCY

I don’t know how to say this, but your mom seemed to be talking to the ghost of your father. He didn’t seem like a friendly ghost at all. Are you sure that everything started when you brought the necklace home?

NINA

Definitely. My father died six months ago. I moved back home to take care of my mom two months ago after her stroke. As far as I know, nothing weird happened until I bought the necklace. If it had, I honestly wouldn’t know. I haven’t been home in a long time. Things between my parents and me were…well, strained.

The door at the end of the hallway opens. A set of stairs is visible.

GHOST (O.S.)

(whispering) Follow me.

Percy picks up her discarded video camera and walks down the hallway to the open door. She turns back to look at Nina.

PERCY

What’s up here?

NINA

It’s the attic. I wasn’t allowed up there. It’s where my dad kept his guns. He whipped me with a belt the one time I disobeyed him. I haven’t been up in the attic since I was eight.

Percy slowly walks through the door and starts up the stairs. Nina reluctantly follows.

INT. ATTIC-CONTINUOUS

Nina reaches up and pulls a chain. A single bulb illuminates the space. The attic is dusty and filled with boxes, old furniture, and several gun safes. A mouse scurries out from a box overflowing with papers.

GHOST (O.S.)

Find her.

A breeze ripples the papers and scatters them across the attic. Several newspaper clippings now litter the floor.

PERCY

Find who? Who do you want us to find?

GHOST (O.S.)

Find her.

NINA

This is freaking me out. I’m getting Mom and taking her to a hotel room for the night. Take the necklace. I don’t need to know what’s going on. I just want it to stop.

Nina turns to leave, but a dark mass forms in the air and flies across the room. It enters Nina’s body through her mouth and nose. Nina, no longer in control of her body, turns stiffly and points to one of the newspaper clippings that has landed at Percy’s feet.

Percy leans down and picks it up. She reads the clipping.

PERCY

Oh, shit! You need to see this.

Nina’s eyes are wide and unblinking. She opens her mouth to speak, but instead emits a gut-wrenching scream. The black mass flies out of her body. For a moment, it becomes the shape of an older woman with a kind face. Tears run down her cheeks. She points to the corner.

Nina goes silent and collapses to the ground. She begins to sob.

Percy runs over to Nina and drops to the ground next to her.

PERCY (CONT’D)

Nina? What’s wrong? What’s going on?

Nina doesn’t speak. Instead, she crawls over to a large green military footlocker in the corner where the ghost had pointed. The name Davis is stenciled on the outside. She fumbles to open it, but it’s padlocked.

Nina drags herself up and grabs a golf club from a set laying nearby. She hammers at the lock with the club.

NINA

(sobbing)

You son of a bitch. You sorry worthless son of a bitch. I knew it. I knew you were evil.

Percy grabs the club from Nina. Percy lifts it and gives the lock a hard whack. The lock breaks. Percy slowly opens the lid.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. NINA’S HOUSE – LATER

Two police cars are parked outside on the street with their blue lights flashing. A coroner’s van is in the yard. An ambulance is parked in the driveway. Crime scene tape is strung across the yard preventing nosy, pajama-clad neighbors from moving in for a closer look.

Two EMTs roll a gurney out the front door with the sheet pulled up over the body. They load it into the ambulance.

Nina sees the gurney and lets out a small sob. Percy huddles by Nina.

DETECTIVE JON STABLE stands next to the women, a notepad in his hand.

The three of them watch as a second gurney is trundled out of the house with a black body bag on top.

DETECTIVE

Miss Davis, you had no idea there was a dead body in your attic all these years?

Nina shudders and Percy gives her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

NINA

No. I left home the day I graduated from high school. To be honest, I didn’t have the best relationship with my parents.

(MORE)

NINA (CONT’D)

When I lived at home, I wasn’t allowed in the attic because my father stored his guns there.

He jots a few words.

DETECTIVE

And what made you want to open the trunk on a Saturday night after all these years? Any reason you went snooping around?

Nina opens her mouth then shuts it.

PERCY

Actually, it was my idea. I run the Death Museum here in town. You’ve heard of it, right?

The detective curls his lip in distaste. He nods.

PERCY (CONT’D)

Nina thought her dad might have collected a few artifacts when he was stationed overseas with the military. She invited me to come over and go through stuff.

The detective raises a brow in skepticism. He snaps his notepad shut.

DETECTIVE

I guess that’s all I need to know for now. I’ll need you both down at the station tomorrow morning at eight sharp to make a formal statement. Miss Davis, my condolences. The shock of a corpse in the house must have been too much for her heart.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. DEATH MUSEUM – SEVERAL DAYS LATER

Nina walks in and drops the black velvet bag onto Percy’s desk.

NINA

You keep it. I never want to see it again.

Percy opens up the bag and pulls the necklace out. She lays it on top of her desk.

NINA (CONT’D)

I saw everything. It was like a movie inside of my mind. My father. The girl. The horrible things he did to her. The worst thing is my mother knew. She knew and let it happen.

Nina covers her face with her hands.

PERCY

You need to see something.

Percy opens the desk drawer and pulls out a yellow scrap of newspaper and hands it to Nina.

NINA

(reads)

Twenty-five-year-old Amber Whitaker went missing Saturday night after finishing her shift as a bartender at Faster Pussycat at eight o’clock. Reported missing by her roommate when she failed to return to their apartment after three days, Miss Whitaker was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, a cropped red top, and white cowboy boots.

Her father said, “Amber wears a piece of her mama around her neck. It’s her good luck charm. I’m hoping her mama’s spirit will help bring my little girl home.”

Nina looks at the photograph that accompanies the article.

NINA (CONT’D)

Oh my god! It’s the necklace! How in the world did it end up at a flea market?

Percy picks up the necklace and lets it spin in the sunlight shining through the front window.

PERCY

There are more things in heaven and earth, Nina.

FADE OUT.

Tit for Tad

I made it to Round 2 of the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. This time my assignment was political satire, a fundraiser, and a cartoonist. Here’s my entry!

“Sir, I think it’s
a mistake to attend this fundraiser. You won’t find people friendly to your campaign.”

 “That’s exactly why it’s the place I need to
be, Walker. Those women don’t know my ideas are what’s good for them. Instead,
they’re listening to that dried-up husk, Millie Highpoint, who wouldn’t know
what to do with a man if he showed up on her doorstep naked and willing.” Thaddeus
Trench tightened the knot in his tie and gave himself an appraising look in the
mirror. “Going to Save the Moo Moos will show these women I support their
breasts and understand their problems.”

Walker let out a
snort of laughter which he quickly turned into a cough. “Mr. Trench, it’s Save
the Ta–”

Trench held up his
hand. “I don’t need to be schooled by a kid like you. I come from a long line
of political men. My daddy and my granddaddy both served in the state senate. Come
November, those women will line up and beg to vote for me. You focus on my
speech for next Saturday’s debate, and I’ll worry about tonight. Any idea where
my wife is?”

“She said she’d
meet you at the gallery. She had some…um…errands to run.” Walker knew the
errand was boning her new yoga instructor, Hans, but what the senator didn’t
know wouldn’t hurt him. Stella Trench paid him a nice healthy bonus every month
to help hide her indiscretions.

 An hour later, Senator Trench eased his SUV
into the parking lot next to the gallery. It had taken him three tries to park,
but he prided himself on his ability to maneuver big things into little spaces.
He licked his palm and used it to smooth his hair into place. At sixty-one, he
still had a full head of hair that he kept black with a bit of help from a
bottle of dye he hid under his bathroom sink. Opening his door, he felt it slam
against the silver Prius in the next space.

“Damn ridiculous,”
he muttered. “Got spots for the handicapped, compact cars, pregnant mothers,
but they can’t make a spot for a God-fearing man with a real vehicle.”

He strode to the
door of the Middleton Art Gallery. At the entrance, he spotted Stella standing
close to a deeply tanned man with a shaved head and small goatee. Trench
reached out and grabbed his wife’s ass. She gave a squeal and whirled to face
him, her face pink. “Dang it, Tad! You about gave me a heart attack!”

“Just keeping my
little lady on her toes.” He held his hand out to the bald man. “Senator Thaddeus
Trench. Good to meet you.”

“Tad, this is Hans
Oliver, my yoga instructor. Remember I told you how much he’s helped improve my
downward dog position.” Stella giggled. “I feel like a new woman after a
session with him.”

Trench eyed him. A
pink handkerchief was neatly tucked into the breast pocket of his jacket. It
told him everything he needed to know about Hans Oliver. He smiled. “Glad to
hear your helping my wife. You must really give her a workout. She comes home exhausted
after her evening yoga class. Keep up the good work. I like to support your
kind.”

Hans lifted an
eyebrow. “My kind?”

“Yeah. You know…”
Senator Trench lifted his hand then let it droop. “It’s okay. Your secret’s
safe with me. I can’t say that I agree because the good book says it’s a sin,
but I’m not one to throw shoes in glass houses.”

“Good to know
you’re so open-minded, Senator.” Hans smirked. “I’ll be sure to let my kind
know about you. Stella, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Stella watched
Hans walk away, her eyes gleaming. “He really is a fine yoga instructor. I’m
not getting any younger, Tad. Thirty is right around the corner, and I like to
keep my body a temple.”

Trench ogled his
young wife’s plunging neckline. “You’re the finest temple I’ve ever seen,
darling. I got lucky the day you walked into my church. A beautiful and
virtuous wife is a blessing to her husband.”

“Oh, Tad, I’m the
lucky one.” Stella looked up at Trench from under her lash extensions. Trench
didn’t know she had stumbled into his church by accident that Wednesday evening
five years ago after drinking one to many mojitos with the girls after
work. 

“I’m glad you wore
the dress that shows off your tits,” Trench said. “It will demonstrate to these
women that you support their breasts, too.”

Stella rolled her
eyes. Lately, she’d been replacing Trench’s little blue pills with vitamins
similar in shape and size. After a few failed attempts on his part, her husband
had retreated to his side of the bed and stayed. She couldn’t divorce him. She
had her eye on the governor’s mansion one day. She couldn’t wait to host a
cocktail party there and invite all the women who had turned up their noses at
her. Once she was the wife of a governor, they would all have to kiss her ass.
It was a finely molded ass, too, after all her sessions with Hans.

The two of them
walked into the gallery. Stella snagged a glass of champagne from a passing
waiter. Trench declined. He never drank in public. His constituents had certain
expectations of a preacher and senator. If he wanted the governor’s mansion, he
needed to maintain his façade and keep his liquor consumption private.

“Senator Trench and
Stella! I’m surprised you accepted the invitation tonight.” A young woman with one
side of her head shaved and the other side bedazzled with hues of pink and
purple greeted them. “I’m KD, the featured artist for this evening’s charity
auction.”

“Nice to meet you.
What’s your media of choice, Katie?” Stella asked, looking around the gallery
at the various sculptures and paintings.

“Now, sugarplum,
we’re not talking about reporters tonight. I’m sure Miss–I’m sorry, I didn’t
catch your last name,” Trench said as he placed his hand on the artist’s
shoulder.

“I don’t use a
last name, and it’s KD, not Katie.” She enunciated the letters. “I feel the use
of last names by women supports the patriarchy. I’ve sloughed off the burden of
years of female servitude and only go by KD. I’m a cartoonist, Stella. It’s
okay if I call you Stella, not Mrs. Trench, right? I mean, you of all people
should realize that we women have been on our backs to the patriarchy for much too
long.”

Stella narrowed
her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never been on my back
for the patriarchy.”

KD laughed. “If
you say so. Let me show you one of the pieces I’ve donated for the auction,
Senator. I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.”

KD led them over
to a large canvas. A scarecrow with jet black hair and vacant eyes sat on a
crate milking a cartoon cow with large udders. The words tax dollars were printed on the udders. “Rather telling isn’t it,
Senator?”

“You’re darn
tootin’ it is. This is a piece of work. You’ve captured the plight of the American
farmer. I’m going to bid on it,” Trench said. He gave KD a predatory white
smile. “You’ve got some talent. Have you ever thought about painting portraits?
I’ll need one done when I’m elected governor of this great state. It would be a
feather in your cap if you could capture my likeness.”

KD snorted. “I’m
sorry, Senator. I don’t work with oil.”

“Darling, you’re
missing a prime opportunity to be famous. Cartoons are for the Sunday funnies, but
you can’t make a living with them.” Trench squeezed her shoulder. KD slipped
from his pawing hand, her lips tight.

“Actually, I make
out just fine with my art. I’m the editorial cartoonist for the Middleton Times, and my work’s been
featured in several national newspapers.”

Stella tugged on
Trench’s jacket and pointed. “Tad, look at the face on the scarecrow.”

Trench smiled. “I
know. It’s great, isn’t it? KD has some real talent, even if it is only a
comic. That scarecrow almost looks like a real person.”

“Tad, look
closer,” Stella insisted. She pulled him in front of the piece. “You don’t see
the resemblance?”

Trench squinted
his eyes. “No, honeybuns, I can’t say it looks like anyone I know. Is it
someone from your yoga class?”

Stella sighed. She
wondered if she could make it to Hans’ apartment for a little stress relief tonight.
She glanced at KD. A thin woman with graying brown hair pulled into a tight
chignon had joined them. Millie Highpoint, her husband’s most vocal opponent in
the state senate, gave her a tight nod. “Mrs. Trench, you look lovely. Thaddeus,
I didn’t expect you this evening. An auction to raise funds for breast cancer
research doesn’t seem like your normal venue.”

“I love breasts, Millie.
Some of my favorite people have breasts. I’m happy to come out and support Save
the Moo Moos. More men should support breast research.” Trench beamed at the
women. “You all have great tits. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them
healthy.”

KD flushed cherry red.
Her fists tightened at her side. “Listen here, you pompous–”

Millie laid a
restraining hand on KD. “Sweetheart, I think we should give the Senator a
chance to speak this evening. We need all the help we can get to raise money. I
think the bids might reach an all-time high with Senator Trench’s inspirational
words.”

“I don’t know,
Mom. Do you really think it would help?”

“Mom? Millie, is this
your daughter? I was just telling KD here that she has some real talent. She
should consider doing portraits. Capturing the likeness of people could really
boost her career. I’m bidding on this piece here. Such a powerful statement. I
plan on hanging it behind my desk at the governor’s mansion.”

Millie’s eyes
widened. She looked at the senator, then at the large cartoon scarecrow on the
wall, and then back at Trench. “You might be right, Thaddeus. Capturing a face
takes talent. Now, will you open up the fundraiser with a speech?”

“I’m happy to help,
Millie. It shows real bipartisan support to our constituents. Give me a moment
to compose myself.” Trench buttoned his suit jacket and popped a mint into his
mouth.

“See you at the
podium, Thaddeus.” Millie winked at KD.

“If you’ll excuse
me, Senator. I see someone I need to speak to,” KD said and hurried away.  

“Tad, do not tell
these people you love tits,” Stella hissed. “It’s guaranteed career suicide.”

Trench patted
Stella’s arm. “I’ve got this. You just stand next to me and smile pretty for
the cameras.”

“I need to go to
the little girl’s room,” Stella said. “I’ll join you in a moment.”

“Don’t take too
long. This will be a prime opportunity to appear in the newspaper.”

Stella started
walking towards the ladies’ room, but when she was out of Trench’s sight, she dashed
towards the exit. She wondered how much she could hock her engagement ring for
and if there was any cash at the house.

Senator Trench
stood in front of the podium. He cleared his throat. Cameras flashed, and he
gave the reporters and crowd his politician’s smile. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m
pleased to speak here tonight in support of this important fundraiser. As I
look at this amazing piece of art from KD, I realize that women and cows have a
great deal in common.”

At the collective
gasp from the crowd, Trench’s smile grew wider. He knew in an instant that he
had won them over.

NYC MIDNIGHT – SHORT STORY CHALLENGE 2019

I’m competing in NYC Midnight’s Short Story Challenge again this year. You have one week to write a short story (2500 words) on a topic they provide. This year I was given crime caper, setting was funeral home, and character is chocolatier. This seemed perfect for Phee and Juliet to tackle since they had just been on a crime caper with Nellie Jo to dispose of Mike’s ashes.

Double-dipped Disaster

“Nellie Jo told me how you helped her out with
Mike’s body down in Louisiana,” Chantal said. She pronounced it loozy anna.

“Did she also tell you we almost got
killed trying to dump Mike’s ashes in the bayou?” I grimaced at the memory of
the alligator that had almost made me into its dinner. “I’m a librarian, not a
detective. If I’ve happened to stumble over a dead body or two in the course of
retrieving a few overdue library books, it was more a case of bad luck than crime
solving.”

“Please, Phee, I don’t know who else to
ask. I just need you to get that recipe book before they bury Uncle Henri,”
Chantal pleaded, tears threatening to fall. “It’s my legacy, and Carl had no
right to take it. The funeral is tomorrow morning. I’m out of options.”  

My gut told me to walk away and hope she could
find somebody else to help her, but my marshmallow heart was toast. “Fine. I’ll
help, but only if Juliet agrees. I’m not breaking into Nash and Slaw’s on my
own.”

Chantal wiped her eyes with a tissue and
smiled. “Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate this. I’ve been
pacing the floor like a caged panther trying to figure out another way. If Carl
wasn’t such a snake who has my mama fooled six ways to Sunday…well, I say never
trust a man who goes sockless with leather loafers. He thinks me going into the
chocolate business is a waste of time and money, and now Mama agrees with him.
Uncle Henri left me that money to continue his chocolate shop. The recipes in
that book are my family’s heritage. Carl thinks it all needs to be buried and
forgotten because Uncle Henri was Daddy’s brother. Carl wants to take my
inheritance and invest it in something safe. Safely in his pockets, I’m sure.”

After Chantal left, I called Juliet. She
agreed to meet me at Odd Couple’s Diner after she finished teaching her last
yoga class. I spent the rest of the day cataloging books and researching how
many years I would serve in prison for breaking into a funeral home.

 When
I got to the diner, Juliet was already seated in a corner booth. Tall and slim,
no one would ever guess she was my sister. Juliet’s blonde hair would have made
Goldilocks envious. I was short and fluffy with red hair. Fortunately, I had inherited
the brains.  

I waited until our food arrived before I
gave her the lowdown. Juliet operates better after she’s eaten a double order
of fries and a chocolate cherry shake. I stuck with my oh-so-tasty house salad.

“Chantal needs us to take the book and
replace it with a fake,” I said, pushing a limp lettuce leaf around in an oily
substance with flecks of oregano in it.

“So why do we have to put a fake one in
its place? How will they ever know? It’ll be buried six feet under. Unless Henri
comes back as a ghost and tells all.” Juliet’s eyes widened, and she gave a
slight shiver. “Haunted by a chocolatier. Sounds like the title to one of those
cozy mysteries you read all the time.”

“They’re having a final open casket
viewing tomorrow before leaving for the cemetery. There won’t be another chance.
It’s not like we can snatch the recipe book out of his cold, dead hands while
we pass by and pay our respects. We’re going back tonight after closing.”

“Break into a funeral home? In the dark?
With dead bodies? We’re supposed to be crime stoppers, not crime committers!”
Juliet’s voice rose in pitch and volume, and a few of the diners turned to look
at us.

“Shush!” I whispered. “The word is
criminals, not crime committers. Anyway, we’re technically not stealing
anything. We’re righting a wrong. Henri would have wanted Chantal to have those
recipes. If only he had given her the book before he died, but I guess he
thought he had a few more good years.”

“Funeral homes are bad juju. We’ll have
dead people cooties on us and that will mess up my aura.”

“It’s just dead people. There’s nothing to
be afraid of, you ninny.” My sister is a firm believer in the afterlife,
ghosts, and any other New Age woo woo crap that was hot for the moment.

“Why can’t Chantal do it?”

“She has to be with the family tonight. No
one will ever suspect it’s us, and she’ll be in the clear. We’ll go to the
viewing and get the layout. It’s a funeral home, not the Tower of London. It
should be easy.”

Several hours later, I eased Velma, my
‘sixty-eight VW van, into a side street a block from the Victorian house that
served as our local funeral home. We had paid our respects to the family earlier
that evening. Chantal had been jumpier than a mouse at a cat show when we had
shown up. When we passed through the line to pay our respects, I had given her
a small thumbs up, and she seemed to relax a little.

I handed Juliet a black ski mask. I
slipped mine over my head. I had bedazzled it with a cursive “L” in the middle
of the forehead for librarian. Juliet’s sported a “Y” for yogi. If I was going
to get arrested for body tampering, I wanted to be stylish.

Juliet rolled her eyes at the mask, but
she slipped it on. I tucked a penlight into my bra and motioned for her to
follow me. We crept along the wrought iron fence that surrounded the cemetery
and slipped through a gap in the hedge.

When I saw the backyard was lit up like a
football stadium, I stopped. Juliet plowed into the back of me. I tumbled into
the grass. Rolling over, I stared up at the night stars and counted to ten.

“Oh, my goddess! Are you okay?” Juliet
reached down to grab my hand.

“Yes,” I whispered. I brushed my hands off
onto my pants. “Listen. Here’s the plan. I’m going to run across the lawn to
the back. You count to thirty then follow me. Got it?”

Juliet gave me a thumbs up. I sprinted
across the yard, then squatted down behind a large rhododendron near the back.
Thirty seconds later, Juliet began to run across the yard to join me. She would
have made it in record time with those long legs of hers, but when she was
almost to me, a jet of water shot up from the ground and hit her in the butt.
The automatic sprinklers had started. She squealed, did a pirouette, then a jig,
and finally cartwheeled into a rose bush.

“Juliet!” I hissed. No response. Crap. I
was going to have to rescue her.

I slid along the side of the building
until I reached her. My sister had faceplanted into a teacup rosebush. She
groaned and stood up. She plucked a thorny stem from her mask.

“I’m fine. Let’s just do this and get out
of here.”

I tugged on a basement window. It resisted
for a moment then opened. Juliet eased through the narrow space. I followed
her, but my bountiful bottom decided to stop me. I was stuck between the window
and the frame.

“Pull me,” I said. I reached my hand out to
Juliet. She gave a mighty tug, and I popped out of the window like a champagne
cork.

“Perhaps Chantal could give you some
sugar-free chocolate as a reward,” Juliet said. She gave me a toothy grin.

“Perhaps we should hurry up and get out of
here before we’re discovered,” I said, giving her the evil eye. “We need to
find out how to get upstairs.”

I pulled the penlight out of my bra. The
narrow beam provided just enough light for me to see we were in a storage area surrounded
by coffins.

“This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever
seen,” Juliet said. “I want to be a tree.”

“What the–a tree? What in Sam Hill are you
talking about?” I demanded.

“Promise me that when I die, you won’t put
me in a coffin. Have them make me into a tree or pressed into a diamond, but no
coffin. Promise?”

“Fine. I’ll make you into a tree and plant
you. There’s a door.” I shone the flashlight across the room. “Maybe it will
lead upstairs to the viewing rooms.”

Juliet skirted past the coffins making
sure not to touch them and opened the door. She slammed it shut. “Nope. Not
doing it. I’m outta here.”

I reached out a hand to stop her. “What’s
behind the door?”

“Dead people. I see dead people, Phee!”

I sighed. Maybe I should have asked
someone else to be my sidekick. “We’re in a funeral home. They have dead
people.”

I yanked the door open and glanced inside.
In the middle of the floor on a metal table was Mrs. Sampson. I’d heard that
she’d died. I hadn’t been saddened to hear of her passing. She was old, plus
she had threatened my dog, Watson, with her cane when we were at the park the
previous week. Unfortunately, her dead body lay between us and the elevator to
the upstairs. I had to get Juliet to pass by her.

“Close your eyes and hold on to my hand,”
I said.

“I can’t do it, Phee.”

“I’m your big sister. I promise I won’t
let you get dead people cooties on you. Do you trust me?”

Juliet nodded and squeezed her eyes shut.
She held her hand out, and I grabbed it.  I led her around Mrs. Sampson and hit the
button for the elevator. A moment later, it groaned to a halt and the doors
slid open.

“You can open your eyes. We’re going up.”

It was more like a large dumbwaiter than an
elevator. I suppose it’s how they were able to get the bodies upstairs after
they were prepared. When the doors opened, we were in a hallway. The Blackbird
Room where Henri was laid out was to our right. I pointed to it with my chin
and motioned for Juliet to follow me. Inside the room, the casket was closed.

“I can’t look,” Juliet squeaked.

“I can’t lift the lid on my own. You need
to suck it up and help me. Please.” The ski mask was making me hot, so I yanked
it off and tucked it into my back pocket.

We reached over and lifted the lid.
Inside, Henri Rocqueville was in a three-piece gray suit with a red silk
handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket. He looked the same as he had the
last time I had seen him in the library. I always thought he was the most
well-dressed man in town. I looked down. Clasped in his hand was a small
leather book.

“There’s the recipe book,” Juliet
whispered. “Did you remember to bring the fake one?”

I reached into my bra and pulled it out.
“Of course.”

“What the heck do you have in that bra of
yours? My goddess, it’s like a clown car. Things just keep popping out.”

“Ha ha. You’re jealous because you don’t
have my voluptuous body. Grab the book.”

“No. Not just no, but hell no. I’m not
touching anything in this coffin.”

I pushed her out of the way, grabbed the
book, and tucked it into my bra. I was opening his fingers to place the new
book into his hands when the lights came on.

“Hands up or I’ll shoot!”

Juliet screamed and collapsed in a faint.
I held my hands up and turned around to see old Mrs. Nash standing in a white
nightgown in the doorway, a shotgun in her hand.

“Hi, Mrs. Nash. Would you believe me if I
said we just wanted to pay our respects?”

“Ophelia Jefferson?” She squinted at me.
“Is that you? What in the world are you doing in here in the middle of the
night? Is that Juliet passed out on the floor?”

“Yes, ma’am. I can explain.” I put my
hands down as she lowered the shotgun.

“Hell’s bells, girl. If you’re standing
over Henri’s body, I know it has something to do with the screaming match I
heard between that tight ass Carl Shockley and Chantal. I’m better off not
knowing. Get some water and toss it on that sister of yours to wake her up.” Mrs.
Nash indicated the water cooler that was in the hallway. I did as she
instructed. I yanked off Juliet’s ski mask and dowsed her. She sputtered and
sat up.

“Am I dead? What happened?”

“You’re not dead. It’s Mrs. Nash.”

Juliet stood up with a sheepish look. “I thought
you were a ghost in that white nightgown.”

“Shucks. I still have a few good years
left. I sometimes sleep in one of the empty coffins. Ed snores so loud it
shakes the entire house. I have to leave and come next door to get any rest,”
Mrs. Nash said.

“Are you going to call the police?” I
asked her.

She stared at me long and hard. I tried my
best to look wholesome and innocent. “I tell you what. I don’t know what you
two are up to, but I’ve heard rumors about Carl and how he treats that
stepdaughter of his. I also know that Henri thought the world of his niece. I’m
guessing you two creeping around here in the dead of night has something to do
with Chantal.”

“It does. We’re just trying to do right by
Henri and Chantal,” I said.

Mrs. Nash held up her hand to stop me. “If
you don’t tell me anything, I won’t have to lie.” She yawned. “I’m awfully
tired, so I think I’ll go back to bed. You girls make sure you lock that back
door when you finish.”

With a wink and a smile, Mrs. Nash walked
away with the shotgun slung over her shoulder. Juliet slumped against me. I
reached over and gave her a hug. “Come on. Let me put this book in his hand,
and we can get out of here before anything else happens.”

Ten minutes later, we were back in my van.
I leaned my head against the seat and let out a laugh.

“What?” Juliet demanded.

“Mrs. Nash sleeps in a coffin. That’s the
craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Juliet grinned. “No crazier than a
librarian breaking into a funeral home in the middle of the night. Let’s go
home.”

Juliet was right. I fired up the van and
headed towards home.

Craft

My hands are old. As I stick my hand in the hot water to wash the fragile wool fleece, my hands blur under the water, and for just a moment, I am young again. The illusion quickly fades when I pull my soap-covered hands from the water and dry them. Craft is aging them, but I’m glad. In a world that caters to the young, fresh, and instant, old hands earned through craft have value.

A friend commented that she doesn’t understand my love of washing, combing, and spinning fleece into beautiful yarns. “You can just go to the craft store and buy it,” she said.

She’s right, but she’s also wrong. As the fiber slips through my fingers and winds onto the bobbin, it forms a connection to the past. I create the same motions and feel the rhythm of the pedals like generations of women before me. Women who had to craft in order to clothe their families. Women who felt the mean pinch of winter on their skin when they walked out to the barn to feed their flock of sheep but knew the importance of keeping their animals alive – for food, for clothing, and for love.

So I’ll take these hands and know that while I don’t face hardships like those who crafted before me, I can honor them. I can maintain the link to the past and those artisans whose hands are old like mine.

Writing a series

Writers may use several methods for tracking their characters and plot lines for a series. Some prefer Scrivener or spreadsheets to track their story. Others, myself included, are Luddites and stick to notebooks chock full of notes and research.

When I write a novel, I create what I affectionately call my “murder book.” I have the printed pages of the novel that need editing in the front followed by a tab for each character. With each character, I list their role, relationships with others in the novel, motive for murder (if a suspect) and other supporting details. I have a tab for the victim and how each person relates to him/her. I have a tab for the crime itself and all clues that need to be revealed throughout the novel in order for the detective (and the reader!) to solve the crime.

Chapter One of Murder at the Bijou Theater

I create a sketch of the town, or if it is a real location, I include a map of the area. For example, I’m currently working on a 1920s mystery set in Richmond. I printed out a map of the city from that time period. I also found a home in Zillow that is similar to where my main character, Evie, would have lived in as a middle class woman in 1922. I printed pictures of the interior and use that as a guide for writing scenes.

Next, I have a tab for slang, clothing, cars of the 1920s, and other relevant research so that I can easily reference the information.

Newspaper article for research

Article from 1922 Richmond Times-Dispatch

My murder takes place in a theater that is now the home of the Library of Virginia. I had a difficult time locating interior shots of the theater before it was torn down. I contacted the state archives, and an archivist found blueprints from a theater that was nearby and sent me photographs of the prints so I could understand what the interior layout might have been. Those photos are now printed and in the murder book.

My final tab is for plain college-ruled notebook paper. This is where I can scribble ideas and keep track of them for later inclusion in the novel.

I’m always fascinated by authors’ various methods of writing and compiling information and notes. I hope this gives you a small glimpse into the world of a mystery writer.

Bad Bayou Business: A Phee & Juliet Short Story

“I can’t believe you lost the body.”

“Keep your voice down,”
I said. “First of all, it’s not a body. It’s cremains. And for your
information, I didn’t lose them. They were stolen.”

“Lost. Stolen. Tomato.
Tomahto. It doesn’t matter, Phee,” Juliet said. “Nellie asked us for one favor,
help her spread Mike’s ashes in the bayou, and we messed it up. We have to get
those ashes back before she finds out.”

I poked at the limp
green leaves on my plate. The grease-splattered menu had touted it as a Gator
Caesar Salad. It may have been alligator, or it may have been chicken, but it
was making my stomach roll from the oil sliding off the deep-fried chunks of
meat and pooling on the brown-tinged lettuce leaves.

“The last thing I
remember was sitting down at the wake next to Tucker and his wife, Carla Ann.
She was telling me some story about how Mike was related to some famous
Louisiana politician through his grandmother’s cousin’s mother. I must have
dozed off.  When I woke up, the urn was
gone, and everyone had already left to go to the Shakin’ Bacon.”

“I think you were
drugged.”

I rolled my eyes. Juliet
and her farfetched scenarios. “Doubtful. I was exhausted from the drive. Carla
Ann droned on and on about who was related to this second cousin or that uncle,
and I fell asleep. Now we need to track down who snatched the urn. Maybe they
simply moved it to a safe place.”

“We need to return to
the scene of the crime,” Juliet said. She bit into her hamburger then licked a smear
of ketchup from the corner of her lip.

I eyed her lunch. It
sure did look a heck of a lot tastier than mine. I snatched a french fry from
her plate. Pointing it at her, I said, “Fine, but you can distract Tucker while
I chit chat with Carla Ann and look around the house. He seemed particularly
fascinated with your derriere when you bent over to pick up your keys.”

“It is one of my finer
assets.”

I tossed the fry down
and ate my salad. Unfortunately, my rear wasn’t my best feature. I inherited
the brains, and Juliet received the beauty. Not that I was a beast, but my love
of dark chocolate and good wine had made me suck in my belly this morning to
button my pants.

After I called it quits
on my salad, I called Nellie’s phone. It went straight to voicemail. Cell
service was spotty in the bayou. She was probably swapping Mike stories down at
the Shakin’ Bacon and would meet us back at the motel later.

Juliet and I drove the
fifteen miles back to Mike’s hometown. It wasn’t so much a town as an old gas
station housed in a dilapidated shotgun shack with white paint that was now a
distant memory. A couple of trailers perched on their cinderblock foundations nearby.
One of them listed dangerously to the left. Vines and moss replaced the paint
on their metal sides, rusty streaks leaked down between the growth. Two miles
later, cracked asphalt gave way to gravel. I turned down a weed-choked dirt road
that led to Tucker and Carla Ann’s double wide. I remarked how Mike, from these
humble backwoods, had reinvented himself as the pickle king.

“Mike’s deal with the
Cajun mafia must have given him his start in pickles,” Juliet said. “Otherwise,
he and Nellie Jo would probably still be living here with a passel of children
and nothing to show for it. I’m surprised she even wanted to bring his ashes
back to Louisiana. If my own family had bumped me off, I would want my cremains
spread on the other side of the country.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I keep
you alive for your scintillating insights into human nature and bad seventies
cop lingo, little sister. Anyway, that was Mike’s daddy’s family. This is the
Hebert side, his mama’s family. From what Nellie said, they are all God-fearing
folks that don’t dabble in crime. I’m sure someone simply put the ashes
somewhere in the house thinking they would get knocked over at the wake.”

I parked the car under a
cypress. Tucker’s red Chevy pickup was under the carport. I knocked lightly on
the front door. A moment later, I knocked harder. “I don’t think anyone’s home.
We’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

Juliet nudged me out of
the way. She pulled a credit card out of her wallet and slipped it between the
metal door and its frame. She jiggled the handle, and it popped open. “Told you
watching cop shows would pay off. As much as I enjoy male appreciation of my
many charms, I prefer not to come back here. I want to scatter Mike’s ashes and
head back to Miller’s Cove. The humidity is murder on my hair.”

She slipped into the
dark trailer. I hesitated, but the mosquito that buzzed near my nose finished
my internal dilemma for me. I followed her inside.

The casseroles and cakes
from earlier had been cleared from the counters. I checked in the cupboards and
even peeked into the fridge. No urn. I was about to follow Juliet down the
hallway to scour the bedrooms when I heard a muffled thump.

“What the–” Juliet
grabbed my arm. “It’s a gator coming to eat us. Phee, I’m too young to die by
reptile.”

The thump sounded again
followed by a faint cry. I hesitated, listened again, and when a third thump
sounded, I walked over to the coat closet and yanked it open. Nellie sat
trussed up like a Sunday chicken, a red bandanna stuffed in her mouth.

“Nellie!” I pulled the
rag from her mouth and dropped down to untie her. “What in the world is going
on?”

“They’re crazy, Phee!
Plum crazy. Untie me. I gotta go get Mike and get the hell out of this swamp.”
Nellie stood up and cocked her head left to right to work out the kinks from
being stuffed into the small closet.

“Mike’s dead,” Juliet said,
taking a tentative step towards her, hand outstretched.

“Hell’s bells, Jul, I
know that. I ain’t got time to waste. Follow me.” Nellie yanked open the door
and bounded down the metal front steps. Baffled, Juliet and I trotted behind her.
“Pop the trunk.”

I pushed the button on
the car remote. Nellie rummaged around in her suitcase. A moment later, she
reappeared, a gun in her hand.

“Whoa! What in Sam Hill
are you doing with a gun in the car?” I backed away from her and edged a little
closer to Juliet. Maybe Mike’s death had finally unhinged Nellie. Grief does
strange things to people.

“Protection. If I
learned one thing from Mike’s murder, it’s that a gal can never be too careful.
You two stay behind me. I’m going to get Mike’s ashes back.”

Nellie charged towards
the back of the trailer, a dangerous smile on her face. I wanted to call the
police, but when I pulled my cell phone from my back pocket, it showed no
service. Dang it. I jogged to catch
up, Juliet on my heels.

I caught a flash of
Nellie’s blue shirt as she slipped through the kudzu. It was getting dark, and
I wanted to stop her and get back to town before nightfall. Whatever feud she
had with Mike’s family could wait until morning. “Nellie, wait up!”

I fought my way through
the thicket of brambles and branches. I tripped over a vine that I swear moved
on its own. I held my cell phone up as a flashlight and stumbled after Nellie.

“Shush,” Nellie hissed.
She had stopped on the edge of a clearing. I crept up beside her.

Juliet clutched my hand.
“Phee, what’s going on?”

In the clearing, a fire
burned in a metal barrel. A cast iron pan rested on a makeshift grate and overturned
plastic crates served as chairs. I squinted through the smoke and spotted a
couple of people, I’d met earlier at the wake. Off to the left of the burn
barrel, Carla Ann sat with a silver urn clutched to her chest.

“My sister-in-law has
got a screw loose in her tiny pin head is what’s going on,” Nellie whispered.
“She started rambling about summoning something to seek revenge against the
other side of the family. It all got a little hazy after I drank a sip of her
punch.”

“Told you it was drugged.”
Juliet gave me a smug smile. “It’s a good thing I had to take Rosie for a walk
and get her kibble, otherwise, we would have all been up the bayou without a
pole. Saved by a seven-pound chihuahua with a weak bladder.”

“Now’s not the time,
Juliet,” I said. “Why did they steal Mike’s ashes?”

“Near as I can tell, Carla
Ann joined some new religion. If you ask me, it sounds like she’s mixing her
hoodoo with her holy gospel. Like I said, she’s crazy. I came to in the closet
and overheard her telling Tucker that she’s going to bind Mike’s ashes into
some charm that will cause whoever wears it to have horrible luck.”

“Like a reverse rabbit’s
foot?” Juliet asked.  

“Kind of. It’s all a
bunch of hogwash, but you can’t tell Carla Ann that. She was as close to Mike as
a tick on a coon hound’s ear. She blames her daddy’s side for the bad blood,
and she aims to get vengeance. She’s going to give the charm to Eddie Johnson’s
mama, Connie. She’s like the mafia godmother now that everyone else is in
jail.”

“Couldn’t we just leave
the ashes here? I mean, it’s not like they’re actually Mike anymore,” Juliet
said.

“I am not leaving my man
in that cuckoo woman’s clutches,” Nellie said, her jaw tightening. “You’re
either with me, or you can head on back to the car and wait. Anything happens,
Phee, I want you to take Rosie. I know you’ll give her a good home.”

I closed my eyes. I
should have listened to Clint when he said it was a bad idea to head to the
swamps of Louisiana. Nellie was my friend though, and she needed me. I squelched
down my nerves and gave her a nod. “I’m in. What do you need?”

“Crap. I’m in, too.”
Juliet grimaced at me.

“I need a distraction. I
need to keep her from dumping Mike into that pan. Once she’s dumped him, he’ll
be like dust in the wind. I aim to spread his ashes in the swamp by our first
trailer like he would have wanted even if it kills me.”

I spotted a shotgun
leaning against one of the milkcrates. If this went south, we could all end up dead
in the swamp. Before I could express my concerns, Juliet sauntered out from our
hiding place and towards the burn barrel and Carla Ann.

“Yoohoo.” Juliet waggled
her fingers at one of the men sitting on a crate, a six-pack of beer tucked
between his feet.

He pushed back his
baseball cap and spat on the ground next to him. “Who are you?”

“I’m Nellie’s friend. I
came to pick her up and got a little lost. Do you know where she is?” Juliet
dropped her purse. Its contents spilled across the ground. “Oh! I’m just the
clumsiest thing.”

I cringed as my sister
giggled like a school girl. She turned her back to the man and bent over to
retrieve her belongings. The man’s grizzled eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
He jumped up to help her.

Nellie tugged at my
shirt. “Come on.” She slipped out of the cover of the woods and skirted around
the edge, keeping to the shadows. I tiptoed after her.

“Stop,” Carla Ann said.

I froze in mid-step. Carla
Ann walked over to Juliet and the man. She wasn’t holding the urn.

“Claude, roll your
tongue back into your mouth and sit down.” She turned to Juliet. “Juliet, isn’t
it? Nellie ain’t here, and this is a family only meeting. Head on back to town
and when I see her, I’ll let her know you was looking for her.”

I eased my way towards
Nellie. She was within a few feet of where Mike’s ashes rested. She reached
out. A loud crack shot through the dark. For a moment, I thought I was shot,
but I realized I had stepped on a large twig and snapped it in two. I felt
everyone’s eyes turn towards me.

“Grab her!” Carla Ann
ran towards the urn. Nellie leapt forward and tackled her before she could
reach it. Carla Ann’s chin smacked the dirt as Nellie hurled her to the ground,
her gun flying across ground.

I looked around for a
moment before realizing all the men were transfixed by two women wrestling in
the dirt. I ran and snatched up Mike and the gun. I held the gun up in the air
and fired.

Everything stopped. Even
the bugs stopped buzzing. A moment later, chaos began. Nellie jumped up and ran
towards me. Juliet grabbed her purse and whacked the ballcapped man in the
head. I leapt over the crate and crashed through the woods, Carla Ann
screeching after me.

I ran as fast as my
short legs could carry me through the brambles and vines that reached out and
snared my clothes and hair. I had no clue where I was running. I offered up a
silent prayer to Juliet’s many spirit guides to point me in the direction of
the rental car.

I broke through a
particularly sharp and painful batch of saw grass and felt my foot sink and
slide in the marsh. The gun slipped out of my hand and into the dark water. I
stopped and glanced around for someplace to hide until Carla Ann gave up and
went back to her swamp crew. The moon was peeping through the trees, and I saw
what I hoped was a log moving through the swamp water towards me.

“Give me back my
brother!” Carla Ann yelled. She charged towards me, Juliet and Nellie close
behind her.

I had nowhere to go. The
saw grass would cut through my thin shirt and leave me marked for life. The
water was full of critters that I had no desire to befriend. I grabbed the lid
of the urn.

“You come one step
closer and I will dump Mike into the bayou!”

“Listen, you
frizzy-headed harlot, you give me those ashes.” Carla Ann slowed her large
frame to a walk. Her face was an unhealthy shade of violet and her gray hair
had escaped its tight bun.

“Ta ta ta,” I said and
wagged my finger at her. “Name calling will not help your cause, lady. Neither
will the fact that you drugged me. These ashes belong to Nellie. She was his
wife.”

“She ain’t got Hebert
blood. I promised Mama when she died that I would take care of my baby brother.
I can’t do nothing about the Johnson blood that runs through my veins, but I
can darn sure make sure that the rest of those crooks pay for what they did to
my Mikey. Now, I’m done playing. Give me that damn urn!”

Carla Ann may have
slowed, but she wasn’t stopping. A few more feet, and she would be close enough
to grab the urn. I unscrewed the top. I held the urn over the swamp.

“Do it, Phee,” Nellie
said. “Juliet was right. Mike’s gone. Fighting with family and seeking revenge
might be the Hebert way, but it isn’t the Nellie Jo Johnson way. Dump him.
He’ll understand.”

“Shut your mouth,
Nellie. The biggest mistake Mike ever made was marrying you and moving away to
Virginia. He should have married Shirley and stayed here.” Carla Ann took
another step towards me. “I’m done playing. Give me those ashes.”

I took a second to
consider my options. Nellie gave me a teary-eyed nod. I threw the urn as hard
as I could into the swamp. Carla Ann screamed and ran towards me. I jumped out
of her way and landed face down in a muddy patch of weeds, a blade of saw grass
scratching the tip of my nose. My wrist bone crunched painfully beneath me.

Nellie yanked Carla Ann
by the arm. “You are crazier than a rabid muskrat. You need to get your butt
back into the church pew and get yourself straight. Messin’ with that mumbo
jumbo hoodoo. You’re lucky nobody got hurt. You ruined a perfectly good wake
and messed up my ash scattering.”

“You’re nothing but a no
good Jezebel–”

Nellie pushed her into
the swamp. A loud splash muffled the rest of her swearing. “Bye, Carla Ann.
Feel free to cross me off the Christmas card list.”

Juliet reached down and
gently helped me up. My wrist throbbed. “I think now would be a good time to
head back to the car.”

“I have no clue which
way it is.” I looked down at my mud-covered shirt. “I don’t think this
qualifies as a mud bath treatment.”

“I don’t know about you,
but I’m ready to get the heck out of here. I grew up in these swamps, so I can
get us back to the car,” Nellie said.

“I’m sorry about Mike’s
ashes, Nellie.” I limped over to her and gave her a muddy hug with my good arm.

She patted me on my
shoulder. “It’s okay. I think he would have liked having all these women fight
over him.”

“Don’t take this the
wrong way, but I would rather solve a murder than ever deal with your in-laws
again.”

A sneak preview of Catalogued for Catastrophe

“I think it’s a mistake to dig up your yard, Phee,” Juliet said, sipping her cup of herbal tea.

“Nonsense,” I replied. “It’s not every day my baby sister gets married. By the time I’m done with this yard, it will be the ideal spot for your wedding.”

Despite Juliet’s protests, I knew she was happy I had agreed to host her wedding in my backyard. Her original plan to hold the wedding at the lake had been thrown out the window when an ugly red algae bloom had taken over the lake and the odor that emanated from the water could bring a grown man to his knees.

The two men I’d hired to tear down the old garden shed in the backyard had loaded the last scraps of wood into the back of their beat-up Chevy pickup. The elder Mr. Gant stuck plugs into his ears and started the jackhammer.

“If the neighbors weren’t already awake, they will be now with that thing running,” I said.

“You want to go running? Since when have you ever wanted to run?”

I raised my voice so she could hear me over the racket. “I said…oh, never mind.”

The jackhammer made quick work of the cement pad. The younger Mr. Gant wheeled load after load of cement rubble to the construction dumpster. When he bent over to pick up a large chunk of cement, he dropped to his knees.

“What’s he doing?” Juliet asked. She stood up and walked off the porch into the yard to get a closer look.

I followed her down the steps and walked across the yard to speak to the men.

“Phee, I don’t think you should come over here,” the elder Mr. Gant said. His wrinkled, sunburned face had a grayish cast.

“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked. I tried to move closer, but he held up his hand to stop me.

“It’s a skull, Phee. We found a human skull.”

Phee and Juliet are back!

I put Phee and Juliet on the shelf for the past several months while I dealt with some health issues. One surgery later, and I’m on the road to recovery and back to writing! I’m excited to say that Phee and Juliet will be working on a cold case as they plan for Juliet’s upcoming nuptials. I’ll post a preview of the first chapter this weekend. Thanks for your patience and understanding on the delay writing Catalogued for Catastrophe.