A Book to Die For - 07

Last week Investigator Pepper Black and Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro split the parents up to question them. Alice, the victim's mother, had seen her daughter Margie once with Malcolm Sinclair, the head of the book club. He went through the motions of interest in Margie, but not as interested as Margie was in him it seems. Jack, the father, wanted his daughter no where near him or his book club. Now the snippet. A conversation between Sheriff Nazzaro and Investigator Black, Piecing Malcolm's motives together:

***

"So you think this guy Malcolm, found her important for the purpose she served, to him anyway?" asked Clayton.

"That's how I see it.," Pepper answered.

"That's something like what her parents implied when I first got them in here. Said his attention towards their daughter wasn't on the up and up so Jack insisted she drop the book club."

"Obviously she didn't take her dad's advice."

"Suppose we better have a talk with Mr. Sinclair to see what he was up to last weekend," said Clayton.

Pepper had a cat that ate the mouse look on her face. "Better yet, I haven't read a good book in a while. Know of a club around here I can join?"

*** 

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

My new book  A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York is now available (E-book releases in April)  via the History Press (and Arcadia Publishing) the largest publishers of local & regional history in the country. Cool huh?

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A Book to Die For - 06

We last left off with Investigator Pepper Black entering the station where Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro is trying to get answers out of the parents of the victim, Margie Webster. For some reason Jack Webster didn't want his daughter going to a certain book club and finds out his wife knew that Margie went anyway on the Friday before her body was found. The parents have been separated. And now the snippet:

***

Pepper closed the door to interrogation room number two where she left Alice Webster with a box of tissues and a female guard. Clayton could see through the glass that Alice would need another box very soon.

"Get anything useful?" asked Clayton.

Pepper sat on the edge of Clayton's desk and slid her pad across to him. "Alice didn't approve of Margie going to the book club either. Not so much the club as the guy running it, Malcolm Sinclair."

"Same here. Jack thought the guy was filling her head with crazy ideas. He didn't say exactly what though."

"Alice said she only saw Malcolm once," said Pepper, " and Jack didn't know about it--still doesn't.

***

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

My new book  A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York is now available (E-book releases in April)  via the History Press (and Arcadia Publishing) the largest publishers of local & regional history in the country. Cool huh?

Read More

A Book to Die For - 05

We continue with Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro questioning the parents of Margie Webster about the daughters movements the day of her death. Alice, Margie's mother spoke up saying Margie didn't go to work like normal. She went to a book club that her father had forbidden her to go to. We pick up here.

***

The problem with murder when it comes to parents, is to get them past their misplaced guilt. Clayton ran into it on other cases too, not just murder. Even after Clayton reassured them there was nothing they could have done; that Margie, like most twenty-five-year-old women, had a mind of her own, but it didn't help ease their pain. They felt responsible in some way.

The guilt they placed on each other made it all the more difficult for the Websters to stick to the questions. Why hadn't Alice told Jack that Margie went off to the book club? If Jack hadn't stifled their daughter so she would have been more open with them--and on and on. It took Clayton an hour to get any honest answers from either of them and that was only after he called in his investigator, Pepper Black.

***

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

And just to share some excitement, release day is tomorrow for my new book A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York (E-book releases in April)  via The History Press the largest publisher of local history in the country. Cool huh?

Read More

A Book to Die For - 4

Welcome again to Weekend Writing Warriors. Last time, in A Book to Die For, Sheriff Clayton Nazzaro was questioning the parents of Margie Webster about the daughters movements the day of her death. Jack thought she had been at work at McCorrmick's Boat Rental saying she worked every Friday until 4. Alice, Margie's mother spoke up saying, no she didn't. It seems Alice knew a few things her hubby didn't. We pick up here.

A scene of Silver Lake, in this story Spirit Lake.

SNIPPET:

 “She didn’t what Mrs. Webster," asked Clayton.

“She didn’t go to work Friday,” Alice said, “She was supposed to--normally did--but not last Friday.”

Jack released the hold on his wife as if the shock of her words were electric. “She didn’t go in? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“She took the day off. Some day trip or other with that book club.” Alice was on the edge of collapse. “That ridiculous club of hers. You know the one, Jack; you forbade her to go.”

***

If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.

Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!

Read More