 | ||
| (Fictitious) home of Malcolm Sinclair. |
The setup:
Margie is found dead, beheaded, along a hedgerow in a farmer's field. Her death has something to do with the odd book club run by Malcolm Sinclair at his estate on the lake. Inv. Pepper Black is retracing Margie's steps and stops at the girl's job, McCormick's Boat Rental, the last place Margie was seen before she went to the book club. The owner said Margie seemed upset she couldn't find her book.
Now the snippet:
Steve extended the book to Pepper--Complete Poems, Ernest Hemingway. She opened the ragged cover and turned to the copyright page. The 1983 date justified the wear. She riffled the pages with her thumb until she arrived at a page with the corner turned over. There were markings in the margins. She read to herself the short verse called, Chapter Heading.
For we have thought the longer thoughts
And gone the shorter way.
And we have danced to devils’ tunes,
Shivering home to pray;
To serve one master in the night,
Another in the day.
Oh Margie, why didn’t you talk to someone? Whatever had been going on in her life she must have begun to realize she wasn’t herself—it was just a little too late.
****
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!
