A Death in the Evening, part three (fiction)

 

A Death in the Evening

 

Anastasia drove home in her black Aston Martin. She had spent most of the night at Wendy’s house assisting the police as best she could, and dawn was now only a couple of hours away. The inspector was an idiot, she thought, he would not even get anywhere near to solving the case in her opinion. It was up to her to find the culprit and then point the way to them.

When she arrived home the lights were on, which meant her housekeeper was still awake, and probably incessantly worrying about her. Anastasia parked her car in the garage and then entered the house. Immediately her housekeeper came to her.

“You’ve been out for most of the night, I was so worried. You’ll need to sleep soon.” she advised.

“I will thanks. I just need to clear up a few things first.” Anastasia replied.

“Have you fed tonight?” the housekeeper asked.

“No, it slipped my mind.” Anastasia answered honestly. The mention of feeding made her realise she was hungry and that her stomach was rumbling.

“I’ll fix you something.” the housekeeper replied. She left in the direction of the kitchen.

Anastasia made her way to the study. She sat down at her desk and pulled Wendy’s diary out of her coat pocket. She leafed through it. It was mostly times of appointments she had with people. She looked at the entry for today and saw that she was meant to meet a Stuart Brown in the early evening. As Anastasia looked through the diary again she saw his name come up more than a few times. She was not familiar with the name. Whoever he was, he would be the first one she would search for tomorrow, as he had just become her lead suspect. The housekeeper put a warm cup on the desk beside her.

“Let me know if you need anymore dear.” the housekeeper said as she left.

“I will.” Anastasia replied. She drank the liquid down and instantly began to feel a lot better. There was a knock on the door. She heard the housekeeper answer and then footsteps coming towards the study.

“Hey boss!” Megan said. “I thought you might still be up, so I brought you prints of the photos I took.” She came into the room and placed a large envelope on the desk in front of Anastasia.

“Thanks for doing that so quickly.” Anastasia replied.

“No problem boss.” Megan said. “I was thinking it might be one of those special cases with those footsteps disappearing and all.” Anastasia smiled at her words.

“You might think so, but I don’t think so. The killer walked to the bathroom and looked at themselves in the mirror. It was then they probably noticed they had traipsed blood through the house. So they removed their shoes, and either put a new pair on or went barefoot.”

“So what happened to them after that?”

“They went out the back door, which is on a latch. While the police were investigating the house I found some faint footprints in the earth leading from the back door.” Megan looked stunned.

“Wow! You certainly know your stuff boss.” Megan stated. Anastasia laughed and pulled Megan in close to her. They kissed.

“You don’t have to call me boss you know.” Anastasia told her. Megan smiled.

“I know, but I like calling you that, especially when we’re on a case.” They hugged for a while. The housekeeper came in with another cup for Anastasia.

“I thought you might still be hungry so I brought you some more.” she said.

“Thanks.” Anastasia said. Megan pulled out of their embrace.

“I better be going. I’m getting tired myself. I’ll speak to you tomorrow. Don’t forget it’s nearly dawn.” Megan reminded her.

“I won’t.” Anastasia replied while draining the second cup.

Once she was alone, she opened the envelope, took out the large colour photographs, and leafed through the gory scenes.

“Wendy, who wanted to do this to you?” she asked the empty air as she continued looking through the grisly photos. She stopped at the one which captured the scrawled message on the wall in Wendy’s blood reading: “I WILL HAVE SATISFACTION!”.

She wondered if that message was meant for her.

 

Joanne Fisher

 

to be continued…

 

Previous episodes:

Part one

Part two

 

 

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©2020 Joanne Fisher

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