Total pages in book: 9
Estimated words: 8106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 41(@200wpm)___ 32(@250wpm)___ 27(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 8106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 41(@200wpm)___ 32(@250wpm)___ 27(@300wpm)
Her smiles rendered him motionless, his attention taken captive. By watching her work behind the counter, he finally understood what it meant for joy to be infectious.
The more he saw, the more he wanted to talk to her. The more he saw her smile, the more he wanted to know how it felt if she was smiling at him. The more he watched her, the more he wanted to get to know her.
Riiiiiiing.
But he could not.
Rule could already feel his mood changing as he slowly took his phone out. He canceled the call, only to have a barrage of texts flood his inbox.
Where are you?
Why won't you answer my call?
I need to talk to you.
The messages were like reality slapping him in the face, and Rule switched his phone off and shoved it back in his pocket as he turned away. Life was complicated as it was, and starting fresh didn't mean one could completely escape their past.
Four
VIXEN OPENED HER NOTEBOOK after her third cup of coffee. A minimum of 240mg of caffeine needed to enter her system for her brain cells to work on a regular day, and about 25% more than that when challenged with unusual circumstances like, say...accepting The Case of the Dead Woman's Letter.
A wry smile played over Vixen's lips at the way her mind had already conjured a case title for Claire's predicament, and it was the exact motivation she needed to pick up her pen and begin to write.
CLUES | QUESTIONS
Vixen had taken every Choose Your Own Adventure book she read quite seriously back when she was a kid, and after each chapter, she would then come up with a list of clues and questions meant to help her solve the mystery.
Back then, there had been no better feeling than being able to gradually piece everything together, and when she eventually graduated to Nancy Drew novels, her two-column lists were consequently renamed CLUES | SUSPECTS.
Hmm.
There were no hard and fast rules in solving a mystery. That much she learned after reading her first Perry Mason novel, and while Claire's case seemed more like a treasure hunt than a whodunnit...
Vixen: Are there any other beneficiaries aside from you and Scott?
It took only a few moments before her friend texted her back.
Claire: Just Uncle Jorge. He's Great-Aunt Joy's son.
Vixen: What did he think about the letter?
Claire: He had this funny look on his face. Like he didn't believe his mother would just leave me a letter. He asked if he could see it, so I gave it to him. And here's something funnier...
Vixen clicked on the video message Claire sent.
'He took my letter and went to the window and raised it up like this..."
Vixen's friend raised up an imaginary letter towards an imaginary sun and squinted at it.
'Isn't that weird? He's acting like the letter's forged or something. Is it so hard to believe that his mother would want to write me a letter before she..."
Claire's face suddenly crumbled, and tears slowly ran down her friend's cheeks.
"I'm sorry. I think it's my hormones. I cry a lot these days," Claire said with a sniff. "And I think it's only starting to hit me that she's gone. I'll never see her again."
Claire was still crying when the video message came to an abrupt end, and Vixen's heart ached for the other woman. A text message popped on her inbox then, also from Claire.
Sorry I got emotional. And I really appreciate that you're taking this seriously. Whatever happens, even if you don't find anything—-I'll always be grateful.
Vixen's resolve grew after reading this, and she played the video again to study Claire's reenactment of her uncle's response. It wasn't the most reliable piece of evidence, but one had to work with what was available.
Claire's uncle - suspicious reaction to the letter. Does he know something? Or hiding something?
Vixen felt a mixture of guilt and pleasure as she wrote her first entry under the Questions column. As much as she enjoyed solving fictional mysteries in her spare time, this was why she would never make a good detective in real life.
It might be SOP to treat every party as a suspect until proven guilty, but Claire's uncle was a real person with real feelings, and she would feel so terrible if he were to find out he was on her list of suspects.
In the meantime, however...
'Uncle' Jorge was a suspect still, and Vixen reached for the letter to study it for the nth time.
Letter - Black ink. Beautiful cursive writing. Proper grammar and punctuation. Impeccable spelling. Heartfelt message.
She listed the words under CLUES, but none of it was in any way indicative of Uncle Jorge's innocence or guilt.
Vixen looked around as she racked her mind for ideas. The restaurant had quickly filled up in the past half hour, the tables mostly occupied by couples enjoying the sunset views that only the Lighthouse's outdoor dining area could offer. Many of them were gazing into each other's eyes, smiling over the candlelight...