Victoria Knight had just woken up and was on her way to the front porch to enjoy a hot cup of coffee while she worked on her laptop. The rain always inspired her to write more. Something about the sounds.
She was emersed in a very intense scene between Detective Collin Cedric and Summer Vance when she heard a large vehicle coming up the dirt road towards her house. She didn't even look up as it stopped in front of the porch and shut off. Victoria only glanced at the man that exited the brand new truck when she heard the door slam shut.
He was short and stalky with a large bald spot on his pudgy head. "Vicky!" Jeb Winston called excitedly and Victoria rolled her eyes and continued with the scene she was writing. "So, the Tolsen wedding is this weekend and I wanted to know if you would go with me? You know, as a date."
"No." She said flatly. She had no interest in Jebidiah Winston as anything more than a victim in her books. She killed him ten different ways already and was getting ready to do so again.
"What? Why not?" he asked as his face fell. "Are you going with someone else?"
"No. Just not interested in dating you." She said as she closed her laptop and stood up. Just then another truck pulled up next to Jeb's and the tall dark sheriff got out. "Morning Sheriff. Come to witness Jeb's daily rejection?"
"Victoria Knight. Do you know a man by the name Michael O'braidy?" Victoria had gotten used to the Sheriff's all business attitude. Frankly she preferred it to everyone else's small town collective mindset.
"Can't say that I do. Why?"
"Okay. What about the name Thompson?" Victoria went pale. She hadn't heard that name in a long time.
"N-nope. Are they new in town?"
"Just curious." Cedric said as he watched her face intently. "I found this locket on the side of the road. It has the name Analyse Thompson engraved in it. I assume it belongs to her. I'd like to return it is all." He held up a thick gold chain with a large gold heart locket decorated with gaudy green vines dotted with red roses. Victoria hadn't seen it in a long time.
"Oh. That Thompson. I can mail it back to her." She reached for the locket only to have Cedric snatch it away at the last second.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that miss Knight." He had a knowing glint in his eyes as he spoke. "See I found it in the hand of a man that was murdered and left in the bed of a truck at the bottom of a ravine just north of town."
"That means -"
"It's evidence. Yes." He sighed sadly. "Poor Hubert Thompson was clinging to it for dear life. I figure someone killed him for it. It's such a pretty thing. Too bad really." Victoria watched as he placed the locket in an evidence bag.
"Analyse always hated it anyways." Victoria shrugged, trying to seem uninterested in the necklace. She could see that Cedric wasn't buying it though. The locket was a reminder of another life that she had tried so hard to escape.
"Well then she won't miss it." He smirked at her. Maybe she could convince him that Analyse was a friend of hers. But the fact that he had mentioned Hubert was startling to her. She knew that the body found was not that of Hubert Thompson. There was no way in hell it was Hubert in the back of that truck.
"Since you know Analyse Thompson, you probably know Hubert Thompson as well." Cedric said dismissively. "Could you come by the moreg and confirm it's him."
"Of course Sheriff. Anything to help resolve this issue." Victoria smiled as she started for the mail box at the end of the old fence. "I hate to think that Hubert could have been killed for an ugly piece of cheap jewelry." She waved at Dave as he passed her on his way back to town.
"How do you know it's cheap?" Cedric asked in a tone that told her he knew how.
"Because Hubert showed it to me the day he bought it. Even with the custom engraving it only cost fifty bucks. The necklace it's self was only five." She shook her head as she remembered the day Hubert had brought it home. The ugly jewelry had been a reminder that she belonged to him. It had been the cheapest way to put a chain on her and he had forced her to wear it every day. "Now, if you gentlemen would excuse me." She placed her mail on top of her laptop and scooped it all into her arms. "I have a deadline and my editor will report me missing if I don't submit on time."
"Of course. Can't wait to see how you kill Jeb here this time." Cedric joked.
"It's gonna be good. You'll love it." She smiled back. "Have a nice day." With that she shut her front door and made her way to the kitchen. She placed everything on the scrubbed oak table and slumped into a chair.
Sometimes Victoria hated how shrewed Cedric was. At twenty six she was no stranger to how dangerous men really were. She sighed as she shoved the mail off her laptop and it cascaded to the floor. Not that she cared. She had to finish the next ten chapters in her book before four o'clock.
It was sometime later as she was proof reading the last chapter she had for her thriller. The locket used to strangle the poor victim was the locket that Cedric had found. She was contemplating rewriting the whole thing when there was a knock on the front door. She was out of time.
Victoria shook her head as she stood up and scooped the mail off the floor. "Come in!" She called as she ripped open an envelope she assumed held a bill. The door opened and her editor walked in.
"Hellooooooo!" Misty called jovially as she entered the house. She was saying something but Victoria didn't hear her. She was staring at the letter in her hand as she shook slightly. One the paper were three words. Three measley little words. No more than ink on a piece of paper really. But those words were dangerous.
I know everything. The senders bold claim could mean anything from cheating on a spelling test in the second grade to something far darker. If she was judging by the photo enclosed with the terrifying message, it was not cheating on a spelling test.
In the glossy photo she was smiling as she leaned on a man a bit older than herself. She was an optimistic eighteen year old with big dreams and no sense of judgement. The man she was leaning on in the photo was Hubert Thompson.