Preview:

 The Murderer saw Red 

Janice was pacing up and down her living room.
She was – to phrase it mildly – in a frightfully bad mood.
The hangover didn’t help as well.
A look in the mirror had confirmed that she looked haggard.
Her eyes were swollen, her face looked puffed and her crowning glory, her once fiery red hair, looked what it was – artificially colored.
The mirror had also merciless revealed that she had lost her once trim figure and looked, well there was not other way to describe it, butch.
Her black satin Stella McCartney pants and blouse (that looked so great when she bought it) were too tight now.
Time again to book a week in her favorite spa to slim down and shape up.

Even the multi-million dollar apartment - that she finagled out of her ex-husband during their long and bitter divorce – didn’t give her the satisfaction it normally did.

And her wedding plans to semi-retired business tycoon Donald Helpern, whom she had been dating on-and-off during the best part of her marriage, didn’t move ahead as planned.

What topped it off was the wedding yesterday.
OK, technically speaking, the groom was not her stepson, but did his grandmother have to point that out to everyone?

Janice had married her wealthy ex when he was still on the rebound from the loss of his wife. Sweet, intelligent and elegant Allison had been killed in a car accident, leaving a bereaved husband and young son behind.

At that time, Janice had been in her early thirties and her biological clock was ticking – loudly. Being actively bi-sexual, her mother had urged her to concentrate on men and angle herself a well-off husband to start a family. Enter Gareth.

Gareth was everything a mother would want for her daughter: good-looking, charming, a successful accountant and – best of all - vulnerable.

She read about his loss in the local newspaper and decided to go after him.

Janice knew that she would be able to land this fish – especially after her mother paid for plastic surgery to fix her oversized nose and buck teeth. Having a tendency to be overweight, she also went on a crash diet, had some liposuction, and turned herself into a trophy wife.

She found out that Gareth loved to play guitar in a local blues club and made sure she bumped into him by “accident”. Once they started talking, she turned the conversation to kids. Needless to say, he went on and on about his cute 3-year old son Alex. Meeting them in the park, becoming chummy with the brat and forcing the marriage issue had been a piece of cake. The pre-nup (in full force for 15 years after the wedding day) had been a slight setback – it forced her to keep her relationships and sexual preferences a secret.

After fulfilling her maternal instincts by giving birth to twin sons, she divorced Gareth the moment the pre-nup became void.

Apart from the multi-million-divorce settlement, she also got the apartment. Her mother had told her to go for it: real estate was booming and still didn’t show any signs of cooling down.

“Still, Gareth got of easy,” she pondered. “I could have gone after his vintage guitar collection, yacht and company.”

She went to the kitchen and made herself a Manhattan.

She knew she was not supposed to drink when taking her anti-depressant medication, but she really felt crappy and needed to unwind.

Her thoughts went back to the wedding.

It hadn’t panned out as expected.

First of all, Alex didn’t introduce her as his mother, although she raised him.

His grandmother was also help as well, the old hag had pointed out that Alex takes after his late mother, her beloved daughter. It had cast a shadow over her Supermom image, which she had been cultivating for the last 15+ years. The twins knew that they had to keep their mouth shot – no need for anyone to know that she became violent after a few drinks.

And then her lover had shown up, crashing the wedding. It took a lot of maneuvering to make sure her tycoon didn’t catch on.

But the worse part had been Gareth. Her ex had always been easy to manage until a year or so ago. He had become more assertive and started to outsmart her on several issues.

At the wedding, it suddenly was clear why. When she took Don over to Gareth to introduce them to each other, the idea was (a) to show Don how gracious she was towards her ex, and (b) to show Gareth what a loser he was without her by his side.

She was shocked to see a beautiful, sophisticated woman standing next to him.

Gareth had introduced her as Denise, a lawyer specializing in international mergers and takeovers. Even worse, Don had sort of drooled over her, complimenting her on her looks and accent. Trust Gareth, with his preference for European women, to land himself a Monegasque powerhouse. As it turned out, the bitch even lived in the same apartment building.

All in all, she felt like her life was cracking at the seams, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Looking out of the window, she knocked down the rest of her Manhattan and went back into the kitchen to make a new one.

That was another bummer – nobody around to cater to her wants and needs.

The maid had her day off, her sons were spending time with their grandparents, her lover hadn’t returned any of her phone calls and Don had left her alone last night, pleading some lame excuse about a meeting or a deal or something or other.

Thank God, she didn’t have to work for a living. Tried it, hated it, never want to do it again!

She took her second Manhattan and crossed the living room to go into the terrace.

She loved the sound her Louboutin shoes on the custom made wooden floor – the sound of pure luxury.

She opened the sliding glass doors and went into the terrace.

At that moment, her cell phone rang. Number unknown. “May be it’s Don,” she thought her spirits rising.

“Look down next to the swimming pool,” a familiar voice said, “you will be pleased.”

Leaning over the edge, she peered down but didn’t see anything interesting near the swimming pool. Just the regulars – young, tattooed neighbors, showing off their muscular physique. Outsiders were banned from the building complex grounds.

At the sight of so much tanned youth, she felt middle-aged.

Pondering what the heck the caller could be referring to, she suddenly felt someone behind her and before she could turn, she was pushed over the edge and plummeted to her death.

 “The shadow of the palm tree is really pretty on the water,” was her last thought.

©2005 Debra Daumier

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Chuck’s Story

Basically it was I who found the body. It was a man, fully dressed, lying face down next to the swimming pool. I did not recognize him - he might have been the new neighbor that moved in last month in our little community. So he was no part of my immediate social circle and therefore no concern of mine. Besides, it was midnight and I was tired, so I decided to go back in and get some sleep.  

The next morning, the insistent ringing of the doorbell rudely awaked me.

I stretched, got up and followed Danielle, with whom I share my abode, to the front door. She opened it to a tall official looking guy standing on her doorstep.

“Yes?” she asked sleepily.

“Sorry to disturb you so early Sunday morning,” he said showing her his ID badge.

“My name is Det. Sardino. The security firm led me in. I need to ask you a few questions. Can I come in?”

“Sure. But what is it about?” Danielle asked.                                                                

“The dead body next to your swimming pool.”

“What?!” she said shocked. “Please come in. I need coffee, and I'm sure you could do with some too”.

To read on, please download the following pdf  file:              

©2005 Debra Daumier

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