I have just released my latest short work of fiction, "Local Monsters" which is a short story about Detective Lindy D'Arnauld and the insane case she was asked to work on with two Florida detectives after a pack of teens from her small town may or may not have conspired to murder. One of them claimed that they "had to be together"!
Detective Lindy D'Arnauld is the central detective in my upcoming novel Pretty Girls Get Away with Murder, set to release in Nov. 2024.
Here's a sample:
While they hauled him to the cruiser, Lindy entered the trailer. This was once someone’s home, perhaps Debrunner’s aunt or grandmother. It still had the original green shag from when the trailer was built, trod thin in the doorways and outside the bathroom. Photos hung on the wall in collage frames. Families gathered on the lawn, women with hot rolled hairdos, girls in Easter dresses, school photos, birthday parties, children in front of Walmart photo backdrops — a rose sepia tone filtering their flaws. The images were the remaining evidence of a multi-generation clan in the midst of the detritus: fast food cups, scattered playing cards, overflowing ashtrays, a glass pipe, fleece blankets, dirty pillows, a sagging couch and mismatched chairs.
Lindy carefully walked the rooms, checking behind doors and inside closets. The bedrooms were full of boxes and other junk. One had a single person futon that two people had clearly been sleeping on. Another had a bed with actual clean sheets and jar candles burned down to the bottom. It had been vacuumed recently and smelled of cinnamon and a lingering waft of men’s cologne. This was their room — their lovers’ retreat. The one space that was not communal.
Over her shoulder, she could hear the other officers stomping through the trailer. Lindy approached the closet and swung open the door. Inside stood a young woman wearing only a man’s gray T-shirt. It hung off her small frame like a dress. She could have had shorts on underneath, except she kept pulling on the edge as if trying to ensure her bottom was covered. Gone was the Manic Panic red or raven black like it had been when she’d first met her. It was dirty dishwater blonde. Her face was covered in blemishes and what looked like beard burn. Her eyes were red and puffy.
Lindy asked, “Olivia?”
Digital downloads of "Local Monsters" are available in the Books and Boots Store.
Read Books. Wear Boots.
XOXO,
B.