Archive | May 30, 2018

Criminal Endeavor – an excerpt

May30
Originally posted on Patreon May 2018.  Part of the Great Patreon Mirroring to WordPress.
This is a not-necessarily-canon beginning I started some time ago. I have some idea where things might go, but this is what I have so far.⚒️

Eva had not exactly been expecting the police to show up at her door with a warrant, but she was not completely surprised, either.

“Officer.”

“Miss Bauer.  I have a warrant here to search your house for Donald Olson, or the body thereof.”

“He’s not here, in this life or the next, but you’re welcome to search.  Come on in.”  Eva stepped out of the way.  She’d had time to clean up anything she didn’t really want the police seeing since her last encounter, two days past, with Officer Halligan and her cronies.  “Watch your step; I heard one of the cats having a hairball but I haven’t found it yet.”

The officer stepped in with exaggerated care.  She’d come to the front door, of course.  It was a good thing Eva had cleaned all of Aunt Asta’s detritus from the front foyer last week.  The front room and foyer still had a sort of prissy, maiden-Aunt sort of feel, but that was in keeping with at least one of the reputations of this house.  “How long have you been living here, Miss Bauer?”

“Four months, Officer.  Can I get you some tea while your team searches?  And may I read the warrant?” Continue reading →

The Second 2/3 of April in Patreon

May30

okay, I’m a little behind on this… 

Last month’s theme was

Libraries and Librarians

Things marked with a * are free for everyone to read.

See the first 1/3 of April here.

Stories
The Library of Secrets There are two places in the Empire that are often called The Library of Secrets…
A Fairy Tale They said she was crazy….
The Expectant Wood: Chapter 22 — Learning and Knowing “She… Alyea… she ran off.  She didn’t like me?”
The Portal Closed (A Beginning)*
Cataloged *
The Trouble With Bogong Island – Tales from the Trunk

From Eseme: An Excerpt from Other Duties as Assigned

Reposts
Book Store *
G is for Great Deals! *
Cya’s Printing Press *

Recipe: Chicken Salad Pitas

Blog posts, meta, etc.
Libraries – Series of Unfortunate Events *
The Morgan Library *
List of superlative trees  *
Ed’s Museum *

 

Addergoole West-Coast 3: Peers

May30

First: Addergoole West-Coast: a beginning.
Previous: The Adults

🦈

Addergoole Castle was huge, Rosmarina quickly learned, far bigger than it looked from the outside, and it was a maze of rooms, some tiny and some giant.  In order to get to the dormitory where she’d be staying, they ended up going up three floors, down two, across a bridge between sections of the school, and then up another floor.  By the time we were there, Rosmarina was pretty sure she wouldn’t ever be able to find it again.

Then Pontius opened the door to her room, and she decided it didn’t matter, because she was never leaving.  The room was twice the size of the one she shared at home with both her brothers, and there was only one big bed, one dresser, and one desk.  “Is this…” she was afraid to ask, so she whispered it. “Is this all for me?” Continue reading →

Wrong Person, Wrong Place

May30

“I’m telling you, I’m innoc — I didn’t do it!  You’ve got the wrong girl. Definitely the wrong girl!”

Caroline had broken countless laws in the last decade and bent probably twice that many — mostly variations in grift, fraud, and outright theft — and had never been caught.  A great many times, her victims were too embarrassed to report her. Sometimes, they didn’t even realize that they’d been ripped off until she was long gone. The rest of the time…

Well, she was very good at covering her tracks.

That was what made this so freaking frustrating.  

She banged on the bars again.  “Oy! You’re barking up the wrong tree.  I’m telling you, I didn’t kill him!”

“Pipe down in there.  You’ll get your chance to tell it to the ADA and we’ll see what she has to say.  But you were in his apartment…”

“He left the key for me!  Look, if you give me my phone, I can show you the e-mail chain.”

“No phones for prisoners.  Besides,” the officer sneered, “why would someone like him give you his keys?”

He was wealthy, in a grunge sort of way, Caroline had to admit.  “He’s my cousin… distant cousin on my mother’s side.”

The thing was, that was even true.  The whole thing was the truth.

“I’ve heard that before.”  The officer snorted at her.  “Look, save it for the DA.”

She was going about this all wrong.  Caroline looked at the officer. The officer looked at her.  With a long sigh, Caroline “gave in.”

She wasn’t good at truth.  On the other hand, lies…

“Look, I probably shouldn’t tell you this.  I could get in a lot of trouble. But that guy, Ted Mariner.  There’s a reason I was in his apartment…”

As the officer leaned forward, Caroline knew her hours in the jail cell were numbered.  Now, to get rid of those fingerprints….

👮

Written to Inspector Caracal‘s prompt. Loosely based on a Changeling: the Dreaming character I never really got to play…