The body was cold inside the old motorhome. Anchorage Police Detective Susan Analiuk was not surprised. The power went out at one A.M. that frozen, February night at the tiny Caribou RV Park. While the five residents huddled around the pellet stove in the office, Analiuk typed her interview notes into her laptop.
Who shot Robert Service? Ivan Romanov was fast asleep until Analiuk woke him up. Sam McGee held a gambling debt grudge, but hated guns. Hunting guide Dan McGrew said he was at the saloon all night. Gold miner Jack London owns pistols, was home, but what motive? Lou Petty dated Service. He recently broke her heart, but what motive?
Analiuk entered clues and her thoughts with every click-click-click of her fingernails on the keyboard.
She felt the press of gun metal against the back of her neck, below her right ear.
“You ain’t gunna know whodunnit, copper!”
© Copyright 2018—Present, Jenise Cook, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Self Published: 10 July 2018, JeniseCook.com
Image credit: Adam Donnelly, CFJC
The Story Behind the Story
July 2018, I wrote this story for an internal contest in the Female Sleuths group on Scribophile. We had to write a crime story with a female main character in only 150 words that began with “The body was cold ….”
I won the contest.
Seven entries, total, LOL!
Hey, it’s a “win” in my book.
P. S. I was asked to expand this story into a longer version. I did, and I'm almost done with it as of early April 2021. I'll submit it to well-known mystery/crime literary journals, and that'll mean nail-biting time for me. I so dislike Rejection Letters, but that's part of the creative process.
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