Murder mystery

[Peikko 1,575]

applied a fresh layer of lipstick and ran her fingers through her hair. She reached for the door and was just about to wrench it open when Richard produced a particularly loud snore that instantly wakened him. Michelle quickly abandoned her plan, settled back into the driving seat and nonchalantly asked

"Pleasant dreams Richard?"

Edited July 1, 2008 by Purple_Hibiscus

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"I'm surprised I got any sleep at all" said Richard. "Seeing someone turned to dog-food like that... brings back memories of Saigon. Charlie.... Oh Charlie..."

Tears appeared in Richard's eyes, but he quickly blinked them away.

[Krikit 1,166]

"I used to love that perfume" he said with a catch in his throat.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"Yeah well - the only perfume I smell right now if your Eau D'Yak Piss!" Michelle snapped irritably.

"I'm sorry, truly sorry" Richard replied blushing "how many times have you got to rub it in?"

"As long as it takes... And to think of all people a grown man with a military background, a Special Forces background no less... still wetting himself. Its disgraceful. You should be ashamed of yourself. Perhaps you got that purple heart simply because the Quartermaster's office was tired of issuing fresh kit to a guy who drops his gun at the first sign of an enemy patrol and lies in a ditch p*ssing his pants!"

"You have... no idea... what you're talking about" Richard snapped back. "And that's just great coming from someone who sits on the couch all day like a beached whale, scoffing nuts and chocolate while you watch silly game show re-runs. I think it's abundantly clear who contributes more to society... wouldn't you say?".

"You #######" Michelle replied, her voice soft and deadly "you utter #######".

As before they completed their journey in stony silence. Michelle's comments had stung Richard deeply and he knew that his relationship with his sister would never be quite the same again. Sulking, he chewed absent mindedly on the half-eaten chocolate bar that he'd found under his seat.

It was a little before midnight when they finally arrived at their late brother's estate, a sprawling country mansion on the edge of a pine forest.

"Wow bro really did well for himself didn't he" Richard exclaimed "Not bad for a guy who pioneered Spray-on Chest hair".

Edited July 1, 2008 by Number 6

[Peikko 1,575]

Michelle parked the car and asked casually

"The key?"

Richard looked awkwardly back at Michelle

"I thought you had it" he mumbled.

Michelle sighed, grabbed a handy rock from the nearest flower bed and smashed the smallest window she could find. She carefully removed the jagged glass pieces before crawling in through the window. Once inside, she found herself in a rather splendid bath room. Pausing only to check her reflection in the ornate mirror, she hurried to the back door to let Richard in.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"Who goes there!?" a voice shouted from across the hall.

Michelle turned. It was the house butler. A tall man, rail-thin with slender spiderlike hands that spilled out of his immaculately pressed cuffs like a pair of large white spiders. His face was pale and round, with large hooded eyes, a hooked nose and thick, prominent lips which made the man look startlingly fish-like. The large eyes made a quick circuit of the scene, flicking from the hole in the window to the shards of glass on the persian rug before coming to rest on the rock still in Michelles hand. The fish lips twisted in disdain.

[Peikko 1,575]

"Have you never heard of a bell pull?" he enquired.

Michelle took stock. She resolved that it would not be prudent to allow this butler, no more than hired help despite his airs and graces, to have any advantage over her. She therefore supressed a natural desire to apologise for her intrusion. Instead she said "Please take this rock and dispose of it, I have no further use of it at present"

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The butler straightened his back, cleared his throat and said in a haughty voice "If madame will be so kind as to place the stone between her buttocks, I will be only too happy to give it a kick".

[Peikko 1,575]

Michelle winced internally at the thought and couldn't help but think it should be Richard who should be being subjected to this unpleasantness. However, all this fled to the back of her mind when glancing down she noticed that the butler's footwear was extraodinarily wide at the toes. "Could this be the first real clue?" she wondered. Fortified by the thought that she now occupied the moral high ground at least, well, if it was true that these wide toed shoes concealed what she suspected, Michelle imperiously intoned "Don't be such an ###! Take this rock and throw it out of the back door and let Richard in. Prepare two rooms, I shall take the master bedroom, in memory of my dear brother and Richard will take - well, Richard will take whatever room you can come up with. We will require refreshments in 10 minutes and I would like a large Vodka tonic right now!"

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"But of course" The man said abruptly. "I will fetch the anti-freeze at once"

[Peikko 1,575]

Michelle spluttered "If you don't intend to talk with a civil tongue and do your duties professionally I will have no choice but to dismiss you forthwith!"

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"Dismiss me from my own house? A novel concept to say the least..."

[Peikko 1,575]

"Your house? I rather think you have become unhinged from being alone for so long. I inherited this pile from my dear, dead brother. I have a copy of the will in my handbag. Would you care to take a look now or after you have completed your errands like the dear little man that you are?"