A Grave Solution

 

A Grave Solution

Shelly has always looked after her little sister, despite her husband’s misgivings.  How far is she willing to go to keep her out of trouble - and at what cost?

Excerpt:

     My release from the hospital was anticlimactic.  Having the comforts of home was a definite improvement, but I was still stuck in a state of stasis with nothing but a few lame physical therapy exercises to distract my worried thoughts.  Lame, pfft.  In reality they were embarrassingly difficult and often left me drenched in sweat.  I could only imagine how much worse they would get once my cast was off.

     Keith had just finished coaching me through one such prescribed torture session when Debra burst through our front door.

     “What the [heck] are you doing here?” Keith snarled before she had the chance to say anything.

     “Keith,” I warned.

     “Don’t Keith me,” he snapped, then took a measured breath through his nose.  “Sorry.”

     I patted his hand while taking in the sight of my sister’s pale face.  “What happened?” I asked her.

     “Jerry left a message on my voicemail.”

     “Who’s Jerry,” Keith asked, his look of dread telling me he already had an idea.

     “One of Martin’s cronies.  They want me to come in for an interview.”

     Keith put his hands over his face, muttering into his palms. 

     “He says it’s routine, but...”  With a wary glance at Keith, she scooted past him to sit next me.  Leaning her head on my shoulder, she whined, “What are we going to do, Shell?”

     “We aren’t doing anything!” Keith roared.  He jumped up to peek past the edge of our front curtain as if expecting to find a swarm of officers in her wake.  “Shell’s name will not come up, you hear me?”

     “I don’t want to get Shell in trouble either, Keith!  But what do I say?  I don’t know how to handle any of this!”

     “You should have thought about that before you [unalived him]!”

Author’s Note:

This is one of those stories that ended differently from what I had originally planned, which I’m usually fine with.  My characters know their stories better than I do after all.  This time, however, I wasn’t too happy with my MC shaking things up.  Though given my original idea, I can’t say I blame her.