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The trick was to keep the truth hidden, twelve year old Abby Jenkins thought, as she sat listening to the psychologist. All the counseling in the world couldn't change the truth. Abby had killed her father. Finally free of him, she didn't want to incriminate herself. Her teachers said she was smart. She would choose her words carefully, react in the appropriate manner and keep her secret safe.
On the day of the murder, the Coast Guard and local police questioned her. She gave them the facts, but didn't mention how she had planned the murder and had worked to set the events in motion. At the crime scene, the beach, her bucket and shovel lay on the sand. Without the hidden third weapon, her brain, the other two were just toys to them. They never detected the setup, for which she was thankful, especially since she had help from Mother Nature. They never questioned her innocence. The authorities wrote off the murder as an accident.
“Look at this!” I told Ebony, my best friend, who sat next to me in the Tipperary Pub, the Irish-themed bar of the Parsippany Sheraton. I was here for the Deadly Ink writers’ conference and Ebony and Lucy were here for moral support. “I think it’s my death threat. Oh, I’m so excited!”
Ebony took the envelope I gave her, pulled out the note and read it aloud.
“I’ve done the deed. You won’t be disappointed. Have the money before the luncheon or you’ll never be hungry again.”
She put down the paper and gave me a look. “You are excited about your own death threat?”
Ebony had full lips, big brown eyes and a voluptuous mop of African hair that propagated equally in all directions. She wore about five dozen bracelets and golden lipstick. I wore old t-shirts and ragged jeans. Jewelry and make-up were always an afterthought.
“Just think about it,” I said. “What an idea for a story!”
Lucy, my other best friend, inched over to see the paper. She had just got off duty and still wore her cop uniform and the twenty pounds of stuff that came with it. That’s why I was so calm and nonchalant. It was easy feeling invincible when your best friend’s a cop. Lucy was six feet tall and loved martial arts and extreme sports.
