d.: Cal.E., why don’t you want to go on the run with Tucker, Tucker, Two, your fiancé, when it could be the only way to preserve your and your fourteen kittens’ lives?
C.: Because, d.c. I want to read all your books, and you’ve only got one in print. There are five more now, aren’t there?
d.: Well, you’ll have your phone with you. I’ll email you the manuscripts for your critique of them. In fact, I’m rewriting the first one, to make it fit in better as the second one in chronological order. Here, I’ll email you the Prolegomenon now.
d.c. scot presents
THE MAGRUDER MYSTERIES PRECISION; A CRIME OF PASSION:
The Rebirth of a Cold Case Sleuth
PROLEGOMENON
September 11, 2020; 2245
The assailant tried the door, gently opening it. The assailant knew that the door wouldn’t be locked, but any sound may be detrimental to accomplishing the quest that must be accomplished. Fortunately, the old ranch house’s back door didn’t make a sound as the assassin entered the hallway, then quickly went to the master bedroom where two bodies lay snoring loudly. The noise would make it easier to accomplish the task that must be accomplished.
2300: The assailant wiped up as much blood as he could with the bed sheets. A one-inch laceration seldom leaves a large pool of blood, but when a number ten scalpel blade is applied to the carotid artery, blood flows quickly and sporadically. The assailant wiped his face with the bedsheets carefully.
Even though the assailant wasn’t squeamish at the sight of blood, the assailant had an obsession with neatness, and knew that any of the victims’ blood was splattered on any clothing, it could identify the perpetrator if examined. The assailant didn’t like leaving a mess, either. As the assailant was applying pressure to the corpse’s left internal branch of his carotid artery, the other inhabitant of the bed stirred.
As quickly as the assailant had murdered victim number one, the second victim fell lifeless with a quick, precise one-inch laceration to the victim’s right internal branch of the carotid artery. The assailant then made sure both victims were dead by checking for a carotid pulse, one index finger from each hand on each of the victim’s external branches of their carotid arteries. Then the assailant applied enough pressure to the necks of the two victims to stop the bleeding. He doused the knife he had found in the second victim's hand with each of the victim’s blood to make it easier to identify the killer. He wiped his fingerprints off the handle of the knife and pressed it into the second victim’s right hand.
The assailant then quickly folded the bedsheet down enough that no blood was visible, and took the cell phone out of its resting place to take a picture. At that instant, the assailant heard the sound of a vehicle coming up the driveway. The assailant couldn’t take the chance of being caught, so the two lifeless bodies lay motionless as the assailant fled out the back door. After carefully putting the truck into gear and driving out of the ranch through the back exit, the assailant drove to the airport and waited for the announcer to call the number of the flight on the ticket the assailant possessed. A few more hours, and the assailant would be out of Texas, the United States, and North America. That would make it much harder to be found and extradited if suspected after the bodies were discovered. It seemed to be a foolproof plan.
The best-laid plans of mice and men, however, are often made in vain. The assailant received a phone call just as he was about to exit the freeway for the airport. “Go back and ‘influence’ the M.E. I don’t want this mess to come back on me. If it does, you’ll wish that you were the one who didn’t survive this confrontation. And next time, be sure that you have proof that you did what you were told to do. You didn’t finish the job you were supposed to do. Now I have a mess to clean up.” The assailant made a U-turn and headed back to Houston. He knew that his boss would make him look like a saint by comparison. He had no desire to cross the strange small man who went by the single moniker “Taylor.”