And off we go… Yes, it’s November. Novel Writing Month and I’m joining in with The Murderer’s Lover. Now the reason why I didn’t put it in the Nanowrimo competition is that I did start writing the first chapter way in advance and then stopped.

I started back up again when I became frustrated by Three Ways To Bliss suspense plot not working out. I’m still working on completing that book, but I’m hoping with all the research I’m doing it’ll get better. Ugh…

So without further ado, I bring you Chapter One, if you haven’t already read it. I added a little oomph here and there, but all in all, it’s there, with some extra.

Enjoy…

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The decomposing body of Rita Fleet was a horrific sight. Whoever had done this to her truly had a sick mind, yet there was evidence that she knew her attacker.

Tobias Avery instantly knew this was one of the Grand Boulevard Killer’s victims. The press had started calling him that because all the bodies indicated that the victim did know or had willingly met the attacker and allowed herself to be sexual with him. The victim had gone to extra efforts to meet the killer in her looks – the dress, the makeup, and the care of her body. The bodies were then dumped somewhere on the Grand Boulevard in Detroit.

Rita Fleet was the first victim found on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit, while all the others had been found on the West Side of the city. The boulevard stretched from the east side to the west side of Detroit.

This body didn’t sit well in his gut. Was it the fact that she was young? Found on the east side? Or that choker around her neck? Was that a thing for this generation now? A black choker. It didn’t feel like it would be a part of her party dress, but Tobias hadn’t seen it in a club in forever, so what did he know?

Paul Hess, his partner, came up beside him. “What do you think this means?”

“How the hell should I know?” Tobias muttered with irritation. He had been on this case for three years, and things were not getting easier. “He’s mocking us. I know it.”

“Are you sure it’s not a copycat?” Paul questioned.

“No, I’m sure even before Henry confirms it, ten bucks says this girl has something shoved up there, and whatever started like lovemaking ended in sodomy. It was outside, too. Look at her knees. She was kneeling on the grass. Just like all the others.”

“Do we do the same kind of questioning?” Paul asked.

“Yeah.” He looked down at his notebook. “She was reported missing yesterday morning, and her car was still at the club where she said she would be. Nobody saw her leave with anyone, though.”

“So you think she willingly snuck out with this guy just like the others, and things got too rough, so he sliced her up like that?” Paul guessed.

“Same shit, different day,” Tobias confirmed, lighting up a cigarette. Although he kept in peak physical performance, this was the one unhealthy vice he’d been fighting since he was a teen.

When did you start back?” Paul asked, a bit bothered that Tobias had

“Sheryl left me this morning. I figured it’s about time I did what the hell I wanted to do now that domineering slut is out of my life,” he growled, taking a long toke on the cigarette. This was the only legal vice he could do. With his voice being deep, he sounded angry, but Paul had been his partner for five years and knew him too well to know he was more pissed off for wasting eight years pussy footing with Sheryl than anything else.

“I’ll question the businesses and security in the neighborhood. Henry wants to hurry up and get in and out because the rain is coming, and he doesn’t want anything washed away.” Paul nodded to the camera guy. “Tell poke-man to hurry the hell up with all that damn flashing, and the chief wants a statement in ten minutes.”

“There is nothing to say, Paul.” Tobias took a long drag on the cigarette. He’d missed smoking. Sheryl had made him give it up two years ago, and although it had made him feel great, he still missed it. She had made him think if he jumped through that hoop for her, she would marry him, but she had made another hoop for him to jump through shortly after.

“You won’t make that into a horrible habit again, will you?” Paul said, jumping back to the smoking habit again.

“I might. Nothing else makes me feel good.” Two more satisfying puffs had him feeling the stress of the morning going away. “I should have something to say to the media in about twenty minutes. After I talk to Henry.”

Paul nodded and walked away.

Tobias looked down at the woman’s body again. Her eyes were still open, staring into Detroit’s fogged night sky as if something extraordinary was coming. He wondered what her last thoughts were. ‘How could this happen to me?‘ he imagined her thinking. ‘He said he loved me.‘

How did this Casanova manage to do something so horrific, and why did no one know who he was for three years?

His eyes were drawn to the choker again. Damn! Why? It felt so possessive, and he wondered if the killer gripped her and yanked on the choker.

Henry, a forty-ish-something city medical examiner, came on the other side of the body. “She looks young. And the killer didn’t give a fuck about her money. Left her wallet full of cash tossed over there to the side.” He knelt and looked at Rita from head to toe. “Younger than the rest.” He shook his head.

“Not good,” Tobias determined.

Nervously, Henry questioned, “Does this location mean a mistake? He’s never made a mistake before.”

“I don’t think so.” Why did his eyes go to the choker again?

“He wants something, Tob, and the more he doesn’t get it, the worse this will get.”

“But this is different, isn’t it, Henry?” Tobias knelt, frowning. “Do you think he touched that choker around her neck?”

“I can run prints when I get her on my table,” Henry assured him.

“Look at her hands. There’s hardly any indication of a fight.”

Henry raised her hand with a frown, flashing his light. “There’s dye on her hand.”

“Dye?” Tobias took a close look. On the inside of the finger were several streaks of dark brown.

“This might lead to a break,” Henry said excitedly, grabbing evidence bags to wrap the hands up. “Let me hurry and get her down to the office. Looks like it’s going to be a week of storms. I hope we don’t find another body.”

Tobias hoped this would be the break he needed. He was losing his life to this case and possibly his mind because he couldn’t stop thinking about that damn choker.

***

After the press conference with the Chief of Police to assure the public that they were working diligently on the case and warn women to be careful who they leave establishments with, Tobias headed home to his two-family flat. His downstairs tenant was sitting on the patio in the back. She was elderly but refused to go to a nursing home. Instead, Mrs. Pace had a nurse and loved the comfort of having an officer right above her because she knew her family was sitting around for her to die and take all her money.

Tobias was cordial enough to say hello to her before heading upstairs.

She smiled, delighted to see him. “How were the streets today, officer?” she asked.

“Same thing, different day.” Tobias had endeared himself to the woman too much to curse in front of her, and she was about the only woman he refused to smoke in front of.

“When will you marry that lady friend?” she asked.

“Might be longer than you suspected, Mrs. Pace. She decided I worked too hard and couldn’t take me not spending time with her.”

The elderly woman looked upset. “You sure that’s it? Or does she know what she’s missing out on? As long as I’ve known you, Tobias, you tend to hold yourself back. A nice, good black man like you deserves a good lady.”

Tobias wouldn’t discuss the details of Sheryl leaving him with Mrs. Pace or anyone else because he didn’t understand why he had allowed himself to take so long before she decided it was over.

He mumbled some lame excuse and used the reasons of being tired right now to go into the matter with her, then quickly adjourned to the three-bedroom apartment. As soon as he walked in, he put his badge and gun in the drawer by his bed, then laid down, lighting another cigarette.

The old full-size bed whined from the weight of his heavy, large body. His feet hung off the end because he was over six feet tall, and his shoulders laid from end to end. Tobias knew he needed a new bed, but now the inclination to get one wasn’t in him. No one would be sleeping in there he cared about for a while, so why should it matter?

Later, he’d go to the precinct, examine what Henry sent him, and compare it to the others.

The phone rang, and he checked the caller ID. Sheryl? Why would she call him now after that pathetic Dear John letter she left on his dining room table?

Tobias let the answering machine take the call and listened intently.

“Hello, Tobias, this is Sheryl. I have some of your things over at my place. You can call me at work when you’re ready to come pick up your stuff,” she said quite calmly. “Whether you believe me or not, I did have every intention of marrying you, but I realize your heart wasn’t into it. I can’t marry someone who believes his work is more important than me. I need to be the center of a man’s life.”

He took very long drags on the cigarette as she continued.

“I know you made major changes in your life for me, but that’s not all. That’s just not it. That doesn’t mean anything.”

Tobias couldn’t listen anymore and went into another room, hoping the machine would shut off soon. Women were nothing but a bunch of talkers. They try to change you, and when they turn your life upside down, they drop you like a bad habit.