A Tale of Trucidation

by Tracy Falenwolfe

About the Author: Tracy Falenwolfe’s stories have appeared in over a dozen publications including Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine, Flash Bang Mysteries, Crimson Streets, and several Chicken Soup for the Soul volumes. Find her at www.tracyfalenwolfe.com

Excerpt

If she’d had a pair of binoculars, Daphne Peters probably could have seen inside the house she’d just escaped. It was on the other side of the lake—the touristy side. She felt safer here among the locals in Lakeland proper, but that might have been because it was late and the sidewalks had already been rolled up for the night. For the past few hours, she’d been hiding behind a hedge at the rear of The Edgar Warner Memorial Library, intermittently scoping out the lake house, sweating to death, and swatting mosquitoes the size of vultures.

Once, she’d seen a figure walk along the shoreline in front of the house and cut up into the yard. Her spine tingled and her throat closed up. She couldn’t definitively make out who it was, but she thought it was a man. Now that the sun had gone down, there was no point in keeping watch.

The three-story brick Victorian mansion that housed the library boasted a windowed cupola and a widow’s walk. A lacy wrought iron fence surrounded the entire property, including the prickly hedge that was currently giving Daphne an itch. Excessive heat warnings had been issued earlier in the day, urging people to check on their elderly or infirm neighbors, and suggesting that those without air conditioning seek refuge from the sizzling temperatures by visiting malls and grocery stores.

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