Suite In The Key Of Death

by BV Lawson

About the Author: BV Lawson’s short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and honored by Derringer, Golden Fedora, and Gemini Magazine Awards, and she was also a contributor to the Anthony Award-winning Blood on the Bayou. BV’s The Scott Drayco crime novels have also been named Best Mystery in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, chosen as a Featured Library Journal Self-E pick, and been a finalist for the Shamus, Silver Falchion, Kindle, and Foreword Reviews.

Excerpt

Prelude

It was the most elegant and most expensive murder weapon he’d ever seen. Scott Drayco ran his hand along the gleaming ebony of the piano’s curves—a Steinway Model D concert grand. He walked around it several times, examining it from all angles. Sleek, beautiful, enticing … and deadly.

He lifted up the piano lid and felt along the end of the prop stick, catching the hint of roughness where it was filed down. A tenth of an inch maybe, just enough to make the stick slide out of the slot and fall on the victim’s head.

But a piano legend like Archer Rossetti would know better than to file the stick down. And for what purpose? There was no logical reason. To defile such an amazing instrument would be blasphemy to a pianist.

Drayco studied the piano and fought the urge to play the instrument as it beckoned to him, that temptress. He ran a finger silently along the keys and felt his pulse quicken. This piano-witch was making it hard to concentrate.

At least he didn’t have to worry about touching anything, not after the police and paramedics had been all over every inch of the room and the piano. Fingerprint-wise, the only ones the cops found were from the victim, his daughter, Frieda, and the piano tuner.

Drayco turned to the woman standing in the doorway watching his every move. “The police have ruled this a suicide?”

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