I, Montresor

by Edward Lodi

About the Author: Edward Lodi has written more than 30 books, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as a poetry chapbook. His short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, such as Mystery Magazine, and in anthologies published by Cemetery Dance, Main Street Rag, Rock Village Publishing, Superior Shores Press, and others.

Excerpt

Who will be the first to blink?

Not the dead man. He hasn’t blinked once.

Think a retirement community is the last place where someone would commit murder? Think again. Here’s a for instance: The media a while back told of a ninety-nine-year-old nursing home patient who strangled her one-hundred-year-old roommate. Her motive? Jealousy. The older woman was popular and had more visitors. So a nursing home is the last place to commit murder. A retirement community is next-to-last.

Anyhow, here I am at Final Horizons, the retirement community I’ve chosen for my golden years. “Golden years.” What a joke. A euphemism more worn-out than the folks it applies to. If in old age you come across what looks like precious metal, believe me, you’ll soon discover it’s actually iron pyrites—what prospectors call Fool’s Gold. Take my word, the only gold in your declining years is the color of your urine.

My reasons for choosing Final Horizons were twofold. First, it has a good reputation, well earned. The people are friendly and the food is good. Second, it’s an ideal place in which to commit murder.

One of the necessary ingredients for the perfect crime is a little imagination. Something I’ve got a lot of. Would you believe I was once an aspiring writer?

Story Comments