Danger at the Old Church

Something about that historic but deserted little church sitting between pine-covered hills draws Ned McNeil. She decides to pay it one more visit, this time, by herself. Twilight comes early to the valley and as shadows lengthen, Ned is unaware that someone else got to the church before she did–someone who is determined she will never leave.     

 By the Fright of the Silvery Moon

  As I drove out of the city limits and into the country, I rolled down my window and breathed deeply of pine-scented air. Cedars, pines, and oaks crowded closely against the narrow dirt road that wound lower and lower over rocks and across small branches until it ended in a wide, green valley. The little church building with sunlight softening its roof and reflecting from its windows, sat like an echo of a time long past and a congregation long forgotten.

Stepping out of my SUV, I lifted my hands skyward and stretched, enjoying the warmth and serenity of this place. I would love to buy it but what in the world would I do with a church that was more than a hundred years old and a cemetery older than that?

Regretting that I had not asked Daisy for the key so I could take another look inside, I sauntered up to the building. Dink certainly kept everything ship-shape. Would he continue after his traumatic experience in the cemetery?

Finely-chopped autumn leaves littered the ground. Dink must have mulched them a week or so ago. I knelt  beside the front steps, brushing some of the leaves away from the foundation.

What Ned finds on the foundation sends her running to the cemetery to see if her suspicions are true, but it’s there that a murderer awaits her.