What was this strange sympathy for Marvie Saunders? Why was I beginning to feel that I owed it to her to try to unravel the puzzle of her husband’s murder and how in the world could I go about doing that? Why had I been the one to find bits and pieces of clues she may have written long ago?
Mysteries had always intrigued me. My favorite question, even as a child, was why? Why did things happen as they did? Since I had returned to my home town, I had encountered first one puzzle and then another. Uncle Javin’s murder met me as I walked in the door of Granger’s Mansion, then the puzzle that centered around an old cemetery, and, most recently, the death of a wealthy widow I had known only briefly. Did all towns hold certain secrets or was Ednalee peculiar?
I didn’t relish being at the center of these things, but, somehow, I was. I could have just ignored the suspicious bit of history concerning Marvie Saunders, but, something within me pushed me on. I had to find the answer.
I sat on the porch swing until the day became too chilly for comfort. I was growing more and more certain that the mystery of that long ago night fifty years ago had something to do with the barn. Judging from the blood stain on the floor of the house, the murder happened there, but Marvie’s hints all were about the barn, so something was there, but what?
An excerpt from the unpublished fourth Ned McNeil mystery, Murder By Moonlight. See all the Ned mysteries on Amazon at Blanche Day Manos.
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