Read Eine Kleine Murder Online
Authors: Kaye George
Tags: #murder mystery, #mystery, #crime, #Cressa Carraway Musical Mystery, #Kaye George, #composer, #female sleuths, #poison, #drowning
Eine Kleine Murder
Cover
Title Page
Eine
Kleine
Murder
Kaye George
Barking Rain Press
Copyright Page
NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Eine Kleine Murder
Copyright © 2013 Kaye George (www.kayegeorge.com)
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by Julie Spergel
Cover artwork by Stephanie Flint (www.sbibb.wordpress.com)
Barking Rain Press
PO Box 822674
Vancouver, WA 98682 USA
www.barkingrainpress.org
ISBN print: 1-935460-64-1
ISBN eBook: 1-935460-66-X
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013936588
First Edition: April 2013
Printed in the United States of America
9 7 8 1 9 3 5 4 6 0 6 5 7
Dedication
To Mom, Grandma, and my Alpha cousins
(who are nothing like Cressa's cousins)
Coming Soon
Also Available from Kaye George
Imogene Duckworthy Mysteries:
Choke
Smoke
Broke
Coming Soon from Kaye George
Requiem for Red:
A Cressa Caraway Mystery
www.KayeGeorge.com
Acknowledgements
I owe thanks to so many wonderful friends for getting this book where it is. I'm deeply indebted to and grateful for the following people. In the beginning, Valerie Wolzien read an early version and gave me encouragement. Rosalie Stafford broke me into print back in 2005, and the staff at FMAM awarded me my first contest prize.
I got help from Mary P. Walker and my Guppy critique group members, Lonnie Cruse, Peg Wyse, Peg Cochran, Cheryl Rivers, and later from Peg Silloway and Judy Dailey. Mary Buckham gave me good insights. The Alpha Police Chief took time to explain the workings of his office to me, but I've misplaced his name. Captain Steve Dooley of the Henry County Sheriff's Office also gave me valuable insight and information.
Recent readers, Gale Albright, Marilyn Levinson, and Daryl Wood Gerber gave me help with a later version. The Plothatchers not mentioned above are big boosters: Krista Davis, Janet Bolin, and Janet Koch. My daughter, Jessica Busen, came up with my title. Isn't she clever? I owe the staff at the actual Crescent Lake Club a shout-out for their kind cooperation.
I also must thank my editor, Julie Spergel, who has done wonders for this book.
Finally, all musical definitions are from
The Columbia Encyclopedia
, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2003 Columbia University Press except
Kyrie Eleison
, which is part of the standard religious mass;
Eine Kleine Wassermusik
, which is my own play on
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
by Mozart;
Water Music
by Handel; and the original title of this work (which most people thought was a bit inaccessible).
Kaye George
Playlist
Chapter 1 â
Night on Bald Mountain
(Modest Moussorgsky)
Chapter 2 â
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
(Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Chapter 2 â
La Mer
(Claude Debussy)
Chapter 3 â
Funeral March
(Frederick Chopin)
Chapter 6 â
Funeral March of the Marionettes
(Charles Gounod)
Chapter 8 â
Scarborough Fair
(Traditional English folk song)
Chapter 10 â
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
(Johann Sebastian Bach)
Chapter 13 â
Plink, Plank, Plunk
(Leroy Anderson)
Chapter 16 â
Thus Spake Zarathustra
(Richard Strauss)
Chapter 17 â
The Chicken Dance
(Werner Thomas)
Chapter 18 â
Theme from Jaws
(John Williams)
Chapter 23 â
Song of the Volga Boatmen
(Traditional Russian Folk Song)
Chapter 43 â
William Tell Overture
(Gioachino Rossini)
For links to these songs on YouTube, visit:
www.barkingrainpress.org/products/eine-kleine-murder
Prologue
Stinguendo: Dying away (Ital.)
What was that sound? A foot, snapping a twig in the woods? Ida knew she shouldn't be swimming alone at night, but she'd been antsy all day. She needed to get her mind off Cressa's visit. Grace usually swam with her, but her friend had taken relatives to the Quad City airport tonight. Besides, Ida was a strong swimmer. She knew every inch of Crescent Lake. And she thought she knew every sound. But there was that snap again. It prickled the hairs on her arms.
She stopped stroking and listened, straining toward the trees on the opposite bank, just ahead. It didn't repeat.
Must have been a night creature in the woods. A raccoon out foraging?
Ida cupped her hands and pulled herself through the caress of the cool water, creating tiny ripples and almost no sound. The moon, a mere sliver tonight, laid a shining path across the silent ridges in the inky liquid. Bullfrogs boomed from the shallow end of the lake and the wind rattled the oak leaves on the shore.
She neared the bank and stuck her toes into the soft mud, turned and stood waist deep for a moment before her return trip. The scent of the night woods was verdant, lush. She breathed in the familiar fishy smell of the dark water.
There was that sound againâ
snap
, then a footfall. She tried to whirl around as a dark formâ
Dear God
âsprang with a splash from the darkness, grabbed her from behind, shoved her under the water. Ida clawed, scratched. Strong fingers pressed her down. Into the muck. Ground her face into the bottom. Her nose and mouth clogged with silt. No air.
She twisted. Kicked. Her bare feet struck strong legs. Unmoving legs. She scratched, tried to pry the iron grip from her shoulders. It only tightened. Her arms went limp. Her legs stopped flailing. Those hands, always those strong hands, forced her down, into the mud. No air. No breath. Mud. Only mud.
She knew this shadow, these hands. She stopped struggling. She was dying. Regret mingled with the peace that took over as she collapsed and gave up.
Oh Cressa, my dear, dear Cressa.
