Painting by Amanda Morgan
There's no book cover design yet for the fourth book in the Meg Sheppard Mystery Series.
I have almost finished the first draft, but there is a lot of editing to do!
I am, what they call in the writing world, a 'pantser'. I don't develop an outline for each book before I start writing the story. So, I can change my mind about characters part way through - their traits, their actions, their guilt or innocence.
Even though it can be a challenge, I love editing.
Here is the promised excerpt, but remember that it's a draft - and the final version could be different!
This starts on page 2:
'Melissa
won’t get checked out. She implores me to help find out how the fire started
and is convinced that it was no accident. She points out that fire safety
regulations are much improved and there are regular inspections. Melissa’s so
adamant that I relent, even though I’m to start my volunteer work with the
Racehorse Rescue Re-homing and Retirement Society tomorrow.
Cooper watches us
with whiskers twitching as Melissa prepares a light dinner. She won't heed my
pleas for her to rest in one of the recliners in the family room while I see to
the barn chores.
After I finish my
work in the barn, I put Eagle and Bullet into their stalls for the night. I
double-check that I haven’t overlooked any fire hazards before leaving. Images
of barns burning and of horses trapped inside disrupt my thoughts and distract
me, so I do another inspection and make sure that I maintain my focus this
time.
As satisfied as I
can be, I emerge from the barn. Kelly races ahead of me in a silky black and
white blur. William is at the back door and she almost bumps into him in her
enthusiasm to greet him.
A whiff of a
heavy honey-like scent wafts my way from the large patch of echinacea. A
milkweed butterfly flutters across my path as I walk towards William, who stops
petting Kelly and puts his large hand on the doorknob.
“What’s wrong?”
he asks.
“I was going to
ask you the same question.”
“Let’s go in. I
expect Melissa will want to hear this.” He opens the door.
We sit around the
kitchen table. Despite the horrific news of the fire, tears of joy threaten to
well up in my eyes. Surrounded by trust and love, this is the family I’ve
always wanted and never had, until now. I have an urge to hug them both, and
have to swallow hard. This isn’t the time to share my feelings. I’m certain
William has heard about the fire. It would have hit the news by now.
“Melissa,”
William says, “I can’t remember if this is one of your workdays at the track.”
“It was. You’ve
heard about the fire, haven’t you?” She coughs. William gets up and pours a
glass of water for her.
“You should have
that cough checked, and you’d be well-advised to get some eyedrops.”
“You see,
Melissa, William agrees with me.” And, although she won’t admit it, I think
she's been traumatized by the fire. She might need counselling as well as a
medical examination.
“What do you
know?” asks William.
“What do you
mean?” I ask.
“I suppose Edwin
must have had to euthanize that horse," Melissa says. "I don’t even
know his name. That’s two dead. It’s so horrible.” She lowers her head and
rests it on her folded arms which lie on the table. Her blond hair hangs like a
curtain around her.
“I don’t know
about the horses,” William says. “Is there anyone you work with who’s missing?”
Melissa snaps her
head up, eyes wide, mouth gaping. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“A friend from
the Coroner’s Office, who knows you work at the track, called to tell me that
they’ve received a body recovered from the scene of the fire. A human body, of
course.”
“Oh no!” Melissa
grabs her phone and runs upstairs to her room, slamming the kitchen door on her
way.
“I wonder what
happened?” I ask, not expecting William to answer.
“There’s
conjecture at the moment that the body is of a hotwalker who was known to sleep
in one of the stalls that’s used for storage.”
“That wouldn’t
have been possible a few years ago. Every stall would have been full. That’s
irrelevant to your story. Who is or was this person?”
“A lad called
Dan, but the identity has not been officially confirmed yet. That’s all I could
find out.”
“That’s so
tragic.”
“Perhaps your
racehorse trainer, Neal, knows more. The barn was close to his.”
“He might have
had to evacuate all the horses. I hope they’re okay. Melissa would have said
something if not, I’m sure.”
Just as I pick up
the phone to call Neal, his image glows at me.
“Hi, Neal. What a
tragic accident. Are you okay? And the horses?”
“We’re fine. We
didn’t have to move the horses. But it was no accident.”
“Oh, no.”
“I overheard the
Fire Department guys talking, and they think it was set deliberately. Arson.”
“That’s
disgusting. What a horrible thing to do to the horses. How could anyone do
that?”
“That’s not all.
There’s a rumour going around that they took out a body, and it wasn’t a
horse.”
“I’ve heard that
too.”
“News spreads
fast here.”
“I know.”'
Vicky Earle Copyright 2020
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