Writing Challenge – Day 12

The instruction for Day 12 of the 30-Day Writing Challenge:

Write the ending of a mystery story. Then write the beginning.

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Ending:

“It is quite simple. Mrs Thorpe did not personally kill her husband. Yes, she was conducting television interviews at the time that Mr Thorpe was shot and yes, she stands to collect a princely sum on his life policy,” Inspector Donne explained to herd of reporters, notebooks and voice recorders at the ready.

“However in the light of further evidence, we have brought Mrs Thorpe in for questioning in the matter.”

“Have you arrested her?”

“Mrs Thorpe is expected to be here for some time. That’s all I can say at this time.”

Donne then left the press room, and headed for his private office, where Inspector John Bastow was waiting.

“John what can you tell me?”

“”We’ve got her, Denis,” the younger man started, “No one else knew, not even the husband, that she had an identical twin  sister, one Georgina Post, who lives in W.A. on a small farm, doing chickens and ducks and things.”

“Mmmm,” grunted Donne.

Bastow continued, “We must still prove it, but it looks like Mrs Thorpe and her identical twin sister Georgina devised this plan to kill the husband and then to split the life insurance pay-out. Indications are that the sum insured is probably astronomical.”

“So-o-o,” grunted Donne once more, “This unknown recluse twin sister from somewhere in the Styx drives up from W.A. unnoticed, enters the house according to the detailed plans her sister has somehow secretly provided, finds the gun in a hiding place as arranged, pumps the husband full of lead, wipes the gun clean and immediately leaves back for W.A… Make a note, I want to see her phone records for the past three months.”

“If it wasn’t for that nosy insistent neighbour being so dead certain that Mrs Thorpe had been home at the time, despite everyone knowing that she was on live TV, I would never have started thinking along these lines.”

“And without any other suspect, these two would probably have gotten away with their scheme?” noted Bastow.

“Precisely, my dear Bastow.”

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Beginning:

“I still cannot understand how she managed to do it. I mean, we all saw her live on television, in broad daylight, so to speak, with literally millions as witnesses. It was not a recorded program. She could not possibly have been there.” The neighbour spoke to the newspaper reporter at length, “We’ve known Judie-Lee for the last five years, from the time before she even won that reality show and was appointed for the broadcasting contract. Such a lovely girl.”

The camera switches back to the news correspondent Rex Russell, “Yes, ladies and gentleman,” he drones on, like a typical actuality reporter, “Everyone I’ve spoken to – they all agree … There’s more to this story than meets the eye, Judie-Lee. How can this be explained?”

“Let me recap for you,” Russell continues, “Just after one p.m. to-day, while Judie-Lee Thorpe was hosting the lunch-hour business review live from the stock exchange building, interviewing Donnie Fredman of the G.R. Tractor Group, as well as the well-known financial guru Peter Sive. Around the same time another neighbour, who doesn’t want to be named on air, reported having seen Mrs Thorpe entering her home. This neighbour is convinced that he is not mistaken – the person was definitely Miss Thorpe, although she was driving another car, a light grey Honda Jazz…”

“Just after four-thirty Mrs Thorpe returned home from her day’s work in the television studio to find the cold corpse of her husband Jeremy Thorpe lying face-down in a pall of blood. He had been shot three times through the head and chest.”

“A firearm, which is believed might be the murder weapon, was found near the body. The weapon is licenced and registered in the name of Mrs Thorpe. The family doctor has been to the Thorpe mansion to treat Mrs Thorpe for shock.”

“In another development in this case, we have been reliably informed that the police have called on Trimtree TV Studios and have taken charge of all the recorded material involving Mrs Thorpe today.”

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The brief for Day 13: A change of environment can sometimes refresh and recharge the brain. Do you normally write at a desk or at your kitchen table? Today, go someplace different to write. For example, try writing outside or in a public place such as a coffee house or mall….