A BOROUGH writers’ group presents its second short story competition winner.
Wokingham Writers Group’s competition theme this year was External Influences, with the judge, author Louise Morris, looking for originality, interpretation of theme and quality of writing.
Louise’s stories are inspired by women in the past who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten.
Her debut novel, Operation Moonlight – about Special Operations Executive secret agents who helped win World War Two – won the Penguin Random House First Novel competition and was published in 2022.
Competition winners this year are:
Highly commended – Harriet Escapes, by Rachel Parker
Highly commended – A Tale of Three Clues, by Liz Godwin
And overall winner – From Under her Feet, by David Palin
A Tale of Three Clues by Liz Godwin
Beth stared at Mick sprawled across the oak floor.
He lay in the dividing area between his Wokingham flower shop and her café.
Blinking furiously, she took in the scene.
A broken cake plate with the remains of a carrot cake lay inches away from his body. Crumbs and icing encrusted his head like the aftermath of a volcanic cake explosion.
She spotted tendrils of dried blood from a jagged gash on the other side of his face.
With a pounding heart, she checked for his pulse.
Dead for sure.
Beth staggered back, covering her face with her hands.
Why, oh why, had she popped in to pick up her jacket?
Minutes ago, she’d been happily daydreaming of being able to expand the café, now she was faced with a crime scene.
As her finger tapped her iPhone to end the 999 call, her mind raced.
She’d best to look round in case she spotted something to help the police.
Jumping up, she hurried into the flower shop towards Mick’s office area behind the oak veneer counter.
Instinctively she started to take photos then noticed the daisy earrings by the till.
Oh no, that was icing flecked in them.
They belonged to Louise, the landlady – but she hadn’t been in since yesterday.
Had she visited after hours today?
Searching the desk drawers, she found a Racing Post dated 22nd Aug and wondered why he’d kept the six-week-old issue.
She examined the area around the body again.
There was a shoe print in the blood.
A large size for definite.
Her fingers massaged her temples.
Ryan, the delivery driver?
He’d only recently made her laugh with a story of his size thirteen boot becoming wedged in a grate.
She shook her head in disbelief.
Why would he want to murder Mick?
She opened Mick’s laptop.
It was a long shot, but she pressed the ‘return’ key anyway.
The Gambling 101 website was open; it showed a £50,000 withdrawal today of an accumulator bet placed in August.
Plumping herself down on the nearest bistro chair, she spotted Connor’s stripy scarf.
That hadn’t been there when she closed the café earlier.
Had he been here too?
But why? He hardly spoke to his dad.
She spied Mick’s iPhone peeking out of his pocket.
Steeling herself, she removed the phone using a serviette and held it over his crumbed face. There was a message to Ryan – ‘19.30 works’.
Scrolling down further she read another message sent at 18.15 to Connor – ‘£££s WTF’.
No reply from Connor.
OMG, had Connor stolen the £50k?
Beth drummed her fingers on her mouth.
Which one of the three murdered Mick?
And did she care?
In a moment, she’d deleted Mick’s WhatsApps to Ryan and Connor then cleared the messages history.
Next, she pocketed the earrings and smudged the boot print.
Wrapping Connor’s scarf round her neck, she smiled.
Her dream of expanding the café into the flower shop had just got closer…she wasn’t above a touch of blackmail.
Wokingham Writers is a friendly group of individuals with a common interest in creative writing.
Members range from keen hobbyists to aspiring novelists and published authors.
The group supports and encourages members with their writing projects, large or small, with meetings held at Wokingham Library on the third Saturday of each month.
Anyone interested in joining should ask at Wokingham Library.
For more information, visit: louisemorrish.com
