Monday Morsels: Dark Justice

DARK JUSTICE

by Angela Smith

Luke—Twelve Years Ago

“All rise for the jury.”

I stand, my legs unsteady. The jurors filter in, one by one, their eyes downcast. Those who look, only glance at the prosecutor. Not me or my defense attorney.

Wayne’s breath hitches. It’s a whispery whoosh, a sound he likely doesn’t realize he’s made, but it tells me everything I need to know. I almost collapse in defeat.

He thinks they found me guilty. And by their expressions, I agree.

I size up the crowd gathering in the courtroom. Most of them sit on the prosecutor’s side. Clint is there. Once my best friend, but now I’m convinced he’s a killer. He’s next to Lauren. The love of my life and the one I presumed would stand by my side forever. But since she believes I killed her sister, I guess I can’t blame her for turning her back on me.

But Clint? Fear curls my spine. He’s charming, I’ll give him that, but he’s an absolute psycho. Nobody in Lauren’s family will listen, especially Lauren. And before all this, I wouldn’t have believed Clint is the killer. He killed her sister. How do I know she won’t be next? How can I protect her if I’m locked in prison for the rest of my life?

The judge drones on about the charge, then asks the jury if they’ve reached a decision. Wayne shifts and gives me a blink that tells me he wants to make sure I’m aware of what’s going on. I’m eighteen, for God’s sake. How could anyone my age understand criminal justice?

He’s warned me of how you can never predict a jury, but this group of fourteen holds their heads high as if they’ve never been surer in their lives. Two of them are alternate jurors, so it’s up to five men and seven women to decide my fate.

An older gentleman hands the bailiff the verdict. I hold my breath, and the judge reads. “We the jury find the defendant, Lucas Donovan Fuller, guilty of murder.”

Gasps fill the room. Chaos erupts, at least in my bones. More like a commotion, nothing too disastrous to alert the judge, and something he’s probably accustomed to. He only regards the crowd. A lot of loud talking, crying, and my mother’s wails. He’s way more patient than me and waits for everyone’s reaction to subside.

My muscles grow weak. I badly want to sit and wonder when I’m allowed. I want to reach out to Lauren. Tell her I’m sorry this happened, I didn’t do it, she has to trust me, and please, please don’t trust Clint. I open my mouth to say these things, but my attorney stations his hand on my shoulder, as if his one palm is going to keep me silent.

He warned me over and over not to react. I’m not allowed to speak. I am barely allowed to move, and I can’t look her way, although I shift to do so. The bailiff puffs out his chest and walks closer, as if I’m going to bolt.

“Calm down,” Wayne says. “We still have punishment. Don’t make a scene.”

Why shouldn’t I react? This is life changing. My life is over. I’m going to prison. The judge hasn’t declared a final sentence but after everyone’s testimony, I’ve started to believe my own guilt. I’m likely going to prison for the rest of my life.

****

Luke—Present Day

Luke Fuller’s pen scribbled across the page. His heart hammered while he wrote the words, ears filling with the deep drum of his heartbeat as if he was re-experiencing the event. Tired of writing, he shut the notebook and tossed it on the wrought-iron table beside him, along with his cap and shades. He stood and opened the grill to check the ribeye.

Food would be ready in a few minutes, and all he needed was right here. A little salt and pepper, paper plates and plastic forks to eat with, and a cooler full of drinks. Even a hundred feet from the river, the bullfrogs’ croaking put him at ease.

A sound he never expected to hear again.

He closed the grill, grabbed a beer from the ice chest, and lounged on the patio chair. It took a while for his heartbeat to settle. Writing these memories was difficult, harder than he expected, and his body ached from the flashbacks.

The sun descended, a showcase of gold fueled by rain clouds and humidity. He loved the open porch and didn’t want a screen to filter him and the outdoors. With bug spray, sleeping out here at night was a dream come true, despite the oppressive mugginess. Lightning flashed in the south, implying the much-needed shower was near. Nothing better than the clatter of rain on the roof.

Even the mosquitoes avoided the Texas July heat, but he’d take heat over the prison cell where he’d spent the past twelve years of his life. He’d take it over that any damn day.

LED lights strung across the porch offered a soft glow to ease him come sundown. He hated the darkness. Too many reminders of prison and the things he wanted to forget. But this darkness out in the country was peaceful, welcoming, different. Almost bearable.

A car drove up, the headlights zipping through the trees. His muscles tensed. He studied the nearby monitor attached to the front security camera. The car parked, the lights shut off. His lungs tightened, burned, then disintegrated when the woman stepped out and sauntered to the back.

She remembered. Friends always came to the back door. But she was no friend.

Want to read more?

She’s in love with her sister’s killer...
Lauren has loved Luke since first grade. They planned to marry—until he murdered her sister. The moment he was sentenced to prison, Lauren fled with her secret baby and made a new life. Now she’ll do anything to keep their daughter safe. But her hard won peace shatters when Luke is exonerated, and it sets her on a path of mixed emotions to discover the truth. Letting a killer into their tightly knit family is out of the question. Or is it?

She almost destroys her life by threatening his…
Prison stole his future with Lauren and twelve years of Luke’s life, so the last thing he needs from her is a knife in the back or a gun in his face. Lauren believes he killed her sister, and he has no plans to pick up where they left off. Luke can’t afford to trust her, but he wants nothing more than to convince her he’s worth fighting for.

Their daughter is in danger… 
Luke is heartbroken when he learns they had a child together. Now his daughter is in danger. Lauren trusted the wrong person for far too long, but he hopes she’ll now trust him. Luke will risk everything to keep them safe. And Lauren will risk everything if she lets him into her heart.

Amazon        Apple        Barnes & Noble        Kobo        Scribd     

24 Symbols        Playster        Indigo        Angus & Robertson


📚  Find Angela Smith here: 

Website        Blog        Amazon Author Page        Facebook        Twitter     

Goodreads        About Me        YouTube

Meet Mystery Novelist D.M. O'Byrne

Today at The Write Way Cafe, D.M. O'Byrne tells how she taps into a wealth of experiences to write cozy mysteries.


When did you first have the thought you'd like to write a mystery?
It was an interesting journey. My first mystery, Dangerous Turf, began as a sports novel called The Finish Line, written for the “high-low” market—books for adults written at a grade-school reading level. I was teaching in an adult education program at the time and had had a math book for that program published by New Readers Press. But they passed on the novel. So I put it in a drawer and forgot about it. About fifteen years later, I rewrote it as a YA novel, and it won third prize in a writing contest. But I couldn’t find a publisher for it. So, back in the drawer it went. Several years later, after reading loads of mysteries, I got the idea to turn the book into a mystery. I added the mystery plot to the original story, renamed it Dangerous Turf, and pitched it to Black Opal Books, who snapped it up. That led to the sequel, Three to One Odds, and my latest series beginning with Death in Trout Fork.

What was your path to getting Death in Trout Fork written and published? What type of research did you do?
After writing Dangerous Turf and the sequel, I began thinking the audience for horse-y books was limited and thought I would try writing a mystery with a broader appeal. I concentrated on the “cozy” mystery genre (no sex, violence, blood and gore, f-bombs) because that’s the kind of book I like to read. Black Opal Books was delighted to publish it, along with the sequel, The Mountaintop Murders, which is scheduled for release in May, 2019, and the third book in the series which is 2/3 finished. As for research, I had to scour the internet for information on various types of crimes and murders.

Where did the idea for Death in Trout Fork come from?
The setting was inspired by an actual place not 50 miles from my home. My husband and I were riding our bikes in the area and stopped for lunch at the little café. As I sat there watching the patrons and enjoying the scenery, I asked myself, “What kind of people live here? Who stops here? Where are they going and what kind of secrets do they have?” That started the mental ball rolling. I’m often asked where my ideas come from, a topic I covered in an article on my website: http://dmobyrne.com/where-do-you-get-your-ideas/.

Why did you pick the setting you did?
As we sat at that little café, I realized it would make a perfect setting for a cozy mystery. It’s a small closed community that appears very much like the description of Trout Fork in the book. There are four stores under one roof, including the café which I named Alma’s in the book. The place is at the intersection of the two rivers I name in the book and the surrounding mountains and forests are very much the same. The characters are NOT taken from anyone in the real town, however. I’ve never met any of the residents.

Are your main characters completely imaginary or do they have some basis in real people? Do they reflect aspects of yourself?
I have never written a character based on anyone I know. I think I would find that too stifling. One thing that helps me create memorable characters is to write extensive biographies of each one before I begin to write the book. I do an in-depth (two or three pages) description of each person—his/her physiology, sociology, and psychology. Most of that information will never appear on a page, but it helps me to know how they will speak, think and act. It makes it so much easier to write about them. For many scenes, I have no idea what the characters are going to say. I just kind of put them in a room together and listen to them talk! I go into this technique in depth in a post on my website: http://dmobyrne.com/let-your-characters-write-your-novel-for-you/.

Did you face any blocks while writing Death in Trout Fork, and if so, how did you handle them?
Writer’s block is a very real occurrence in the life of most writers. As I say in a post on my website, the only way (at least for me) to deal with it is to write something, even if it’s terrible and never finds its way onto the page. When I feel “blocked,” I revert back to a philosophy I adopted many years ago that applies to any difficult situation: “Do something, even if it’s wrong. At least you have something you can fix.” That has been a helpful mantra for me in many of life’s trials. Too many people are immobilized by fear of failure or of making a mistake. They are plagued by “what ifs” and imagine all sorts of possible dire consequences to any action they might contemplate. The problem with that plan is that it produces inertia. Of course they’re right in believing if you do nothing, you can’t make a mistake. But doing nothing also produces nothing and for a writer, that is career-ending. If you do something and it turns out badly, you can always fix it or re-do it. But if you do nothing, you have nothing to work with.

What have been surprises you've encountered while writing Death in Trout Fork and after?
I honestly don’t remember anything surprising me while writing. I guess I’ve been most surprised by the reactions of readers to the descriptions of the town of Trout Fork and the surrounding area. I don’t see writing descriptions as a strong point for me.

What did you learn? For instance, what did you learn about yourself, your process, the writing world; about local detectives, writing a travel column, and journalists?
I learned the way small town police departments function and the roles of detectives vs. beat cops. There were other things I had to research, but if I mention them, they would give hints about the murders and killers in the next two books which would be spoilers.

Tell us about your writing space and how or why it works for you.
I have several places I like to settle in to write. In the summer, my favorite place is on the deck in our back yard where I can listen to the birds and watch the squirrels and rabbits play in the grass. It’s peaceful and very Colorado-ish, which helps me create the ambiance of the Ryn Lowell Colorado Mysteries series I’m writing. One day last summer, a bobcat was walking along the fence that separates our yard from the neighbor’s. He stopped and we stared at each other for a while, then strolled off down the fence and disappeared. In the winter, I either hunker down in my living room or go to the local Panera Bread where I sit by the fireplace.

What are some of your favorite books and why?
My two all-time favorites are Jane Eyre and David Copperfield. I’ve read both at least four times. Oddly enough, even though I write cozy mysteries, I never read them. In fact, I rarely read any fiction written after 1920. I have a list of classics from the library and have been working through the list. I find that reading good literature improves my own writing and expands my ability to plot and create characters. There’s a reason why those books are still in print, some hundreds of years after they were written. How many books written today will endure that long? Most will never even get to a second printing. In the mystery genre, my favorite is the Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane series by Dorothy Sayers. I am inspired by Sayers to try to write the best novels without the use of sex scenes, profanity, or sensationalism. I’m convinced if I can do that, there are still enough readers out there who will want to read my work.

What are you working on now?
I’m almost finished with the third of the Ryn Lowell Colorado Mysteries series, entitled A Killing in Vail, in which our heroine tries to solve a murder in the famous ski town. I think it’s my best so far. In fact, in this series, each one seems to be better than the previous one. Let’s hope I can keep that up!

Would you like to try your hand at writing a different genre? Which one and why?
Actually, I’ve already written in other genres before turning to mysteries. Under my real name, Dolores Kimball, I have had two nonfiction books published in the Christian women’s self-help genre, both published by EP Books, a UK publisher. I also rendered into modern English a book of John Bunyan’s called The Holy War, which was published by Ichthus. All are still in print. I tried writing YA, but wasn’t very good at it. Too far removed from that age group, I suspect. I think I’ve found my niche with cozies and will most likely remain there.

If you were not a writer, what would your dream job be?
Writing IS my dream job! I’ve waited decades to be able, like Ryn, to “escape the stifling confines” of offices and sit at home with my cat on my lap and let my mind build the fictive dream. What could be better? Of course it helps to have a hubby who goes off to work each day and pays the bills until my dream job actually starts to pay off!

What aspect of writing gives you the most trouble?
Marketing! I hate it with a passion. But it’s part of the business today. Publishers, even the big ones, aren’t going to do all the marketing for a writer, so we have to accept that we’re responsible for the success of our books. In the actual process of writing, descriptions give me the most trouble. I’m not a visual person, so describing people and places is something I have to really work at. The flip side is that plotting is easy for me because I’m a sequential thinker. 

Who is your favorite hero/heroine, either in books you’ve read or in your own writing?
Jane Eyre is my favorite fictional heroine. She is smart, resourceful, literate, incredibly loving and forgiving, and always manages to overcome obstacles while maintaining her personal standards. My favorite hero is Lord Peter Wimsey in the series by Dorothy Sayers. I love the way Lord Peter uses his wits to solve mysteries while maintaining his cool, unflappable good manners.

She should have known when she fished that Pink Floyd T-shirt out of the creek that it belonged to that waitress, the one who disappeared…

Kathryn “Ryn” Lowell has escaped the stifling confines of her office at the New York travel magazine she writes for and pulls into Trout Fork, a tiny fishing hamlet in the Colorado Rockies, to write an article about the town. She hasn’t been there long, when along with her orange tabby cat, Jack Kerouac, she discovers a T-shirt in the local creek that belonged to the missing waitress. Now foul play is suspected, and Ryn, who has fallen for the quaint mountain town, is determined to find the killer and give her new friends closure. Teaming up with the local police detective, who seems to want more than Ryn can give him, she puts it all on the line—her heart, her job, and her life.

Death in Trout Fork Trailer

https://youtu.be/jUwnL-ic5vE

Amazon          Barnes and Noble          Black Opal Books

About D.M. O'Byrne:

     D.M. O'Byrne's first job was as a waitress. Now she's a writer of mystery novels. In between, jobs included English teacher, racehorse exerciser, jockey, accountant, golf resort assistant manager, writer, and editor. Her places of residence ranged from the Jersey Shore to a lengthy sojourn in California, and finally to the Colorado Rockies. Each profession, each location was rife with life lessons, fascinating characters, potential plot lines, and wide-ranging experiences. Sooner or later, they will all end up on the written page.

     D.M. lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and their cat, Warnie. They spend much of their time riding bikes and enjoying the scenery. Warnie spends his time watching the bunnies out the window, lounging on the sofa, and trying to catch his tail.

Website           Facebook          Twitter

Tuesday Special: Broken Justice, Blind Love with Rena Koontz

Rena Koontz

http://www.renakoontz.com/

Leave a comment (and your email) for a chance to win an e-copy of Broken Justice, Blind Love!

He is a suspect. An accused killer. And Trish Kleerey is the law. Patrolman Kleerey stands tall, speaks assertively, and sees right and wrong as clearly as her black and white cruiser. Commit a wrong and face the consequences. But her strict moral code is challenged when her investigation into a series of murders incriminates the man she loves. Her training tells her to arrest him. Her heart screams otherwise.

Bryan DeJewel feels the line between love and the law blur when Trish questions him about the serial killings. The Trish Kleerey he knows is soft, warm, and capable of bringing him to his knees with desire, but that passion isn’t enough to build a lasting relationship. It’s as plain as her black and white cruiser: If she loves him, she must trust him.

Her suspicious nature already cost her a lifelong friendship.  She couldn’t turn her back on the physical abuse she suspected her friend suffered but, once again, her questions alienated a person she loves. Believing Bryan means turning her back on hard evidence, breaking the rules and risking her career to prove his innocence.

Meanwhile, the real killer watches and waits, hoping she’ll fall into his deadly trap. Trish’s dilemma: listen to her heart and choose love, or strap on her gun and enforce the law?

Amazon

About Rena:

     Former newspaper reporter and North Port (FL.) resident Rena Koontz announces the Oct. 5, 2016 release of her newest romantic suspense novel Broken Justice, Blind Love.
     The novel, published by Soul Mate Publishing, will be available on Amazon.com initially as an e-book. The paperback version will release in 2017.
     Broken Justice, Blind Love is Ms. Koontz’s fifth novel, all featuring police and law enforcement as the good guys. And in Ms. Koontz’s world, “the good guys always win.”
     Ms. Koontz’s books are loosely based on her experiences as a reporter in Pittsburgh, PA. and Cleveland, OH., writing for two of the country’s top 20 newspapers, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. The veteran journalist relies on her reporting experiences to create fictitious stories based on actual crimes. A romantic at heart, Ms. Koontz magically weaves love, romance and a happy ending into all of her books.
     She promises “enough suspense to satisfy the reader's desire for action as well as enough heat to burn the pages.”
     Broken Justice, Blind Love blends an intricate tale of serial murder and domestic violence into a love story between the police officer and the murder suspect. A common theme of trust runs through all of her books and Broken Justice, Blind Love is no different.
     The heroine must choose between her head and her heart – believe the evidence against him or follow her heart and find the real killer.
     Ms. Koontz’s earlier novels are available electronically and in paperback through most e-retailers.

Website     Facebook Author Page       Twitter @RenaKoontz